Not only did the industrial revolution change the way work was perceived, but this also changes the dependency of organizations on their workforce. While it would be farfetched to say that the dependency was done away with, there was indeed a workforce change.
Today, as we stand on the face of a digital revolution, it would be fair to say that another significant change in work environments is expected. You can leverage the power of technology to cut down on your human dependency.
This presents manifold advantages for a firm, both from a present and futuristic perspective. To begin with, machines do not complain about working overtime, and most of them can be operated daily. Neither do you need to give paid sick leaves to machines?
If you add all the sick days and week-offs that you give your employees over a year, you will realize the impact of this avoidable expenditure.
In the past, human beings were superior to machines and achieved better results. Many fields report shorter sales cycles with artificial intelligence and machine learning (resulting from faster processing) when human dependency is reduced.
This article discusses the various ways to cut down on human dependency without compromising your business’s growth.
Invest in Robotic Process Automation (RPA)
If you are a tech-powered company looking to leverage work order software and cut down on the hassle of human dependency, then investment in RPA is the need of the hour. Start by identifying redundant tasks that your team indulges in.
This may include checking for information against thousands of guidelines or laws, maintaining an inventory, comparing information between applications, or simple copy-paste work.
With RPA, you can develop software that automates these processes and gives faster and more accurate results. Such software is scalable and can be easily re-trained to meet any changes in your business process. This makes it an ideal choice for dynamic organizations in the initial days of business establishment and looking at long-term growth.
Understand the Power of Automation in Manufacturing
Any manufacturing business involves loading raw materials into production units, welding, packaging of products, and maintaining of equipment as regular work. A little introspection will reveal that all the tasks are repetitive and can be easily automated.
Make the Most of Automation in the Food Industry
In the food industry, 73% of recurring activities involve collecting and washing dishes, cleaning the food preparation area, and preparing beverages. Proactive measures on the part of the business owner can cause these to be automated and reduce human dependency.
Leverage Automation in the Retail World
In the retail world, investing in the best work order software to maintain customer and sales records will help the long run. Tools can gather product information, prepare invoices, maintain taxation records, and do a lot more.
With AI and predictive learning, automated systems can advise a customer with shopping options based on their past choices and current product availability.
Ensure No One is Indispensable
A good workplace is one where employees are given the opportunity of sharing their knowledge with their peers. Arrange a work environment where senior employees are encouraged to mentor others and take charge of team assignments.
Frequent knowledge transfer assignments, training sessions, and other such initiatives will help you ensure that no employee becomes indispensable to your organization.
Understand that when you have a high dependency on a particular employee, the latter has the upper hand over you and can negotiate deals, which may lead you to pay them more than what is necessary.
The first step to cutting down on an organization’s human dependency is to curtail its dependence on key employees.
Encourage In-house Automation
If your organization is into technology, you can set up research labs to incentivize employees to develop ways to automate their simple tasks. This is a win-win situation as it helps make everyday work easier for your employees while reducing your dependency on them.
Use Chatbots for Customer Support
With the world growing into a global village, your business’s target group may not live in the same time zone as you. Even if they do, they may be engaged in jobs that require them to work at odd hours, and they may not be able to reach out to you at your business hours.
To cater to the customer needs, you need an around-the-clock customer support team. This would need a team of considerable size to operate on a rotational basis and calls for a considerable investment. An easy way to avoid that would be by investing in AI-powered chatbots.
Make Employees Get Comfortable with Technology
Understand that at present, it may not be feasible for you to completely do away with human intervention and run a business solely with machines. Your focus should be on getting employees to be comfortable working alongside technology.
For example, in AI-powered chatbots, the machine would be fed with information about common questions. If the chatbot is asked a question beyond its scope, it will collect the user’s contact details.
Later, a human employee can have a check on it and reach out to the user. By having chatbots as the first point of contact for potential customers, you enhance the customer experience without going through the hassle of maintaining a large team of customer service executives.
Considering the great strides taken by AI, machine learning, and predictive analysis, we can expect a day in the future wherein a machine is a much more efficient employee than any human. In preparation for that day, businesses that jump into the technology bandwagon faster have the edge over the competition.
Irrespective of whether you see this adaption to technology as an investment to a smarter future or you are keener to leverage the immediate advantage of lower dependency on humans; this is the best time to make the leap and say ‘Hello’ to a tech-powered business.
As you brace yourself to adapt to the technological revolution, here is wishing you the very best of luck for the same.
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