Mundane tasks at work are frustrating employees and could be fuelling the Great Resignation trend.
Such tasks include responding to emails, scheduling calls and meetings, and inputting data/creating datasets, according to the 2022 Office Worker Survey by enterprise automation software company UiPath.
As such, 52% of the Singapore workers surveyed believe that automation can improve their job performance, namely by saving time, increasing productivity, and creating opportunities to focus on more important work. More than three-quarters (76%) also agree they can focus on more creative work with the help of automation.
Moreover, 77% of the Singapore respondents contend that incorporating automation could help their organisation attract new and retain existing talent.
The good news is that more organisations are embracing automation in the workplace.
“Singapore organisations in both public and private sectors have started to realise the benefits of automation as a solution for the talent crunch. Local firms typically automate tasks that are repetitive, tedious and mundane such as generating reports or creating datasets,” Rick Harshman, senior vice president and managing director of Asia Pacific and Japan at UiPath, tells DigitalEdge Singapore.
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He shares the example of StarHub, which uses self-learnt robotic process automation (RPA) and its own bots to handle its human resource (HR) department’s confidential data and generate reports. This has improved efficiencies tremendously, as a typical report that used to take 3.5 hours each week to prepare now only needs 8.5 minutes.
Singapore’s Central Provident Fund Board is another adopter of automation. “It has even set up its own automation labs that help train staff to eliminate, improve or automate everyday work they face. One tool that the lab created helps fill in legal document templates with information from simple digital forms, reducing the time to create documents by 90%,” says Harshman.
Making workplace automation a norm
See also: Human element still important for effective mass communication
Despite the multiple benefits of automation, organisations might face challenges when it comes to embracing enterprise-wide automation.
One of the top barriers is employee resistance and onboarding.
Harshman explains: “Changes involving new technology can be stressful for employees as they might experience shifts in their responsibilities.
“Support from company leaders and executive sponsors is therefore crucial to ensuring that employees are fully informed about what is expected of them throughout the implementation process. This will motivate employees’ automation efforts.
“Communicating the benefits of automation – such as saving time and energy from mundane, repetitive tasks to make way for more meaningful, sophisticated and rewarding work – will help foster a culture of innovation. Reassuring employees that the goal is moving the company forward, not replacing jobs, will further accelerate this adoption.”
As for business leaders, they need to think about job redesign, redeployment plans, as well as build out upskilling, reskilling and hiring plans, in order to maximise the potential of automation technologies for their organisation.
“Addressing wide-scale training early by focusing on workforce skill-building will be crucial. Education and training policies must nurture in-demand automation skills and provide upskilling opportunities to help workers keep pace with advances in the technology,” says Harshman.
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He continues: “At the same time, training opportunities must also include soft skills like leadership, critical thinking, and adaptability - skills which robots cannot replace. In a future where robots and virtual assistants are able to take over mundane, repetitive tasks, the traits that make us human will be our workforce's competitive advantage.
“On the flipside, workers themselves too must develop the mindset of continuous learning to keep up with rapid technological and job changes.”
Besides organisation’s internal efforts, Harshman claims that an ecosystem – comprising industry, academia and government stakeholders – is needed to make enterprise-wide automation a reality.
In line with that belief, UiPath strives to democratise information, access, and learning around the formative era of automation.
“With more than 1.5 million members strong and growing, the UiPath Community is the largest automation community in the world, connecting customers, partners, freelancers, enthusiasts, and beginners to UiPath.
“We also have a wide ecosystem of Go-to-Market and Technology Partners. For example, UiPath has established a strategic partnership with NCS for the deployment of enterprise-grade automation capabilities.
“The joint go-to-market effort will bring the power of automation to both public and private enterprises from across industries, such as telecommunications, government, and financial services, particularly in high growth markets like Singapore, Australia, and Asia Pacific,” he says.
