Approaching technology and information management updates within a company requires a change management focus that begins with people.
What is change management?
Very simply, it is the processes and methods a company employs to implement change within the company. When it comes to technology, more specifically change management, it involves reviewing available technologies to achieve a specific outcome, analyzing the benefits and impact on business processes and client relationships, implementing and training, and ensuring adoption within the company, and reviewing the effects or outcomes of improved technology and process.
Often times, management starts at the wrong end when thinking about implementing new technology such as robotic process automation (RPA). It’s easy to do because some of the chief benefits of RPA are efficiency, cost savings, and improved customer experience – all things that are dear to the heart of any executive.
But technology implementation ultimately affects and benefits the human beings who will interace with this new technology. If you do not have them on board from the start, you could struggle to ensure the project’s success.
Ineffective change management processes are reportedly the leading cause of company-wide implementation and adoption failure, according to the Global IA Report by the Shared Services and Outsourcing Network (SSON), which highlighted that 44% of enterprises reported this as a major factor.
While all steps in the change management process are important, none is more important than getting people on board. Here are some steps to consider to achieve that goal.
Prepare the company for changes ahead
The tendency is to jump into the IT department first to figure out how to implement RPA, but the first step should be company-wide communications that explain the intention behind the change and the benefits. In addition to the hopes and dreams for the new technology, it’s also important to be realistic about any fundamental challenges or hurdles the company will face in implementing this important new feature to the business processes.
Get executive team buy-in
Make sure your executive team is on board with the changes and conversant with how this will affect all departments within the organization. If employees come to their managers with questions, be sure they receive a consistent message.
People first, processes second, RPA third
The most successful RPA projects begin by harvesting the knowledge of the people doing the work in the trenches every day. This is especially true in the title insurance industry, where so much of the intellectual knowledge of title agents, sales representatives, escrow officers, and closers is actually what fuels the title agency’s success. The reason for this is because the title, escrow and closing work is a process and that process will need to change – for the better – with the introduction of RPA. The best starting point is to have a clear understanding of how your people complete the critical work they do and embed that process wisdom into the RPA.
Useful, usable and used
The final and most critical step is to ensure that the usefulness of RPA is recognized and appreciated by your staff, that everyone throughout the organization is trained in its usability, and that at the end of the day, your staff is fully-engaged in using RPA to the fullest extent possible. With many uses of RPA, this is the easy part: staff members will be relieved of some of their most mundane, repetitive tasks and likely reassigned with more challenging and rewarding work!
At TrueFocus Automation, we would like to become an ally in your efforts and suggest ways that our robotic process automation (RPA) can make your processes more efficient. We’ll work with your team to assess those needs and advise you on the proper approach and resources required to deliver a successful outcome.
Contact us today to learn more!
Photo by Jason Goodman on Unsplash
