Performing the same tasks repeatedly will not lead your organization to progress
Although there is a common belief that automation takes jobs away from workers, McKinsey Global Institute’s report reveals that less than 5% of jobs involve tasks that can be completely automated. Additionally, discussions about how automation can enhance productivity and decrease business costs generally coincide with these notions.
According to McKinsey, it is more likely that certain tasks within a job will be automated rather than the entire role. This is true for about 60% of occupations, where at least one-third of the tasks can be automated. Fortunately, most workers have a positive attitude towards automation and are willing to use it to improve their work and life.
A recent report shows that surveyed workers are eager to reduce time spent on repetitive manual tasks, such as data entry, and prioritize more fulfilling aspects of their work. The report explores how automation can achieve this goal and outlines how organizations are currently approaching automation for information workers’ repetitive tasks.
According to a survey, many workers think that automation could be beneficial for them as it can reduce the amount of daily tasks which are crucial for business operations but affect productivity. The survey found that more than 40% of workers spend a minimum of 25% of their work week on manual and repetitive tasks, with activities like collecting data, entering data, and managing emails taking up most of their time.
Nearly 70 percent of workers say the biggest opportunity of automation lies in reducing time wasted on repetitive work.
What are the tasks that workers would like to automate the most? Our research indicates that there are three specific tasks which are currently hindering productivity that workers are keen to automate.
- Automatically collect, upload, or sync data into a system of record to avoid human error and manual data entry, according to 55 percent of respondents.
- Automate approvals, sign-offs, and confirmation requests to increase efficiency by 36%.
- Automatically request status updates and other information to reduce wasted time (32 percent) with our updates feature.
- According to workers, automating these tasks will bring three main benefits – reducing wasted time (69%), eliminating human error (66%), and recovering lost hours from manual, repetitive tasks that can be automated (59%).
Workers believe that automating these tasks will bring various advantages, including a 69 percent reduction in wasted time, a 66 percent elimination of human errors, and a 59 percent recovery of the hours that are currently being spent on manual and repetitive tasks.
More than half of the surveyed workers believe that automating the repetitive tasks in their jobs could save them at least a full workday’s worth of time every week. If they had that extra time, 72 percent of workers would use it to do more valuable work for their companies and 78 percent would focus on the more interesting and fulfilling parts of their jobs.
One respondent expressed their desire for automation of repetitive tasks by stating that reducing the number of mindless tasks would allow employees to concentrate on creative pursuits and generating new ideas.
Workers believe that they could contribute more value to their organizations through creative work and innovation. Automation can provide them with more time to be creative and, as a result, could lead to greater innovation in businesses. According to a survey, 43 percent of respondents think that automation will lead to more innovation for themselves and their teams.
Employee first: happy employee, happy company
According the survey, many employees would like more time for their personal life. Among the workers surveyed, 22% would use automation to wrap up work early, and 15% would prefer to have a longer lunch break. About 10% of the workers surveyed would like to spend some of their saved time on personal online activities like shopping and social media.
It’s beneficial for businesses when employees take time for themselves. By allowing time to unwind, disconnect and enjoy activities outside of work, it helps prevent exhaustion and keeps information workers enthusiastic about their job.
Beware of the competition. Time is changing
How does your team compare to the competition when it comes to leveraging automation? Automation is becoming more and more essential for organizations to remain competitive. In fact, 65 percent of workers incorporate some form of automation into their daily work, and 68 percent of workers stated that their team is proactively automating some of their tasks. Around 30 percent of respondents mentioned that their departments have future automation plans. However, despite current or planned automation, an immense 97 percent of workers think that automation could be advantageous for their organization.According to a survey, 40 percent of workers believe that automation will make their company more competitive, with the main benefits being improved productivity and fewer mistakes.
Embrace the potential of technology
Workers are willing to delegate some of their routine duties to automated systems, so they can focus more on important tasks and remain interested in their job. Companies should examine their existing processes, including where there may be obstacles, and consider automating them to help employees be more effective. Workers are eager for companies to utilize automation to enhance productivity and create more time so that everyone can contribute to the organization’s progress.