New research by Laiye has found that 50 percent of employers say boring and inefficient office tasks are the major obstacle to productivity. 

This is particularly acute in Europe, where 56 percent cite this, followed by 51 percent in the US and 43 percent in APAC. 

Globally, 52 percent believe employee burnout is the main consequence. 

The findings back up management consultancy, McKinsey which estimates US$15 trillion is tied up in salaries associated with these tiresome tasks. 

The resulting Work Execution Gap describes the divide between the work experience employees want and the one employers offer. But change is coming.

 

Increasing productivity: disruptive changes in work attitudes

The Work Execution Gap is directly linked to the much-discussed Great Resignation, a global phenomenon where 62 percent of respondents see shrinking business productivity. 

Also, 53 percent of respondents also identified Quiet Quitting, where employees limit their productivity to what is strictly laid out in their contract, as another disruptive change. 

Work needs to change if businesses are to adapt to the needs of today’s workforce. These changes revolve around People, Process and Technology: 

  • 57 percent of respondents admit they lack the digital skills needed to evolve the workforce, while for 45 percent the problem is the lack of a framework on how to proceed. 
  • 66 percent know they need to implement incentives that foster innovation and digital transformation. 
  • 31 percent have already automated admin tasks to give people more fulfilling roles, and 44 percent are planning to do so in the near future. 

Laiye believes the answer lies in building a symbiotic relationship between human and digital work, one that empowers employees to improve their own jobs by automating those vital but time-consuming, low-value tasks. The new model for the future of work is the Work Execution System. 

The solution: Work Execution System

Greater automation, and the ability to manage remotely, empowers employees to improve their job with the right tools and opens up continuous learning. To make this possible, businesses need a new sustainable work model which enables humans in the loop and a greater level of control around customer and employee experience, cost and new technologies. 

To make this possible, 57 percent of employers plan to give their staff digital assistants to increase their productivity, and 39 percent will increase investment in automating work-related processes.

Building such a model in a piecemeal fashion, with traditional software is expensive, complex, and introduces new inefficiencies even as it solves the old ones. 

The Work Execution System encompasses workflow automation, intelligent document processing and conversational AI, as well as process mining, to identify inefficiencies. This allows businesses to process data faster and more accurately creating better customer experiences, enabling 24/7 business operations without burdening employees, automate long arduous processes, and ultimately foster employee engagement, creativity and skills retention. 

 

Guanchun Wang, Chairman and CEO of Laiye, comments on increasing productivity: 

“We now stand at a new, key juncture for truly how, and what, work can and should be. Work has changed irrevocably, and frankly, it was overdue. We need to create a new link between human and digital work, gaining productivity while keeping human jobs fulfilling and engaging. I predict in ten years time, by 2032, every employee will have their own ‘digital assistant’: a bot they program themselves to improve their own job, gaining new skills and shedding those menial parts of their job nobody wants to do.” 

 

 

 

 

 

Amelia Brand
Amelia Brand

Amelia Brand is the Editor for HRreview, and host of the HR in Review podcast series. With a Master’s degree in Legal and Political Theory, her particular interests within HR include employment law, DE&I, and wellbeing within the workplace. Prior to working with HRreview, Amelia was Sub-Editor of a magazine, and Editor of the Environmental Justice Project at University College London, writing and overseeing articles into UCL’s weekly newsletter. Her previous academic work has focused on philosophy, politics and law, with a special focus on how artificial intelligence will feature in the future.