A New Operational Model Based on Augmenting the Human with the Digital Workforce

How is the ’digital’ workforce settling in – and who’s watching it? A new world is emerging around us and it’s being driven by everything that is digital, immediate, transparent and mobile. On top of that we expect to review offerings based on others’ ratings, access a service whenever we want and get immediate resolution when we need it. Think the attention span and impact of Twitter, applied with the force and threat of a bulldozer. The next chapter in enterprise digital transformation connects what we have already learned about digitalisation and leverages this exponentially through data-driven, intelligence-based, automation. We are talking, of course, about robotics software that can do so many things we thought that, to date, only humans can. Today, it is augmenting if not replacing human workers. It’s a digital workforce that sits alongside your human workforce. So, how is this ’digital’ workforce settling in? Who’s watching it? Balancing the human and the robotic workforce The ‘IA revolution’ is having a major impact on the human workforce, so no organisation should travel too far down this path without devising a strategy that encompasses both digital and human elements. From a shared services perspective, what this means is that an IA strategy should align with a longer-term staffing strategy for business services. Some crucial questions to consider, for example, are how to retrain employees to perform the new ‘value-adding’ tasks that are quickly filling in the time freed up through automation. It’s all very well and good to talk about ‘value-add’, but how do you help an AP Clerk become a spend analyst? Should your next hire in Finance be an accountant or a robotics process automation (RPA) Developer? Current headlines frequently reference the ’hollowing out’ of jobs and the replacement of significant segments of the global workforce by machines. While there are many concerns around the ’risk’ to traditional organisational structures as a result of IA – specifically robotics and artificial intelligence (AI) – a more accurate description is a new organisational model that combines digital technology and workflows with the unique attributes that humans bring to the table. The truth is that the goal is not automation per se, but the optimisation of tasks by blending human and machine capabilities. In the vast majority of IA implementations, the goal is not to displace people, but rather redeploy those resources to higher value work. While this is not always possible, some displacement is occurring, enterprises are reserving much of the productivity to invest in business value accretive work. As enterprises adopt IA across their operations, it is important that they clearly define and plan how the human element will differentiate services. Some leading multinationals are already taking the initiative to set up ’human’ strategies that focus on: enabling productivity; understanding and preparing for the skill requirements of the future; emphasizing the more fulfilling nature of work; and inspiring employees to stretch for better business results. The question that needs to be addressed, therefore, is: in a digital world, how can being more human become the key to unlocking greater growth? The advent of RPA and AI is just one of the trends impacting today’s workforce. Others include: Shift in demographics, as Millennials join a generation of employees that is retiring later, with the latter often feeling pushed aside, while the former struggle to gain acceptance and respect from older colleagues. Work is becoming less permanent and increasingly flexible, with some estimates of one in five workers having a ’contingent’ (not permanent) role by 2020. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but it marks a significant change from the traditional model. New business models leveraging the ’sharing economy’ are rapidly outgrowing traditional business models. Social instability, political instability, Brexit, suspicion of immigration and a new approach to foreign trade, etc. Humans may be best placed to address the expanded risk profile that can result from automated systems. To counter this, organisations will need a robust plan. The onus is on today's leaders to plan for the digitised workplace, leverage automation to benefit humans as a whole and position human value add centre stage, by: Ensuring organisations reflect a more connected world – business silos propped up by traditional hierarchies are outdated; digital connectivity and collaboration on a global scale have changed the game completely. Taking a broader approach to the human ecosystem beyond the own workforce – with more workers becoming ’contingent’ this begs the question, what will organisations actually offer employees, beyond a basic contract? Being valued and respected, having opportunities to learn and grow and feeling that work is purposeful and significant remain key. Organisations will have to figure out how to provide this support in the face of virtual teams, the gig economy and automated enterprises. Being aware of the downside of the ’always on’ culture. Already, illnesses based on digital stress as a result of 24/7 availability are emerging in the workplace. Organisations need to protect their employees and help them survive in the always connected world. Supporting humans in developing new skills in a world defined and driven by the Internet of Things (IoT), robotics and AI . The B Team’s Ariella Huffington predicts that the two most essential skills in the new world order will be ’creativity’ and ’empathy’. To support and develop humans in the workforce, organisations should: explore new ways of working that inspire individuals; embed continual learning and education strategies into career plans; and actively strive for a balance between technology and the people who humanise the work experience. In the short term, there is already a talent gap and a need to grow and develop these new skills to help ensure a smoother transition to the workforce of the future. Are you ready for change? The truth is, nobody likes change, so you need strong management backup. This means, first and foremost, gaining the support of an Automation Evangelist – a leader who will push through the idea, with the influence to make it happen. Never has the Chinese definition of crisis as an opportunity rung truer. If anyone is looking for a reason to take on large-scale digitisation driven by IA, it is today’s disruptive economic environment. The question is really one of how aggressive you want to be – and whether you have the stomach to reengineer processes to fit the solutions, or prefer to patch up the gaps. Consider, for example, the fact that no company would today design a car that could not be built by robots. By contrast, most internal processes are designed to be managed by hand. Brave companies looking towards the future will take a red pencil to their current process charts and redesign them to be managed by bots. That, of course, is only half of the problem. The other challenge is to re-educate humans to work with these redesigned processes. Finally, think about the fact that there are literally thousands of start-ups around the world that are launching with a clean sheet of paper and building an entirely new delivery model around almost everything: for example, Airbnb, which became the largest purveyor of lodging in just five years via an app on your phone. There is also the issue of ’automation anxiety’ that is plaguing enterprises. The key factor here is that IA implementation needs to be closely controlled through a robust change management framework and that any concerns around security or job losses should be addressed early. This is not only a question of organisational readiness, but perhaps predominantly one of a mind-set change. Organisations like ANZ Bank have cleverly presented bots as ‘virtual assistants’ to their workforce. Emphasizing technologies’ ability to safely and reliably remove mundane work, in order to free up individuals for more ’interesting’ and value adding work is key. Tips on introducing your digital workforce As with any change management, preparedness and planning are key. Here are some suggestions: How will you present the robotic element to an existing team? Some organisations have had success by personalising the robots – giving them names, for example. Others introduce them as ‘digital assistants’, to help out. Don’t assume you have to automate the ’as is’ process. Take a critical review and consider how RPA may consume data differently to humans. Many manual steps can be eliminated completely and don't even require automation. Start small and grow your capabilities over time. Look at automation for things other than cost, such as CX, quality, consistency and speed. Consider establishing a pilot programme that draws on the strength of an experienced partner. Professional services firms are acquiring experience with technology providers and the specialised skill set needed to make RPA processes work in tax, accounting, administration and other specialized workflows. Involve your team. Employees hear about the threat of robotics replacing white-collar workers but the real-world experience has been that robotics allow workers to focus on more valuable tasks and help employers build higher-functioning teams. Make RPA a business-led initiative, not an IT-led initiative. Bots can be configured within the teams, close to the business processes and expertise required to make them work. Attended (RDA) versus Unattended (RPA) While the desire to eliminate manual work is a common thread with RPA, the extent to which a human worker needs to intervene to ’ok’ a step varies. Where there is risk and control is a concern, or where systems simply don’t allow required automated handoffs, we see ’attended’ automation. Where the system and controls allow, unattended automation is sweeping in. In both types of platforms, the robotic (AKA digital) workforce can leverage the already published human interface, which is why speed to deploy and agility to react to changing process requirements are so high. In general, providers of both Robotic Process Automation and Robotic Desktop Automation (RDA) are increasingly extending legacy application interaction to additional interface types, including application APIs and user configured feeds from other front end tools. While the advantages of a server-driven approach include the ability to scale, build-in improved governance and align with enterprise IT, the challenge is how to clearly define and identify each stage of the process. Where these processes are already supported by shared services or BPO/ITO, they have generally been well-defined, standardised and designed as a part of the transition. In other words, someone, somewhere has laid out the rules and activities necessary to execute the process in a standardised fashion across the enterprise, or at least across a major portion of the enterprise. It is for this reason that automation has found such fertile ground in the SSO industry, where it is easier to transition to an automated processing environment, and with better business case results. However, the challenge is often that, as a result of outsourcing or otherwise delegating work, the necessary process ‘intimacy’ or specific process knowledge, has gone missing – particularly where the original process experts have been redeployed. In this case, the required definitions or intimate understanding of process steps can be hard to come by or need to be recreated. However, RPA and RDA can also be another way to start developing comprehensive process documentation through the process logs developed by these tools.One of the first questions to consider before making a decision, therefore, is how far do you want to go with intelligent automation? RPA solutions are excellent for the short term and, indeed, particularly for industries still characterised by legacy mainframes (banking is a good example), can provide an excellent ‘bridge’ as a means of saving human resources, speed up cycle time and ensure adherence to rules and regulations. However, if the strategy is subsequently to scale up and build on the successes, these siloed solutions lose their sheen as the total cost or experience of ownership becomes untenable. Often attributed as failures, these situations are, rather, the result of bad planning, execution and lack of strategic roadmap. Tactical solutions around a user interface have their place and value, but are limited in terms of their ability to drive strategic transformation. It's frequently only in facing the limitations of user interface-based solutions that practitioners recognise the value of a server-driven model. The ‘modified re-buys’ that then occur generally shift towards process centric solutions, as practitioners understand more about what can and what cannot be done the second time around.

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