Digital transformation has completely changed the way organizations and customers interact. The availability of instant connections has made many tasks easier. On the other hand, they have increased some of the daily workloads, with clients keen on instant answers and solutions and a much higher degree of personalization than was thought possible before. To cope with this tremendous challenge and alleviate the workload, organizations look towards automatizing much of their services.

The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines both words as follows:

In·no·va·tion

(noun)

• a new idea, device or method
• the act or process of introducing new ideas, devices, or methods

Au·to·ma·tion

(noun)

• the technique of making an apparatus, a process, or a system operate automatically
• the state of being operated automatically
• automatically controlled operation of an apparatus, process or system by mechanical or electronic devices that take the place of human labor

How can automation help innovation?

As per definition automation is a way to make a process or system work more or less without humans having to be present or control the workflow all the time. Automation strives to bring human input to a minimum by applying consistency and uniformity to a service or production process – this frees capital as well as time. With successfully automatized processes, an organization is free to apply the time and money gained otherwise, most notably in the area of innovation.

Where innovation matters most

If you are HR, people operation manager or business process manager, or a leader in any corporate function and department, you might experience delays when tasks are repeated even if they are simple. Employees get bored with time, doing the same tasks in every job. This lack of job satisfaction will lead to negativity and lower performance in the whole workplace. Automation is recommended just for this reason – not only to reduce cost, but also avoid human intervention or replace human assets. When we automate what’s called the “donkey work”, we free people’s creativity to some extent, and help increase innovation on the whole corporate level. Since innovation is not limited only to CEOs or leadership teams, automation brings considerable ease to all employees, let them feel more energized and gives them back a taste for daring, for new challenges and more real work.

You can take it up the other way round

Innovate, then automate? By all means, it is possible, but the challenge is in keeping up the morale of your human assets and brain people. You’ll need those who made the first step, then automate it. Being able to see ideas put into practice, to watch a machine or an automated process, they will love to upgrade their work style and will be eager to anticipate and erase any complications deriving from an automated process.

If you are the businessman behind the organization and think that automation will reduce cost to your business just to give you more profit by eliminating the human assets, you need to think again, to understand the real value of automation and avoid the risk. Stepping up automation suddenly and without bringing innovation into the game might take more time overall than changing workplace habits or procedures!

Put efficiency and creativity first!

Thus automation is the thing for you if you want your business to be more innovative, reduce mistakes and increase employees’ time efficiency. All of this will ultimately increase the profitability in a much more sustainable way than implementing automation directly to reduce cost by replacing your workforce with machines or software.

About the author

Hamada Mohsen is the founder and managing director of New Level Egypt and has devised the world’s first TMC Events Management concept. He combines his passion, knowledge, skills, entrepreneurial spirit and 15 years of practical experience to bring solutions to large and small organizations for the improvement of their workforce, on-ground marketing activities and CSR. Besides this blog, he is also the author of “The Impresario” on event management, a book available on Amazon.

As per definition automation is a way to make a process or system work more or less without humans having to be present or control the workflow all the time. Automation strives to bring human input to a minimum by applying consistency and uniformity to a service or production process – this frees capital as well as time. With successfully automatized processes, an organization is free to apply the time and money gained otherwise, most notably in the area of innovation.

Suppose you are HR, people operation manager, business process manager, or a leader in any corporate function and department. In that case, you might experience delays when tasks are repeated, even if they are simple. Employees get bored with time, doing the same tasks in every job. This lack of job satisfaction will lead to negativity and lower performance in the whole workplace. Automation is recommended just for this reason – not only to reduce cost but also to avoid human intervention or replace human assets. When we automate what’s called the “donkey work”, we free people’s creativity to some extent and help increase innovation on the whole corporate level. Since the invention is not limited only to CEOs or leadership teams, automation brings considerable ease to all employees, makes them feel more energized, and gives them back a taste for the daring, new challenges, and more accurate work.

You can take it up the other way round

Innovate, then automate? By all means, it is possible, but the challenge is in keeping up the morale of your human assets and brain people. You’ll need those who made the first step, then automate it. Being able to see ideas put into practice, to watch a machine or an automated process, they will love to upgrade their work style. They will be eager to anticipate and erase any complications deriving from an automatic process.

Suppose you are the businessman behind the organization and think that automation will reduce cost to your business just to give you more profit by eliminating the human assets. In that case, you need to think again to understand the actual value of automation and avoid the risk. Stepping up automation suddenly and without bringing innovation into the game might take more time overall than changing workplace habits or procedures!

Put efficiency and creativity first!

Thus automation is the thing for you if you want your business to be more innovative, reduce mistakes and increase employees’ time efficiency. This will ultimately increase the profitability in a much more sustainable way than implementing automation directly to reduce cost by replacing your workforce with machines or software.