How Automation Drives Business Growth

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February 18, 2021 Business

Technology is transforming the business ecosystem. One of its hottest trends is business process automation.

Automation eliminates the manual execution of repetitive tasks. That way, it improves workplace efficiency, minimizes costs, and reduces employee turnover.

The best thing about it is that you can automate almost any business process, from customer service to inventory management. For example, when looking at eCommerce automation trends, about half of all retail processes can be automated despite 61% of companies stating they’re meeting those expectations.

In this article, we explain how automation enhances business growth and generates higher ROI.

Getting the Most out of Employee Management

Google Calendar and back-and-forth email communications are not enough to schedule shifts and organize workflows. Manually managing employees can harm your business in multiple ways. It takes a lot of time and effort and yet, does not provide enough transparency and clarity. That often results in employee frustration, burnout, and low productivity.

Fortunately, you do not have to manage your employees manually. Automation in the people management sector is crucial. It frees up managers to focus on high-priority tasks and issues.

Automated rostering software provides a comprehensive insight into employee resources and workloads. These tools allow you to create schedules automatically, use pre-made rostering templates, and enable micro-scheduling. This way, rostering software helps you reduce the risk of overstaffing/understaffing, minimize financial waste, and enhance employee retention.

Taking Human Resources to the Next Level

Automation plays a fundamental role in the HR sector. With the help of AI-driven and cloud-based tools, HR managers can reduce repetitive tasks and finally focus on what matters the most – people.

Now, you can automate many aspects of human resources.

Human resource management systems (HRMS) provide online file storage, background checks, and applicant tracking. In other words, they automate a wide array of time-consuming HR operations.
With recruiting tools, you can streamline many tasks, including sorting candidate applications, reviewing candidates, and employee onboarding.
They centralize candidate data in a single location, allowing your HR team to focus on more demanding aspects of the recruitment process.
Cloud payroll tools can automatically calculate paid time off, payroll taxes, deductions, and so forth. They reduce human error and make transactions fast and frictionless.

Automating Manual Tasks and Improving Workplace Security

The Coronavirus pandemic has taught us that employee health is employers’ top priority. From slips and falls to serious injuries, employee safety risks are multiple.

Even if you equip your staff with personal protective equipment, provide employee education, and build strict workplace security policies, that is not always enough.

To minimize workplace injuries, many businesses choose to invest in automation. For example, manufacturing businesses can use robots to reduce lifting and bending injuries.

With the help of warehousing automation, employees do need to perform at dangerous heights anymore. Large ecommerce companies have automated entire warehouses. D.com has a warehouse where robots perform all tasks without human supervision.

Since the outbreak of Coronavirus, many hospitals have started investing in robotics, too. In the healthcare sector, robots can automate multiple operations, from cleaning to transporting hazardous substances. For instance, robots can deliver food to patients, transport medical supplies, and disinfect patients’ rooms.

Boosting Employee Satisfaction and Productivity

Improving employee satisfaction and productivity is your primary goal. Still, studies found that most employees are not engaged or are actively disengaged.

According to a recent survey, employee disengagement costs businesses about $300 billion yearly. When employees are not satisfied and motivated, they do not perform at their best. Above all, they seek new professional opportunities. For you, that means lower productivity and higher employee churn.

That is where automation shines. It streamlines dull and manual tasks, freeing up employees’ time for high-value work. By doing what they are passionate about, your employees will be more satisfied and engaged.

Statistics back me up on that. According to studies, 69% of employees think that business process automation can reduce the wastage of time during their workday.

Improving Governance

Business process automation is an effective way to improve your business’ governance. Automated business processes are always automated. For every operation, managers and employees can access logs and track the team’s performance.

Some of the most obvious benefits of automation for corporate governance are:

Boosting process efficiency by minimizing repeatability and boosting task consistency
Providing error visibility and enabling better insight into business operations
Reducing costs by eliminating costly inefficiencies, inconsistencies, and time wastage
Assuring compliance and ensuring the product meets industry needs.
Facilitating business operations. By automating repetitive tasks, employees have more time for innovation and creative thinking.

Delivering Superior Customer Service

Automation helps you boost customer experiences and provide spectacular customer service.

With automated services, you can centralize customer information and provide faster and more accurate feedback. At the same time, you will minimize the costs requires to manage a customer support team.

Automated CRM software solutions play a fundamental role in customer service. These tools seamlessly integrate with the majority of marketing and customer support tools. They capture customer data at every touchpoint and keep it in a single location.

That way, customer support teams can manage multi-channel customer conversations (live chat, chatbots, email, phone calls) via a single platform.

Artificial intelligence is transforming customer relationship management, as well. For example, public holidays or different time zones are a common problem for brands. With the help of AI chatbots, your brand will be available 24/7. Chatbots can provide meaningful and relevant answers to repetitive questions, freeing up your CS team to handle more challenging customer tickets.

Conclusions

Automation plays a central role in business success in 2021. While it may seem like an unnecessary investment for a small business, it can drive business growth and innovation in multiple ways. It improves employee productivity, encourages worker retention, and reduces costs.