Task automation is becoming increasingly important in business, as it can boost productivity and employee engagement. Using the right automation tools can help employees save time and focus on the most important tasks. Furthermore, it increases business productivity by directing employees’ creativity and energy toward meaningful goals. In this article, we’ll look at how to use automation to improve employee well-being while also increasing performance.
What is task automation?
Task automation is defined as a set of procedures for performing repetitive tasks in an automated manner. Advances in technology have made it possible to perform such low-value tasks more efficiently and cost-effectively. Some specialised IT solutions can repeat the same set of tasks normally performed by humans through reducing errors and increasing productivity.
Automation can be used in several departments such as human resources, IS management, accounting, customer relations or marketing with the lead generation strategy.
By minimising human intervention on these mundane tasks, task automation is seen as an ideal solution to maximise efficiency, as humans can focus their efforts on more interesting objectives. Ultimately, the entire company can be positively impacted by automation.
What are the benefits of automation?
Automation represents an opportunity for your company. There are many benefits in using this innovative approach.
Improve employee satisfaction.
Automating tasks can be immensely beneficial to employees. It does not have a negative impact on them. Instead, it saves them from having to do repetitive, tedious, and uninteresting work. Employees can then devote their full attention and potential to more creative activities that promote the growth and development of the company.
Streamline business processes.
Before automating tasks, it is essential to map out the business processes. This is the ideal opportunity to analyse these business processes in depth and to simplify them. Sometimes simplification is necessary to enable the automation software to perform its functions effectively.
Reducing the error rate
Employees can make mistakes despite trying to work diligently. When they are required to perform repetitive tasks for extended periods of time, their motivation and concentration naturally decrease, resulting in numerous errors. Automation tools provide an alternative in this situation. They can repeat the same task thousands of times without noticeably different results.
Increasing company productivity
Automation tools can improve business efficiency by performing tasks faster and more reliably. This leads to a significant return on investment by reducing associated costs. Automating repetitive tasks speeds up the production of products and services and frees up employees to focus more on core tasks, maximising the quality of projects.
How do you define which tasks to automate?
To automate tasks, it is necessary to identify which tasks should benefit from the technology. So, start by considering which tasks are most suitable for automation.
A process that is suitable for automation generally meets three key criteria:
- A recurring task: The task must be repetitive for the automation tool to handle it effectively.
- An unmotivating task: If a task is painful for employees, it is wise to consider automating it.
- Low added value: Finally, the task should not require much expertise. The automation should be able to replicate the action smoothly.
Automation of routine tasks that do not require creativity or emotional intelligence is possible using automation software. To implement this automation, however, you need to get the right software and proceed to set up a structured sequence of steps to automate some of the processes that are usually performed by employees.
What are the steps to automate tasks?
For automation to meet expectations, certain steps must be followed carefully. It is essential to prepare well for the automation of processes to reap the full benefits.
Identify the tasks to be automated.
First, it is necessary to determine which tasks should be automated. It is not advisable to automate many tasks, as this can lead to poor results, for example website translation and content creation.
However, some tasks lend themselves particularly well to automation. This is especially true for the following examples of routinely automated tasks in businesses:
- Sorting employee emails.
- Creating and sending invoices.
- Classifying prospects.
- But also, data entry and analysis.
- Publishing an article on a social network.
- Correcting the spelling of a document.
Planning processes
Why automate? To ensure the success of your automation strategy, it is important to define your needs.
For example, if you are automating the posting of messages on a social network, what is your objective? It could be posting three times per week or reaching a certain number of impressions. Setting clear goals allows you to plan actions and establish a completion timeline.
Selecting automation tools
To achieve the desired goals, you need to choose the right automation tools. Different types of tools are used to automate various tasks. It is therefore necessary to choose the solution best suited to specific needs.
Ideally, the solution you choose should automate processes efficiently, integrate with the existing workflow, contain the necessary functionality and be easily accessible.
Track performance
Automation is not enough. You also need to monitor its effect on productivity and profitability. Choose relevant performance indicators and create dashboards to track changes over time. This feedback should be used to update the automation process until it achieves the desired results.
