Companies are beginning to encounter some new challenges as they transition to a permanent hybrid work model. While some businesses are inviting employees back to headquarters, others are permanently embracing remote teams. Many fall somewhere in the middle with a hybrid environment, and learning to operate asynchronously relies heavily on intelligent automation.
An asynchronous work model comes with its own challenges, but for many companies, the benefits of allowing their employees to have more flexibility to work in schedules that fit their lifestyle outweigh the difficulties. Before everyone gets back into the habit of scheduling one unproductive in-person meeting after another, businesses are rushing to preserve productivity gains through intelligent automation. Here are the benefits you can expect from prioritizing intelligent automation:
Better Accuracy: Even with the best intentions from your best employees, mistakes happen – especially when employees are tired or stressed. Whether it’s a simple oversight or bypassing a time-consuming step, manual processes come with a bit of risk. By moving to intelligent automation, methods are followed automatically, decision-making is removed, and steps are followed methodically. As the steps are refined and improved, accuracy gets even better over time.
Productivity Gains: Intelligent automation can reduce processing time by half or even more. It frees up employee hours, improves the efficiency of individual processes, and creates a work culture that looks for ways to gain time for other projects. You can present automation as an expansion of the overall rebalancing that hybrid work has introduced; not only are employees getting back personal time from discontinued commuting but also gaining professional time through automation.
In addition, your employees’ job satisfaction soars with intelligent automation. By removing mundane tasks, they get more time to focus on exciting projects that move the company forward.
Customer Service Gains: Automated processes aren’t limited by work hours, so unlike a human employee, your automated customer service tools can support customers at any time of day. This makes it easier to meet demand, including during spikes in call volume and off-hours requests. Not only will you have faster response times but also a reduction in errors.
Watch for Pitfalls: In order for intelligent automation to successfully support hybrid work, there are a few areas to be aware of:
- Failing to implement a defined strategy that includes short-, medium-, and long-term plans and implications can prevent automation from offering the expected benefits. It’s also important to choose carefully when it comes to automation solutions and the providers you partner with.
- While many companies turn to automation to take the pressure off their IT teams, intelligent automation does require more IT support than traditional automation. The compute, storage, and other infrastructure requirements will need both remote and on-premise support from IT.
- With any technology advancement, there is the potential for resistance to change from your team. Careful consideration of how intelligent automation will affect roles, processes, and ways of working will help you prepare your team for changes.
When it’s time to introduce intelligent automation to better equip your teams for hybrid work, contact us at Safari Solutions. We look not just at automation solutions but also at your technology stack as a whole to determine the right fit for your business goals.
