Unlocking the value of knowledge work automation
What is Knowledge Work Automation?
Knowledge work automation is dedicated to streamlining a knowledge worker’s tasks to eliminate anything that does not make the best use of their skills.
3.28 BILLION HOURS per day is spent on non-value-added work
Knowledge workers spend an average of 41 per cent of their day on unsatisfying activities that do not use their primary skills. Assuming the 1 billion knowledge workers in the world work eight hours a day, that’s 3.28 billion hours a day that highly trained experts dedicate to work that does not add long-term value to their organisations or significantly improve their projects. To make these numbers more personal: most people reading this blog will have to spend more than three hours and 17 minutes today on work that should be automated.
Tasks such as writing emails, ensuring legal and regulatory compliance, and organising contracts and schematics all keep projects running smoothly. But just because work needs to be done doesn’t mean a highly skilled (and highly paid) knowledge worker needs to do it. These professionals undergo years of education and training to solve critical problems and complete revenue-generating projects. They should not be creating frequently used documents from scratch or searching through old emails looking for some long-lost piece of information. All these tasks can and should be automated.
Today’s tools can do billions of calculations per microsecond, send a million emails all at once, store and organise institutional knowledge in the cloud, and use AI to accurately generate and complete any document. So why are knowledge workers still spending nearly half their time on cumbersome, manual tasks?
What is a knowledge worker?
Knowledge work (also called thought work or mind work) is any task performed primarily through exercising knowledge and creativity, and a knowledge worker is someone whose primary capital is their store of information and critical thinking skills. Anyone whose job it is to “think for a living” is a knowledge worker.
In a perfect world, knowledge workers would spend every moment of their workday focused entirely on solving critical problems and creating the assets and results their client or employer needs. Knowledge workers would devote themselves 100 per cent to being the visionaries, specialists, and creatives they are paid to be. That perfect world does not exist yet, even though the technology to get us there does. Knowledge work automation is all about getting that technology into a single, integrated platform that enables knowledge workers to be the thought leaders they want to be.
What is knowledge work automation?
Knowledge work automation is dedicated to streamlining a knowledge worker’s tasks to eliminate anything that does not make the best use of their skills. This technology-driven, interdisciplinary approach focuses on bringing together all the tools a knowledge worker needs to minimise the time they spend on flow-breaking tasks that should not require their dedicated attention.
Technology already on the market could easily automate 45 per cent of job tasks. By leveraging and combining innovations such as AI and the cloud, knowledge work automation makes all aspects of knowledge work easier and smoother. Knowledge work automation covers the end-to-end process of knowledge work from document creation and management to workflow automation, collaboration, and compliance.
Here are a few examples:
- The institutional knowledge generated by an organisation’s knowledge workers can be easily stored and catalogued for later use.
- Documentation that could take days to create and approve can now be generated based on pre-approved templates and an existing knowledge base.
- Manual copying of work-in-progress to external collaboration tools can be fully integrated as part of normal workflows covering any end-to-end lifecycle.
- Approved documentation can be automatically sent for electronic signing and distributed to all relevant stakeholders.
- Filing correspondence of a client project can include dozens of steps, all of which can be automated to the level of naming each attachment, classifying and organising that information, applying permissions and retention schedules, and placing each file into appropriate queues for further processing.
Professionals forced to use their time on tedious or unstimulating tasks are more likely to quit, driving turnover and making it difficult to build an effective team. As high-value, highly trained and educated employees, knowledge workers stand to create exponential value for their employers. They not only complete the most key revenue-generating projects,
but they develop and curate institutional knowledge and help innovate new ways to make a business grow. Knowledge work automation is about removing all obstacles to these goals so knowledge workers can be more productive, more fulfilled, and happier in their careers.
Why choose Stratas and M-Files for your work automation platform?
The M-Files knowledge work automation platform helps knowledge workers find information faster, work smarter, and achieve more. Revolutionise the way knowledge workers automate their processes, from document creation and management to workflow automation, external collaboration, enterprise search, security, compliance, and audit trail.
Click to read the eBook which provides insight on how you should automate work associated with document creation, workflow management, and collaboration so that your knowledge workers are happier and your organisation reaps the benefits of increased productivity, reduced risk, and the elimination of information chaos.
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