Reconciling The Automation Paradox Between Hesitant Employers And Eager Employees – PRNewswire

BOSTON, Oct. 5, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Companies, across industries, are increasingly using automation technologies to improve their business processes or reinvent their organizations. However, reinventing a business through automation requires enlisting the entire organization, and many companies are still struggling to overcome the hurdles in their way.

Bain & Company partnered with UiPath (NYSE: PATH), a leading enterprise automation company, to understand the challenges that companies are facing on their automation journeys, including encouraging employees to more enthusiastically embrace these new technologies. In Overcoming the Automation Paradox, Bain and UiPath conducted a joint study ofover500 IT and business users of robotic process automation (RPA).

The study found that while 86% of employees want to use automation, only 30% of business leaders have given them access to it. Similarly, only 5% of employees were permitted to create their own automations at work, and 66% of employees have never even heard of RPA. Yet, for automation to achieve full potential, it is essential that companies build demand and usage of these tools among their employees.

New and powerful types of automation have rapidly emerged in recent years, such as RPAandcognitive automation. Thesetoolsdeploy machine learning, natural language processing,andother forms ofartificialintelligence across businesses. Unlike earlier tools,these newtechnologieshold tremendous promiseforautomatingan even greater amount ofmanual work, while simultaneously giving organizations theresourcestosupporteffective collaboration and governance.

"Despite the widespread interest in automation,manysenior leadersmistakenlybelieve that employees are not willing or able to use these new tools," said Purna Doddapaneni, who leads Bain & Company's automation center of excellence. "But our research shows that most employees are willing to use these tools when provided the opportunity. If companies want to achieve sustained success in automation, they must be prepared to grow their capabilities in two ways: through project teams, like an automation center of excellence, and through empowering employees to automate their own work."

"Today, personal productivity faces a new kind of limitation: not enough time to focus on truly meaningful work that humans add unique value to. There is too much busy work, too many systems and tools to interact with, and too much repetitive work," said Brandon Nott, UiPath SVP of Product Management. "Imagine the level of productivity and competitive advantage an organization would have if every employee had their own robot assistant to do the busywork. They could work faster, more accurately, and on higher value tasks that make them happier and maximize the impact of the business."

DemocratizingautomationDemocratizing automation ultimately requires employees to adopt a digital or automation-first mindset, promoting a more productive and skilled workforce. Bain's research found that among employees who already use RPA, nearly 80% are very willing to develop their own automations, even though half have never built a bot themselves.

Yet, despite the clearneed,few organizations have made meaningful progress toward democratizingautomation at scale. According to Bain and UiPath's findings, less than 2% of all surveyed companies have a mature, democratized automation program. This is primarily due to four common perceptions from senior leaders, including lack of confidence in their employees' abilities to learn new technologies, fear of job loss for employees, increased data and IT security risks, and higher costs and disruption of workflow. These perceptions, however, were not formed through actual experience as many senior leaders have still not correctly grasped how employees feel about automation.

While many organizations house automation centers of excellence, most have struggled to expand these initiatives beyond a few processes. Democratized automationcan attaingreater scale bytargetinguse cases that an automation center of excellencewould likely miss due to lack of capacity or limited familiarity with business processes.

Foursteps companies can taketo overcome automation hurdlesCompanies must consider many different perspectives as they develop their automation initiatives. For example, senior executives are likely only interested in automation if it will deliver significant business value.Bain and UiPath have identified four common themes to overcoming the automation paradox:

Editor's Note:To arrange an interview, contact Katie Ware at[emailprotected]or +1 646 562 8102 and Toni Iafrate at [emailprotected]or +1 978 239 5499.

About Bain & CompanyBain & Company is a global consultancy that helps the world's most ambitious change makers define the future.

Across 63 offices in 38 countries, we work alongside our clients as one team with a shared ambition to achieve extraordinary results, outperform the competition, and redefine industries. We complement our tailored, integrated expertise with a vibrant ecosystem of digital innovators to deliver better, faster, and more enduring outcomes. Our 10-year commitment to invest more than $1 billion in pro bono services brings our talent, expertise, and insight to organizations tackling today's urgent challenges in education, racial equity, social justice, economic development, and the environment. We earned a gold rating from EcoVadis, the leading platform for environmental, social, and ethical performance ratings for global supply chains, putting us in the top 2% of all companies. Since our founding in 1973, we have measured our success by the success of our clients, and we proudly maintain the highest level of client advocacy in the industry.

About UiPathUiPath has a vision to deliver the Fully Automated Enterprise, one where companies use automation to unlock their greatest potential. UiPath offers an end-to-end platform for automation, combining the leading Robotic Process Automation (RPA) solution with a full suite of capabilities that enable every organization to rapidly scale digital business operations.

Media Contacts: Katie Ware Bain & Company Tel: +1 646 562 8107 [emailprotected]n.com

Toni IafrateUiPathTel: +1 978 239 5499[emailprotected]

SOURCE Bain & Company

http://www.bain.com

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Reconciling The Automation Paradox Between Hesitant Employers And Eager Employees - PRNewswire