Robots Entering The Workplace
Don’t worry about a robot taking your job. Buy a robot and spend time doing more meaningful work.
There is constant talk and studies that discuss about how many jobs will soon be replaced by robots. This blog is not designed to address when that is going to happen or what the impact of automation on jobs will be. It is happening now and leaning into the automation will help individuals grow in their careers and companies be more profitable. Many of The Overture Group’s searches are for leaders in the functional areas of Accounting & Finance (A&F) and Human Resources (HR). Both areas are perfect for the implementation of Robotic Process Automation (RPA).
What Is RPA?
If you are not familiar with RPA, please look it up, ASAP! To give you a quick overview, RPA is the use of bots (not a physical robot, but a software program) to do tasks that replicate actions a human would perform with a digital interface. It is NOT a new system; it is a robotic user of your current systems that can very quickly do high volume scripted tasks with 100% accuracy. Think of high-volume tasks that you can script out like the following:
- Processing Invoices
- Data Entry
- Account Reconciliations
- Payroll
- Standardized Onboarding Procedures
- Resume Sourcing
- If you have good processes and procedures, bots can do (and at certain companies, already are doing) all these better than employees.
If you are a CFO, head of HR, business owner, or any other executive with oversight on administration, you should be looking into how bots can help improve your company.
How Bots Can Help
The overwhelming response to companies who have implemented the use of bots in HR and A&F has been positive. That is crazy. Think about other technology (ERPs and Applicant Tracking Systems) and how you only hear horror stories of expensive implementations with no one using them to their potential. Bots might be the key to getting the utility you were hoping for on that expensive system you already implemented.
If you are an employee in A&F or HR, be very afraid! Just kidding, we interview thousands of executives and one very common trait among people that keep growing in their career, across all fields, is they are not afraid of change. That does not always come naturally, so work on being more open to change, or better yet, driving change. Technology will always be eliminating jobs while creating new ones. You don’t need to wait for executives to suggest RPA, do the research and suggest ways it can help make processes more efficient. Also, think of new value-added tasks you can spend time on if repetitive tasks are now being done by bots. Most case studies with companies using RPA in A&F and HR did not lead to immediate reduction of head count, it has led to increasing productivity by allowing the current staff to focus on more impactful initiatives. Leave the boring stuff to the bots!