Use tech to power-up your business

A business’s talent is its most valuable asset. Optimizing the potential of its workforce isn't just a good idea – it's essential for sustained success. Operational processes and workflows are completely different things, and while many businesses spend energy optimizing their processes, far too few try to power-up their people’s workflows.

Workflow automations combine well with other digital solutions like customized work interfaces, and they offer a powerful pathway to empower your workforce. Getting your work systems to be structured and interfaced in a way matching the way people work leads to significant gains in productivity, performance, and overall value.

Empowered employees get exceptional results

A highly engaged and productive workforce directly contributes to increased profitability and a stronger competitive edge. Empowering workflows with digital solutions keeps employees engaged so they perform better, do more, and have more satisfaction while they do it.

Digital transformation provides a technological framework to achieve this with its core pillars of automation, custom tools, data intelligence, and AI. By strategically implementing digital solutions, businesses can streamline their operations, enhance efficiency, and unlock the full potential of their employees - all at the same time.

The drag of manual processes

Relying on manual processes can hinder your workforce's potential in several ways. These methods are often slow, cumbersome, and lack the flexibility to adapt to changing demands and circumstances. 

What’s more is that manual tasks are prone to human error, which leads to inaccuracies and potential financial losses. Studies show that employees can spend a significant portion of their workweek on repetitive manual tasks, leaving less time for strategic work that maximizes value. 

This can lead to decreased productivity, operational inefficiencies, and missed opportunities. Beyond the impact on efficiency, the monotony of repetitive work can also lead to frustration, disengagement, burnout, and higher employee turnover.

Automation is an accelerant for value

Workflow automation isn’t just about automating manual processes, it’s about changing the interfaces of the systems they use when they work, to match how their real-life workflow goes in their day-to-day. 

By customizing their interfaces to match how they really work, automating routines and repetitive tasks have an even bigger impact. Employees can concentrate on activities that align with strategic objectives in the way they naturally work, which leads to a more significant boost in overall productivity. 

Automation brings extra benefits. It minimizes human error by ensuring consistent task execution based on programmed routines and tasks. Automated work checking and error validation systems lead to greater accuracy in handling processes and data. 

Streamlining their work through interfaces powered by automation reduces delays and improves response times dramatically. Downstream, this enhances efficiency, accelerates project completion, and drives performance across the board. 

Automation also fosters better collaboration and communication within teams by providing real-time updates, shared management dashboards, and automated notifications to keep pushing work along.

Real-World Impact: Automation Across Business Functions

Workflow solutions and automation isn't a one-size-fits-all solution. It offers versatile benefits across various business areas, and usually the best implementations are very different from one another.

Human Resources

• Automating onboarding processes ensures a consistent and positive experience for new hires from day one. 
• Automated training systems can deliver modules, track progress, and personalize learning paths, contributing to upskilling and retention. 
• Leave management can be streamlined, offering employees convenient self-service options. 
• Even performance reviews can be made more efficient through automated scheduling and feedback collection. 
• AI-powered chatbots can provide instant support to employees, answering queries and gathering feedback to boost engagement.

Project Management and Admin

• Automation tools can create and assign tasks, track progress, send reminders, and generate reports, improving efficiency and team collaboration. 
• In software development, bug logging and assignment can be automated for quicker resolution.
• Routine tasks like data entry, communications, forms, meeting scheduling, invoice processing, and document management can be automated, freeing up staff handling administrative duties for tasks of higher value with more strategic responsibilities.

Business Development and Sales

• Automated lead nurturing campaigns can engage potential customers with personalized content, improving lead engagement and conversion rates. 
• Integrating automation with customer relationship management (CRM) systems ensures sales teams have accurate and up-to-date customer information. 
• Sales pipeline management can also be automated, updating deal stages and setting reminders for follow-ups.

Each of these examples of different workflows can have their own interface designed to optimize throughput by streamlining how real people use their systems to get work done. Together the interfaces and automation bring a powerful digital solution to supercharge the productivity of those handling them.

The Power of AI and Automation Combined

Integrating artificial intelligence with workflow automation creates a powerful synergy for talent enhancement. AI can simply do things that are traditionally too complex to have a positive benefit-cost ratio. 

AI-powered chatbots can offer 24/7 support or information retrieval, answering routine questions and freeing up professionals across any field that communicates or looks-up information. 

For example, AI can personalize the onboarding experience and create customized learning paths for new hires. Intelligent automation systems can predict and resolve potential issues, optimize resource allocation, and enhance overall efficiency. AI analytics can also identify skill gaps, predict attrition risks, assess candidates and personalize employee engagement initiatives.

These capabilities extend to any unit or operation, and so the possibilities are nearly endless. Because the cost of running AI-infused workflows and automations has plummeted, it is becoming a staple of great importance around the world impacting nearly every industry.

The return on investment is loud and clear

Implementing workflow automation delivers a tangible return on investment, significantly impacting employee productivity and business success. Organizations can achieve substantial cost savings through reduced labor costs, minimized errors, optimized resource utilization, and decreased operational expenses. 

Studies [1, 2] suggest potential cost reductions ranging from 15% to as high as 50% in specific areas. Workflow automation also improves time efficiency by streamlining processes and freeing up employee time for higher-value activities. 

Estimates indicate potential time savings of up to 30%. Furthermore, automation minimizes human errors, leading to increased accuracy and reduced costs associated with mistakes and compliance issues. 

Data accuracy can improve by as much as 88% when workflow automation is implemented. By alleviating tedious tasks, automation contributes to improved employee satisfaction, leading to higher productivity and retention rates. 

Research shows that happy employees are, on average, 13% more productive than their less satisfied counterparts, and companies with a satisfied workforce can experience a 23% increase in overall profitability. 

Ultimately, these benefits lead to a significant enhancement in overall business profitability.

Optimize your workforce's potential with digital solutions

Workflow automation and other digital solutions are no longer just technological advancements – they are strategic imperatives for businesses looking to thrive. By embracing digital transformation, companies can empower their workforce, drive significant value creation, and achieve sustainable growth in today's competitive landscape. 

Investing in your talent through digital solutions is not just an expense; it's a strategic investment to ensure your company's future is thriving.