In 2021, we are in the midst of a huge change in the workforce. Many people try to predict the future of their jobs. In addition to what you have already read and heard, here are some insights from Tom Brown, SVP Global Human Resources at Automation Anywhere, into how RPA and intelligent automation fits into the workforce of the future, and how it is helping to lead technological innovation.
“The talent that has come into the workforce wants to be more inspired, more purpose-driven and by removing mundane routine tasks, we actually release the individual and the potential of the individuals to be more creative. We’re seeing a huge change in the workforce at the moment, we’ve got five generations working, we’ve also got in the developed markets increasing war for talent, and RPA is giving an opportunity to take that extraordinary talent that we have and release more of that potential by taking away some of the routine mundane tasks and allowing them to be more innovative, more creative, and really kind of releasing their full potential to the workforce. This is an incredibly strategic opportunity.
If you look to see where technological innovation comes from in companies, it varies enormously. With RPA, it’s really an opportunity for two key factors for the HR function to really influence the CEO and the strategic direction of the organization. With the change in demographics, there is a shortage of talent and the talent that has come into the workforce wants to be more inspired more purpose-driven. And any CEO that a human resource officer talked to and said that he/she can release 10-20-30% of the human capital of this organization to be more productive, that’s a very enticing proposition.
At the same time, we’ve gone through a 10-year cycle of continuing kind of growth and prosperity and the reality is we live in a cyclical world and in time there will be more recessionary moves. As that happens, companies that have thought really carefully about their workforce and have not necessarily just thrown bodies of problems, but thought really carefully about where they can automate and how they can drive increased efficiency and effectiveness, and better productivity will be better.
So, rather than going and hiring, say another 100 people, perhaps the company says we’ll hire 70 people but we’ll automate not only what make their current employees happier, more productive, but also means that when the downturn comes there’s less pressure on the workforce and the costs.”
