Today, the job market is hanging by a thread. Labeled the ‘Great Resignation’, the phrase embodies the recent spike in job turnover, as millions have quit their jobs. Some may be looking for a fresh start to shake up their careers and pursue their dreams. Others are tired, even burnt out. The stresses of the pandemic mounted heavily on the way we work. And, as the line between the workplace and home life blurred, it shone a light on empowering employee experiences.
We all lose everyday possessions occasionally. From your keys to your phone, there’s nothing more frustrating than not being able to find something, especially when you desperately need it to finish a job. When it comes to the workplace, these frustrations can have a wider impact. In our latest research, 91% of UK employees admit they waste up to 8 hours a week searching documents for information to do their jobs. There needs to be a solution that can allow employees to make better use of their time than this.
So, what solutions can employers invest in to combat the daily drag of documents?
Data, data and more data
Picture this: it’s Friday evening and you’re ready for the weekend to start. But as you’re about to finish your last task, you’re scratching your head trying to find that missing data in a document you need. Time whizzes past, and suddenly you’ve already wasted hours – a reality for many. It’s no wonder 64% of UK employees say their job is made more difficult through trouble accessing data in documents. These “documents” include not just Word files but PDFs, Excel sheets, emails, images, text messages, chatbot conversations, and other documents born digital.
It doesn’t take an expert to figure out that this is a huge burden on employees and company resources. Not when artificial intelligence (AI) exists to do the job for us. 43% of UK employees believe AI skills would free up time for more creative tasks. With AI skills that read and understand content and context from business documents automatically, employees could focus on the tasks they were hired to do, and thereby, feel more connected to their role.
Domino effect on customer experience
We all know an engaged workforce is key to a better customer experience. That’s because engaged employees tend to be more invested in the product and business. But, if data in documents is clogging up employees’ time, it is not only a pain for employees, but directly impacts the business. In fact, the inability to access data in documents has trickled down into affecting customer relations with 1 in 4 (25%) UK employees revealing it’s led to poor customer experiences. Similar to a domino effect, data locked in documents is affecting all areas of the business, even customers with poor communications, errors on their accounts, and delayed products and services – ultimately impacting the bottom line.
Employees want to feel empowered through work that matters, such as building meaningful customer relations, rather than spending time manually searching for information. The problem lies with a lack of technology, and the right technology at that. This comes as 53% of UK employees agree that AI-powered software that understands documents like a human, would make their lives easier, a further 33% agreed AI skills would help them be more responsive to customers. When employees don’t feel valued or heard, they will undoubtedly contribute to the global talent squeeze. To avoid this constant drumbeat of resignations, organisations need to put their investments where it counts.
Take control
Under the burden of documents and an inability to make the best use of their time, it should come as no surprise as to why employees are leaving their jobs in droves. It’s time to give control back to those that matter: the employees.
AI will be at the forefront of the workplace of the future when organisations look towards investing in the right AI solutions, their employees will thrive. We’re seeing newer no-code intelligent document processing platforms grow in popularity because of their ability to filter through information in documents, and simultaneously be a helping hand for staff, allowing them to focus on more creative, problem-solving tasks.
While there is no escaping the use of documents across all industries, it’s important to provide employees with the AI tools they need to process them and make their lives easier, more straightforward, and more fulfilling.
