19 Nov, 2020 | Blogs
Debates about allowing employees to work from home versus the office is usually based on productivity levels. But amid the Covid-19 pandemic, this debate seems futile as more and more companies are prioritizing employee safety and health. Tech giants like Google, Apple, Amazon, and Facebook have implemented or modified remote working policies for their employees around the world. Other companies are anxiously following suite, with trial runs for remote work starting at an enterprise level. What happens in the next few months with regards to remote working can potentially define how employees work in the future.
Irrespective of this once-in-a-century pandemic, work from home (or WFH as it is called) is likely to become an expected allowance from all companies. It not only offers a better work-life-balance but is more cost-effective for organizations. But where does this leave the managers and supervisors? How do they ensure that they get the most out of their workforce if they cannot manage them in person? And we all know the anxiety managers get when it comes to accountability from remote employees. Resorting to numerous tracking apps and platforms is an old-school way but certainly not an effective one. There has to be a better way!
Enter Attended Automation
More and more companies are embracing attended automation to improve efficiency of its remote workforce. As automation becomes an integral part of office workflows, attended automation creates a hybrid work environment that enables humans and bots to work together. It enables passing off processes and trading tasks dynamically so that the human workforce is more efficient, adds value to the task and serves customers better. The virtual assistant can intuitively sense when the employee needs help and lets the manager know about the problem at the same time. It gives a complete picture to the supervisors about the problem their teams faced, how long the team worked on solving the problem and what tasks were completed.
A use case of attended automation is the call-center, where bots are being used to not only record the number of calls made but also how many times the calls were placed. It allows recording of all processes to show the team’s productivity and the challenges they face in real-time. However, the biggest benefit of RPA attended automation surpasses monitoring and task managing abilities.
The biggest advantage of using virtual assistants is its problem-solving ability and how it improves the productivity of the team. For instance, when a client calls for certain information, the virtual assistant can quickly pull up relevant data on the screen thereby reducing hold times and enabling seamless interactions. With shortened hold times, your team can take more calls and be more productive. This is just one of the many examples of how RPA can increase the productivity of staff working in the office as well as remotely. Read other use cases of attended RPA.
Attended automation also gives flexibility to the employees who can meet their goals without wasting time on commuting to work. It provides a perfect work-life balance for both employer and the employee since the bot can be customized to track KPIs or drill down on task management activities. These bots can track metrics and enhance staff productivity while giving more freedom to employees.
The Verdict
The work from home policy is more than likely to become a norm in the coming months and years. In cities where office space is relatively costly, many organizations are moving towards building an efficient remote relationship with their employees, making the implementation of attended RPA a necessity. It is the guaranteed way to set an organization and its employees up for success in times when the nature of work, technology, and workforce generations are changing. If your organization is thinking of a future with remote working environments, then embrace automation to make the transition effective and smooth. Contact us for more details.