Europe’s readiness for automation lags behind its North American and Asia Pacific counterparts, with government stimulus packages threatening to hamper post-pandemic progress
Forrester predicts that job protection initiatives instituted during the pandemic will lessen incentives and further delay automation plans by CIOs across Europe. This despite the fact that 76% of European organizations are already poorly prepared for automation, compared to 65% in Asia Pacific and 73% in North America.
According to a new Forrester report, ” The Path To Automation In Europe – Why And How It Will Be Different ” by analysts Dan Bieler and Bernhard Schaffrik, only 20% of European business leaders can clearly articulate how automation could improve your business processes. These same leaders face increased government oversight over the progress of automation due to its impact on employment.
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Despite limitations, industries, including utilities, manufacturing, and finance, are leading automation efforts in Europe. Labor markets such as Germany, which already has a high degree of automation, are likely to experience a faster growth rate, while southern and eastern Europe will be slower to adopt automation due to its impact on production processes , employee and customer experience, and employment.
In the short term, Forrester anticipates ongoing constraints as companies rethink automation plans to take advantage of government stimulus packages and job protection plans. In the medium and long term, however, more European CIOs will build their companies’ business continuity resilience against pandemic-like events and eventually move towards “unattended manufacturing” by implementing fully automated manufacturing processes based on technologies such as 5G connectivity, automated guided vehicles, and robots.
“Already one step behind their global counterparts, European technology leaders will now feel the added pressure of government oversight,” Bieler said. “If Europe is to drive the benefits of automation and compete with the rest of the world on efficiency, resilience and customer service, governments and companies must reorganize the workforce to support and advance automation initiatives.”
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The report outlines seven steps to help CIOs navigate challenges and create a robust framework for successful automation projects. The key steps include:
- Continuous training of the workforce. Automation and AI are further accelerating the demand for tech skills. Education and training are rightly touted as essential to soften the impact of automation replacing the workforce.
- Allow time before measuring the benefits of automation. On average, a full cycle of implementation of automation initiatives from start to finish takes about a year and a half. To maximize the chances of success, it is critical to keep human experts on hold before moving them to other processes.
- Preserve human expertise in your automation process design. Human judgment remains a key driver for automation projects, and without deep process experience and historical knowledge of the path to automation within the company, both the customer experience and the employee experience will suffer.
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