Its 8:52 p.m. Exhausted, Beth finally updates the last patient record in her companys electronic health record (EHR) system. She loves her work as a clinical therapist helping patients recover from substance abuse and related issues. She loves the company she works for too, but with the organizations recent growth, its been difficult to find staff to keep up with the demand. As work piles up, Beth is getting burned out.
Though Beth is a fictional character, she is not alone. According to Forbes, during the pandemic, more than 70% of employees reported feeling burned out, and they felt like their employers werent doing enough to address it. Solving this problem is key to maintaining employee engagement and motivation, something both employees and employers value.
To address the problem, it is essential to first understand what causes burnout. Consider this definition from Dr. Alok Kanojia: Burnout is when someone who wants to do a good job and is capable of doing a good job, but theres a system that prevents them from doing it, and then they get exhausted, then they give up.
Unfortunately, most proposed solutions for burnout miss the root of the problem. At best, they address some of the symptoms of burnout with unreliable outcomes, or they put the onus of the solution on employees. However, mental health days and self-care only go so far when an employee knows they will fall further behind with each moment they are away.
Instead, start by addressing the broken systems and processes causing burnout in the first place. Automation technology and process optimization can help you address employee burnout while also improving customer satisfaction, increasing productivity, and lowering costs.
Implementing automation is not a quick fixbut its a powerful one. Here are five best practices to ensure your automation program works for your employees and alleviates burnout.
Automation can be intimidating, so its important to introduce the technology to your employees with a collaborative approach. Demonstrate how the technology can make their jobs easier. Involve employees in identifying which processes to automate. Ultimately, getting full buy-in from employees is key to understanding how processes are really executed in your organizationand how to automate them most effectively.
Big initiatives are often met with resistanceboth from employees and from leadership. Start with a project that impacts a single person or role and make a big deal about how it improved the job. A small investment with clear, measurable results will not only help you win the goodwill of your employees but will also go a long way toward getting key leadership on board with a larger investment.
Employees more readily trust their colleagues than their management. Identify the employees who realize the value of automation first and encourage them to promote the program among their peers.
The main objective of automation is to transfer tedious, mind-numbing work from employees to digital assistants. This frees up your employees to do more meaningful and valuable work. For this to be successful, you must also ensure your employees have the skills and training to confidently take on new roles and responsibilities.
Without support from the executive level, most automation programs fail in their first year. Many things can go wrong without appropriate oversight; for example, a key employee may leave and no one else knows how to complete their work, or automations may start to fail with no plan for long-term maintenance. To avoid scenarios like these, automation needs to be implemented as a program and not a project.
Lets return to our story about Beth to demonstrate how this works in the real world.
The problem: Beths employer is an integrated healthcare company with more than 1,000 employees. Business has been good, but it has been very difficult for them to hire people quickly enough to keep up. As a result, Beth and other employees were asked to work longer hours to support growth.
The solution: Automation was applied to tasks completed by clinical therapists like Beth. As it turns out, therapists spend a lot of time interacting with the EHR system. This slow and tedious process is not work therapists generally enjoy, but it is essential for billing and compliance.
After automation was implemented, therapists now update patient information in a prepared Excel spreadsheet instead of the EHR. This takes a fraction of the time compared to slowly navigating the EHR system. Once the spreadsheet is complete, the therapist simply saves it to a specific folder. From there, a digital assistant takes over, logs information into the EHR system, updates each record, and then moves the file to a work completed folder.
The outcome: Each therapist saves approximately 1.5 hours each day. The company has more than 50 therapists, which means they can add more work to each therapists plate without hiring additional staff, saving the company over $500,000 per year. Beth is also happier. She has fewer late nights and is devoting more time to her passion: helping patients.
The company has also been able to win more new work because it can scale quickly, and turnover is down because employees can do more of the work they love. Thanks to automation, the company has now streamlined more than 100 processes in three years, with a 500%+ ROI.
Burnout is one of the major challenges facing todays workforce. Organizations need to invest thoughtfully to address it. Leveraging process optimization and automation to tackle the painful or broken processes that contribute to burnout is a powerful option that can offer relief today and prepare the business for future growth.
Andrew Woessneris CEO and Founder of R-Path Automation
Read the original here:
Five best practices for using automation to address employee burnout - Fast Company
- Treasury Services Is Entering Its AI and Automation Era - PYMNTS.com - June 8th, 2024 [June 8th, 2024]
- Nintex Unveils Latest AI Capabilities to Accelerate Process Management and Workflow Automation APAC - English - PR Newswire - June 8th, 2024 [June 8th, 2024]
- DOD's Jude Sunderbruch on how AI and automation will improve innovation - DefenseScoop - June 8th, 2024 [June 8th, 2024]
- DOD's Maynard Holliday on how AI and automation will lead to greater innovation - DefenseScoop - June 8th, 2024 [June 8th, 2024]
- Addressing Labor Challenges with AI and Automation Where is the Line? - ColoradoBiz - ColoradoBiz - June 8th, 2024 [June 8th, 2024]
- 5 Ways Process Automation Can Streamline ITOps - The New Stack - June 8th, 2024 [June 8th, 2024]
- How automation is transforming manufacturing - Buffalo News - June 8th, 2024 [June 8th, 2024]
- Webinar: From controllers to the cloud: Discovering the cornerstones of warehouse automation - Robot Report - June 8th, 2024 [June 8th, 2024]
- Panaya Launches AI-Codeless Test Automation Solution for Business Applications, Powered by Change Intelligence - PR Newswire - June 8th, 2024 [June 8th, 2024]
- Rockwell Automation (ROK) Down 5.1% Since Last Earnings Report: Can It Rebound? - Yahoo Finance - June 8th, 2024 [June 8th, 2024]
- Jitterbit Unveils Future of AI Automation at AI Accelerate: London 2024 Event - GlobeNewswire - June 8th, 2024 [June 8th, 2024]
- Automation is critical to effective security for smaller businesses - BetaNews - June 8th, 2024 [June 8th, 2024]
- Regulation and legislation in the era of automation and digitalisation - European Pharmaceutical Review - June 8th, 2024 [June 8th, 2024]
- Keap Introduces Business Automation and Payment Tools to Empower Small Businesses - Small Business Trends - June 8th, 2024 [June 8th, 2024]
- Demand for automated forklifts to grow as warehouse labor issues persist - DC Velocity - June 8th, 2024 [June 8th, 2024]
- Rockwell Automation recognizes business excellence, technological innovation, and class-leading sustainability in ... - Process & Control Today - June 8th, 2024 [June 8th, 2024]
- Rockwell Automation to Advance Intelligent Automation, Mobile Robotics in Manufacturing Logistics in Collaboration ... - Business Wire - June 8th, 2024 [June 8th, 2024]
- Mutua Madrilea Adopts Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform to Manage Its Automation and Observability Strategy - Silicon Canals - June 8th, 2024 [June 8th, 2024]
- IBM Showcases Generative AI's Potential to Revolutionize Automation at Think 2024 - Blockchain.News - June 8th, 2024 [June 8th, 2024]
- Buffalo Next: How automation is transforming manufacturing - Buffalo News - June 8th, 2024 [June 8th, 2024]
- Putting AIMs to Work - Automation World - June 8th, 2024 [June 8th, 2024]
- Spiideo Revolutionizes Sports Broadcasting with Ambitious AI Automation Goals - TechiExpert.com - June 8th, 2024 [June 8th, 2024]
- The Future of Developer Recruitment: AI, Automation, and Beyond - WebProNews - June 8th, 2024 [June 8th, 2024]
- Rockwell Automation and Nvidia Team Up to Advance Mobile Robotics - Assembly Magazine - June 8th, 2024 [June 8th, 2024]
- Gideon to accelerate supply chain AI and automation in collaboration with Nvidia - Robotics and Automation News - June 8th, 2024 [June 8th, 2024]
- Logistics Automation Market Soar to USD 67.5 Billion by 2031 Due to increasing demand for warehouse automation - EIN News - June 8th, 2024 [June 8th, 2024]
- More commitment needed to change UKs approach to automation - PES Media - June 8th, 2024 [June 8th, 2024]
- FANUC says 'commitment' is needed to change UK culture around automation - Process & Control Today - June 8th, 2024 [June 8th, 2024]
- CEO interview - Q5D, a unicorn for wiring harness automation ... - eeNews Europe - June 8th, 2024 [June 8th, 2024]
- Dissecting Harman's use of analytics and gen AI with Qlik's platform - SiliconANGLE News - June 8th, 2024 [June 8th, 2024]
- Tasker updated with powerful new Android 15 automation features - Android Police - May 17th, 2024 [May 17th, 2024]
- Exploring Stereo Imaging and Automation at the Machine Vision Summit - Novus Light Technologies Today - May 17th, 2024 [May 17th, 2024]
- Yellow.ai unveils Email Automation feature for streamlined support - IT Brief New Zealand - March 4th, 2024 [March 4th, 2024]
- Automation in Biopharma Industry Propels Market Growth with Emerging Trends - Global Forecast to 2028 - Yahoo Finance - March 4th, 2024 [March 4th, 2024]
- Ginkgo Bioworks: Pioneering Healthcare's Future with Drug Development Automation - BNN Breaking - March 4th, 2024 [March 4th, 2024]
- Inspiring cloud automation - The Register - March 4th, 2024 [March 4th, 2024]
- Clinical Lab Automation Market to Reach $3.72 Billion by 2030 Amid Technological Advancements - PR Newswire - March 4th, 2024 [March 4th, 2024]
- #ETFutureForwardME: Hiring and onboarding right with AI and automation, ETHRWorldME - ETHRWorld Middle East - March 4th, 2024 [March 4th, 2024]
- How Document Digitization, Process Automation Can Help Rebuild Trust - GovCIO Media & Research - March 4th, 2024 [March 4th, 2024]
- Iraq's Customs starts using ASYCUDA automation system in Umm Qasr - Iraqi News - March 4th, 2024 [March 4th, 2024]
- Robot Software Market: Powering the Future of Automation ,Analysis and Forecast 2023-2029 - WhaTech - March 4th, 2024 [March 4th, 2024]
- ImageSource Unveils ILINX AI for Intelligent Process Automation - PR Newswire - March 4th, 2024 [March 4th, 2024]
- The Evolving Landscape of APIs: Integration, Automation, and AI - EnterpriseTalk - March 4th, 2024 [March 4th, 2024]
- Gen AI isn't the only tech driving automation in banking - Finextra - March 4th, 2024 [March 4th, 2024]
- Navigating the Future: The Shift Towards Level 3 Automation in the Automotive Industry - Medriva - March 4th, 2024 [March 4th, 2024]
- Automation and Controls Market is Rapidly Growing with Huge Application Scope and Opportunities by 2030 - EIN News - March 4th, 2024 [March 4th, 2024]
- Winning the Game: Essentials skills to survive AI, LLMs and Automation - DataDrivenInvestor - March 4th, 2024 [March 4th, 2024]
- Industrial Metrology Market Set to Hit $17.96 Billion by 2030, Driven by Automation and Quality Demand - BNN Breaking - March 4th, 2024 [March 4th, 2024]
- Automation tools Archives - Milwaukee Community Journal - The Milwaukee Community Journal - March 4th, 2024 [March 4th, 2024]
- Industrial Automation Market to Receive Overwhelming Hike In Revenue That Will Boost Overall Industry Growth - EIN News - March 4th, 2024 [March 4th, 2024]
- Lutra AI launches to make building automated AI workflows easy - SiliconANGLE News - December 9th, 2023 [December 9th, 2023]
- AI meets materials science: the promise and pitfalls of automated discovery - VentureBeat - December 9th, 2023 [December 9th, 2023]
- SPS Fair 2023 - The Latest Industrial Automation Trends - IoT Analytics - December 9th, 2023 [December 9th, 2023]
- Top WorkTech News From the Week of December 8th: Updates from Infor, Automation Anywhere, IFS, and More - Solutions Review - December 9th, 2023 [December 9th, 2023]
- Nividous and RCG Global Services Focus on Empowering Healthcare and Life Sciences Organizations with Intelligent ... - PR Newswire - December 9th, 2023 [December 9th, 2023]
- Automation and Communication to Streamline Deliveries - Supply and Demand Chain Executive - October 27th, 2023 [October 27th, 2023]
- Future of Employment in an Era of Automation - Drishti IAS - October 27th, 2023 [October 27th, 2023]
- From legacy to automation: Spirent's impact on network validation - ETCIO - October 27th, 2023 [October 27th, 2023]
- Genghis Grill Partners with Flybuy on Off-Premises Automation - FSR magazine - October 27th, 2023 [October 27th, 2023]
- Q&A: Workday exec talks hospitality and automated, scalable finance - Smartbrief - October 27th, 2023 [October 27th, 2023]
- Home Automation Market Size to Worth Around USD 788.33 BN by ... - InvestorsObserver - May 15th, 2023 [May 15th, 2023]
- Network automation market set to surge over the next decade - ChannelLife Australia - May 15th, 2023 [May 15th, 2023]
- Mitsubishi Electric agrees strategic investment in Otto Motors to ... - Robotics and Automation News - May 15th, 2023 [May 15th, 2023]
- Roots Automation Introduces InsurGPT - the World's Most Advanced ... - PR Newswire - May 15th, 2023 [May 15th, 2023]
- Research Shows Ways Digital Print and Automation Power Profitability - Printing Impressions - May 15th, 2023 [May 15th, 2023]
- Rockwell Automation Inc. stock outperforms market on strong trading day - MarketWatch - May 15th, 2023 [May 15th, 2023]
- Is It Too Late To Consider Buying Presto Automation Inc. (NASDAQ:PRST)? - Yahoo Finance - May 15th, 2023 [May 15th, 2023]
- U.S. Companies Embrace Automation and Digitization - CPAPracticeAdvisor.com - May 15th, 2023 [May 15th, 2023]
- Byron Centers SpartanNash Ups Customer Service with Robotic ... - DBusiness - May 15th, 2023 [May 15th, 2023]
- Why KYC automation is key to business growth strategies - FinTech Magazine - May 15th, 2023 [May 15th, 2023]
- Leading Ireland & UK Industrial Automation company NeoDyne ... - Process & Control Today - May 15th, 2023 [May 15th, 2023]
- Automation Testing Market: Industry Overview, Size, Share and ... - Digital Journal - May 15th, 2023 [May 15th, 2023]
- Accelerate your speed of business with IBM Event Automation - IBM Newsroom - May 15th, 2023 [May 15th, 2023]
- 3M Brings Innovation to the Manufacturing Supply Chain Environment - MarketScale - May 15th, 2023 [May 15th, 2023]
- Jitterbit Survey Reveals Low-Code Application Platforms Play an ... - GlobeNewswire - May 15th, 2023 [May 15th, 2023]
- Turning value into actions: How leaders can use automation and AI ... - Elite Business Magazine - May 15th, 2023 [May 15th, 2023]
- Automation will combat stagnation | theHRD - The HR Director Magazine - May 15th, 2023 [May 15th, 2023]
- MG Tech Unveils New Palletizer with Yaskawa Cobot and Rockwell ... - Packaging Strategies - May 15th, 2023 [May 15th, 2023]
- How automation technology helped Cainiao deliver more than 200 ... - Parcel and Postal Technology International - May 15th, 2023 [May 15th, 2023]
- IT Priorities 2023: Business automation intensifies as data ... - ComputerWeekly.com - May 15th, 2023 [May 15th, 2023]