Automation which everyone is talking about is not anything new, but nature has changed. Let me step back and cite one example in history to explain the statement better. The first time an automobile was engineered, the horsemen who ran carts saw their jobs eliminated. The first time airplanes flew over the seas, the sailors who sailed on the seas saw their jobs eliminated. Similarly, in near future, technologies of telepresence will reduce the traffic of airplanes and will perhaps see the air travel industry shrink. But in the long run, it may push the air travel industry to reimagine itself. Modes of mass air travel might be replaced by powerful personal drone cabs.
But did the horsemen really lose jobs or jobs moved elsewhere and people had to redefine their skills to be employed? The reality is that over the decades, the number of jobs has only grown as the global economy has expanded through multiple phases of technological advancement. The nature of jobs, however, has definitely evolved. The horsemen and ship crews have reskilled and found other jobs.
Above is a simple example to explain the shift but once can pick up any walk of life, and one will be able to visualize how that area has evolved. The current debate on automation is similar. We are in another evolutionary phase and the world will witness a tectonic shift.
In this shift, like in the past, people will have to redefine themselves to stay relevant. Employers will have to provide support mechanisms for their employees to undertake this redefinition through reskilling, in order to keep abreast with the needs of the job market.
The role of individual organizations in supporting employees through this change must be underscored. The reason is dual. Organizations have a give and take relationship with the larger society, and as they partner with individuals for economic advancement, they are also responsible for their development and well-being. Secondly, employee morale and engagement is a crucial pre-condition for collectively achieving business goals. Individual employees are likely to react to such uncertainty with a lot of anxiety. Since this shift is happening at a very large scale and equally fast pace, the onus on organizations to be responsive is a lot more.
At Wipro HR, we have been automating a lot of our processes over a long period of time. Our employee intranet portal offers all services through different apps. We have a robust self-service mechanism for employees and managers to manage their daily operations. Recently we have also used bots with Artificial Intelligence capability in the employee helpdesk area and we have seen the resolution process become a lot more efficient.
The most visible impact of automation can be seen in terms of the reduced number of people required at the bottom most layer of the pyramid
The reasons for automation were strategic. We wanted to focus our human intellectual capital on improving the employee experience, and our technical prowess in smoothening the running of the existing people operations. Previously, we had to invest in a large team to manage the increased workload of transactions and to bolster this employee facing structure, we also had to dedicate significant leadership energy in managing escalations of these transactions gone wrong. The people investment on managing these transactions was considerable and it also took away from our goal to invest in actually improving the employee experience, as we dedicated our people in primarily maintaining a smooth status quo.
With the automation initiatives, the most visible impact can be seen in terms of the reduced number of people required at the bottom most layer of the pyramid. A common knee-jerk reaction to such an impact often adopted by businesses is in the form of layoffs to show a quick improvement in bottom line. However, our experience has demonstrated that this approach is not required. What we have experienced is that with time, as the processes have transitioned and stabilized, there has also been a shift in the expectations of service delivery. In our case, the human focus has now shifted from mere transaction closure to making a difference in the employee experience of the process. New teams, new roles focusing on the employee experience of the process have been crafted. Reduction in numbers has not been the logical conclusion. However, as highlighted earlier, this transition has demanded flexibility from the employees and sensitivity from us as an employer. New roles have required a higher level of skill set. Employees who have been ready to challenge their comfort zones, have found themselves placed in these new redefined jobs, and we have aided them in the upskilling process.
When we started the automation process, we anticipated and planned to reskill and place impacted employees in different roles but other than these, two unanticipated reactions occurred:
These reactions had the potential of disrupting the existing operations till the new process came into force. And this led us to realize the importance of continued support for employee to enable the planned change.
Overtime we realized that sensitivity as an employer is central to managing a smooth and fair change process. While the transition managers are quick to realize the logical impact of the change and actively move to resolve challenges, they often ignore the anxiety and uncertainty it may cause. Our experience has taught us that transition demands a carefully thought out communication plan that addresses all the affected stakeholders. It is reasonable to keep the basic project transition plan confidential but we need not hide the impact with the employees. Increased communication actually helps manage the emotions employees go through more proactively and effectively.
The key differentiator for organizations will be the strategies they adopt to seamlessly integrate their people strategies with automation goals
It is important to be transparent to employees to ease their anxiety, and lastly invest money and time in creating an enablement mechanism for each individual to accept this change and get ready to learn new skills. Organizations like ours are growing in scale but also in complexity. Therefore opportunities always exist but in distant parts of the ecosystem. So if we have the right enablement tools, it is easy to redeploy most of the employees over time.
Businesses grow as they adapt, and automation has always been a key survival skill for businesses. Going forward, the key differentiator for organizations will be the strategies they adopt to seamlessly integrate their people strategies with automation goals, and the effectiveness with which they communicate the same.