Succeeding in the Future: Why Companies Should Embrace Automation
Of the many topics that commonly stir up controversy, automation seems to be frequenting more conversations lately. The reason is simple: business owners love it—and why shouldn’t they? Automating functions around the office can help businesses save money, increase efficiencies, and eliminate human error. While this is great for business owners, you wouldn’t be hard-pressed to find others who are a little less optimistic about introducing automation into the workplace.
Indeed, automation has the ability to take over significant portions of one’s job responsibilities and even displace workers entirely, but refusing to consider the many benefits automation can offer, would be doing a great injustice to workers. That’s right, automation can greatly improve the lives and working conditions of those who often fear it the most. Let’s take a look at a few reasons why automation is good for both companies and their workers.
Automation Creates Jobs
People often think of automation as a holistic solution for every business function, when that is not the case. This is because automation is a tool that needs to be programmed and maintained over time. Successful execution of automated tasks requires consistent monitoring, updating, and configuring as businesses look to grow or change the way in which tasks are typically performed.
The need for this level of maintenance has done the opposite of what many feared automation would be responsible for: it has created more jobs—and who better to give many of these jobs to than the ones who understand the core responsibilities of the role the most? Of course, others with automation integration know-how will be required to get systems up-and-running (creating more jobs), but existing workers can be a big part of the process to ensure all systems and tasks run smoothly (helping them maintain jobs).
Automation Makes Work More Enjoyable
There’s a reason why workers at companies who integrate automation tend to be happier. Business process automation, for example, can be implemented to take over many of the mundane, less-desirable aspects of one’s job. This might include long and tedious hours of data input, calculation, or the generation of reports.
This time can then be spent overseeing that automated tasks are being performed correctly, while also lending unique, creative insights to other projects that can help drive a company’s strategy forward. Automating at least a single portion of one’s job can help reduce job-related stress, micromanagement by superiors, and the chances of receiving unrealistic workloads.
Automation Reduces Risks
“We’re only human” is a common phrase that denotes the flawed nature of humans. Unlike our machine counterparts, humans are susceptible to short attention spans, changes in mood, and fatigue, all of which impact our ability to focus and get work done. This means that humans are also susceptible to errors and the subsequent pressures from managers when they occur. By employing automated technology, the burden of this error is no longer placed on the individual. In fact, the error is unlikely to occur at all. This is because the technology can replicate any programmable task without risk of failure (so long as the procedure for the task remains constant. Variations in procedures or data inflow will require additional programming). With fewer expectations and less chance of error, both businesses and workers can perform optimally and with less pressure.
The dawn of automation has understandably created quite the commotion since it’s inception into the business world, but so far, it looks like the technology has been more of an ally than some might have thought.