Financial futures: Unlock the full potential of your workforce with robotic process automation
Simply the mention of automation is enough to strike fear into the heart of a workforce. But while the sci-fi movies would have us believe that the machines are here to replace us, they’re actually here to help. By letting automation take on mundane and repetitive tasks, people can focus on the meaningful and important work that only they can do.
Robotic process automation (RPA) is a powerful tool, bringing efficiencies to financial institutions throughout the US. And the benefits this technology brings go far beyond simply eliminating menial day-to-day processes.
Keep reading to explore the highlights of RPA.
The use cases for RPA
Financial services companies are leveraging RPA bots to take over repeatable processes that a human typically does, but which can be done by a computer. Any process that has defined steps and follows a consistent workflow could be a good candidate for RPA. For example, to put a new loan on the financial institutions’ servicing system, a human employee might manually enter, reenter and check data. An RPA bot can be programmed with scripts to pull information from the correct sources and make updates, then provide a report back to the employee for one-time validation at the end of the process. RPA bots can also take on tasks such as generating emails, managing payroll, balancing accounts and performing data reconciliation.
The benefits of RPA
Bots save time on repetitive tasks, which helps if you don’t have enough staff for your workload, you have newer employees that aren’t experienced in financial services or you want to free up your tenured employees to focus on more important work. Bots are scalable and can make increases in volumes easily. Even by taking the initial steps toward adopting RPA, you can better understand your internal processes and find opportunities to improve efficiency. Bots can be updated as processes change and evolve. Additionally, humans tend to make mistakes when entering data, especially when they’re busy – but bots don’t make those types of errors.
Understanding your processes
Developing an effective bot starts with having a thorough understanding of the workflow for the process you want to automate, so you can detail each manual step that a human employee would go through. If you don’t understand the process or forget about a step, the bot will make mistakes. Repeated testing during the build process will help you ensure that the bot achieves the same results as a human employee would have done. While more complex, bots can also be used in processes where they may have to choose the best solution between different options.
Pre-built vs. custom
Financial institutions need to decide whether to implement a pre-made bot or design something tailored to their needs. Pre-bots can be implemented faster and cheaper with less room for error. Custom bots cost more money and can take longer, sometimes up to a year, but are valuable if you have a process that only applies to your company.
Getting buy-in
The best way to move forward with RPA in your organization is to connect the IT team (who understand the technology) with the operations team (who understand which processes could be made more efficient with automation). When these key groups are aligned, it’s easier to sell the solution to whoever is making the final decision.
The impact on employees
People don’t like change, and employees might see RPA as a threat to their value in the organization. But the point of RPA is not to reduce headcount – your employees will be able to focus on accomplishing tasks that have never gotten done or cross-training and learning new skills. Even though a task is being done by a bot, employees still need to understand the process behind the scenes. You may worry that automation will make you lose the personal touch that sets you apart, but the opposite is true – you’re automating mundane tasks so you can focus on being there for your members and serving their needs.
