New Year’s Resolution: Automation For Improved Mental Health at Work

According to Gallup’s State of the Global Workplace Report, 60% of people are emotionally not engaged at work, and 19% feel that their time at work is miserable. This could negatively affect the businesses’ plans for the new year, whether it is to boost productivity, performance, or cost-saving to welcome the next economic recession. As the holiday is over and another working year is awaiting us, mental health should be prioritized in everyone’s resolution. There are many options to improve this situation, and automation with RPA can be a prominent way to help combat stress, create more cohesion within the organization, and achieve the greatest results.

Work stress has the power

The COVID-19 pandemic has worsened the existing situations associated with stress and anxiety in the workplace. The WHO estimates that the global prevalence of anxiety and depression increased massively by 25% since the start of the pandemic.

All over the world, 44% of employees experience daily stress, and 40% suffer from daily anger. Besides, South Asia and Europe both saw significant decreases in the overall well-being of employees. According to The American Institute Of Stress, 94% of workers report feeling stress in the workplace. 

Better Health Channel indicates some common factors leading to work stress include:

  • Heavy workload
  • Boring work
  • Lack of proper resources
  • No support
  • Poor workflow and communication

Stress has the tendency to rise as we navigated through the pandemic. (Source: forbes.com/)

Stress has negative effects on people’s well-being and the organization’s development. According to Cambridge University, some of the negative impacts of stress on people include:

  • Inability to focus
  • Lack of motivation
  • Difficulty with the thought process
  • Forgetfulness and disorganization
  • Poor judgment

This could lead to several effects:

  • Lost workdays
  • High staff turnover
  • Diminished creativity and initiative
  • Drop in performance and productivity
  • Low job satisfaction and motivation
  • Problems with interpersonal relationships
  • Increased ill health, accidents, and incidents 

These adverse effects are directly linked to employee and organizational performance. Of course, employees and business owners wouldn’t want high stress in the workplace, especially when an economic recession is predicted in 2023 while high growth is desired.  

How automation can help combat work stress

A report surveyed 34,000 workers in 18 countries worldwide by Verint revealed that  71% of respondents crave technology to replace manual tasks. The survey also found that 82% of workers who reported high base levels of stress emphasized the importance of technology in improving their well-being. Besides, 58% of employees desire their employers to use more automation technology, and 55% have attempted to ask their employers for advanced technology to help them boost their productivity.

Besides its ability to boost productivity and save costs, technology is highly appreciated in the digital age thanks to its effectiveness in raising a high level of engagement and job satisfaction among employees. Meanwhile, not only do employers want to implement technology for economic efficiency, but employees also desire to be supported by technology to complete their job better with fewer efforts, especially when they know technology is used for assistance, not to replace their jobs.

Intelligent automation is the key to reducing workplace stress. (Source: cmcglobal.com.vn)

Read more: How Staff Value Robotics Automation In Workplace

RPA and Hyperautomation are being widely applied by many organizations to improve processes and efficiency, as well as reduce employee burden and boost their well-being. A recent survey by Deloitte states that 78% of organizations are already piloting RPA, while 80% of organizations expect to apply Hyperautomation on their technology journey in 2024, according to Salesforce. 

Here’s how the automation can help:

Making repetitive tasks redundant

Automating repetitive tasks such as scheduling meetings, moving files and folders, collecting data, updating emails, etc. can help workers to save a tremendous amount of time, up to 80%, according to The ECM Consultant. This not only reduces the pressure and stress they have but also allows them to focus on higher-value activities that are in line with company goals.

Fewer chances of human error

Machines and bots are less prone to mistakes while performing tasks than humans. A study by Acceleration Economy in 2021 showed that error reduction is automation’s second most important benefit. Leveraging automation can provide better quality data, as bots do not miss or duplicate data. This means fewer or no risks of errors, thus reducing employee stress and pressure.

 Employees are far more empowered 

Automating the business processes will enable employees to experience a greater sense of accomplishment since the job is done more accurately and with greater speed and quality. Hence, with the help of automation, employees may feel like they perform their jobs better and they can concentrate on more complex, valuable projects instead of wasting time on repetitive, less important tasks. This leads to improved productivity, increased efficiency, and an overall feeling of empowerment.

Increased workflow organization and communication

Several employees suffer from stress due to bad internal communication and workflow. Hence, taking advantage of automation gives them the resources they need without wasting time searching for documents or files, thus enhancing great workflow, and reducing disruption to business processes or colleagues that cause bottlenecks. Furthermore, when the system is automated, both the employers and employees are not reliant on monitoring, hence completely removing frustrating circumstances of unhelpful communication.

Start putting mental health first this year with akaBot

akaBot is the Hyperautomation ecosystem that integrates many technologies to take care of all business tasks, helping employees to reduce burden and stress.

Comprehensive Hyperautomation solutions from akaBot open “new doors” for businesses and employees.

  • RPA takes care of mundane and repetitive tasks that come with high workloads, thus saving time and reducing the stress of employees.
  • Intelligence technologies integrated to deliver better automation efficiency, reduce errors and assist decision-making, enabling employees to think more positively, and hence allowing for better performance. 
  • Hyperautomation solution streamlines the workflow processes and develops business-wide automation for people across teams, thus removing the bottlenecks and communication disruption, which leads to lesser employee stress.

akaBot has a full package service, including PoC, Deployment, Maintenance, Training to streamline the automation journey and make it more effortless than ever. akaBot also offers the Migration Solution to help businesses switch to akaBot easily at any time to enjoy outstanding features and competitive costs with quicker ROI than other RPA automation platforms on the market.

Explore more about us here.

References

How AI & Automation Can Help Reduce Workplace Stress

5 Ways Workflow Automation Reduces Employees’ Stress

Automation And AI Actually Relieve Workplace Stress, And Customers Will Notice

Engagement in the Always-on Era: How humans and technology work hand-in-hand to meet rising expectations

67 Workplace Stress Statistics In 2023

Stressed out and miserable at work? You have lots of company

Why a new approach to workplace mental health is needed for 2023

State of the Global Workplace: 2022 Report

Work-related stress

27 Hyperautomation Statistics To Help Plan Your Future

akaBot (FPT) is the operation optimization solution for enterprises based on RPA (Robotic Process Automation) platform combined with Process Mining, OCR, Intelligent Document Processing, Machine Learning, Conversational AI, etc. Serving clients in 20+ countries, across 08 domains such as Banking & Finances, Retails, IT Services, Manufacturing, Logistics…, akaBot is featured by Gartner Peer Insights, G2, and ranked as Top 6 Global RPA Platform by Software Reviews. akaBot also won the prestigious Stevie Award, The Asian Banker Award 2021, etc.

Leave us a message for free consultation!

0 Share
Subscribe to Our Newsletter
Get the latest updates of Automation Technology & Success Stories in the Digital Tranformation World!