Automation-Powered Employee Engagement

The following report draws on the results of a North Highland-sponsored survey conducted in April 2018. The survey identified the emerging trends in technology domains, along with the tactics and techniques that correlate to digital effectiveness. This report utilizes those insights to spotlight opportunities for organizations to right-size their approach to automation.

Survey Participants

More than 300 director-level and above employees with leadership responsibilities in technology/digital categories at global companies with revenues >$1/£1 billion were surveyed in April 2018.

Key Takeaways

The problem: Leaders are racing to take advantage of the opportunity to incorporate artificial intelligence (AI) into their business—and maximize its value. In many cases, intelligent automation can provide an entry point to test the waters.

The analysis: Despite concern fueled by speculation that automation will replace jobs, we’ve seen far more optimization than outright job elimination. In reality, intelligent automation provides an enormous opportunity to increase employee engagement by moving employees toward higher-value work.

The solution: Maximize the value of the human-machine partnership and ensure adoption through seven key steps centered on the role of people:

  1. Recognize that there are impacts on people.
  2. Involve the people who are experts in addressing this impact.
  3. Communicate the changes early and often.
  4. Identify training, learning, and development requirements and upskill affected employees.
  5. Involve business process owners closely.
  6. Have a clear goal that is part of a broader business story.
  7. Start small, with an eye toward scaling in the future.

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