A hybrid work arrangement allows employees to divide time between in-office and remote locations, providing work-life balance that a majority of employees prefer. Many businesses that embraced this model during the pandemic expect hybrid work to continue in the long term.
While remote and hybrid arrangements can be very productive, reduced social interactions between remote and in-office staff can cause a loss of connectivity among employees. Managers of disconnected hybrid teams may face even bigger challenges: disengaged employees and high rates of attrition.
Business leaders who want to address these and other common challenges may want to leverage business process automation for hybrid teams.
What is business process automation, and how does it benefit hybrid teams?
Business process automation is the use of digital technologies to perform a variety of manual, repetitive tasks to increase efficiency, streamline processes, and reduce costs.
Process automation also helps to ease the burden on IT personnel who may be overextended configuring and managing remote work arrangements in addition to office IT issues. Utilizing automation software and tools, IT teams focus on projects that drive an organization’s digital transformation along with other initiatives. Automation tools that allow teams to have unified access to corporate information systems from any location also boost collaboration and productivity.
Business processes to automate
Automation can be advantageous in many business processes, including those described below.
Employee onboarding
Onboarding processes for new employees typically involve multiple steps. Pre-pandemic, onboarding was usually performed in the office, where training resources were available and HR tasks were accomplished, such as filling out employee forms, collecting official documents, and establishing bank accounts. In a hybrid setup, however, not all resources and HR staff who are responsible for onboarding a new hire are available in the same place at the same time.
By automating employee onboarding, companies can benefit from hassle-free processes that reduce paperwork, ensure transparent training programs, and increase employee satisfaction. Likewise, these same tools can be used to offboard employees, making it easier for HR teams to monitor company systems for outgoing employees.
Customer service management
Whether working at the office or remotely, customer service staff should be able to address customer issues efficiently and promptly. Automation tools can help speed processes for answering simple queries, escalating complex issues to senior-level staff, or generating support tickets. Also, by using an automation tool, the customer service department can receive notifications for incoming customer queries and access customer information in real-time.
Sales and marketing
Creating marketing campaigns, responding to inbound sales queries, and performing similar tasks can also be made more seamless with automation. For instance, customer relationship management software like Salesforce can be integrated into marketing channels. This type of software provides extensive insight into the effectiveness of marketing campaigns and sales results that can improve future performance.
Accounting
Accounting teams dealing with accounts receivable (AR) processes depend on manual procedures and often require in-person collaboration to accomplish tasks. Providing access to digital tools that can be used remotely increase productivity.
As shown in a study published in the B2B Payments Innovation Readiness Playbook, automating AR processes results in significant benefits including expediting payment processing, improving team efficiency, and increasing customer satisfaction.
Social media management
Many businesses require an entire team to manage multiple social media profiles, and it can be challenging to coordinate individual efforts. Simple tasks such as scheduling posts can be tedious, and automation software/programs offer an ideal solution.
Marketing automation makes tasks more efficient. With more efficient processes, social media pages can attract and engage more customers, raise brand awareness, and offer analytics tools with insight into social media campaign performance.
Your business can benefit from automation tools suitable for your needs and goals. Our team of IT experts can empower hybrid teams by recommending and setting up the best technology solutions for you. Send us a message or call us.
