How Robotic Process Automation (RPA) is Poised to Help With the Labor Shortage With companies around the globe struggling to find staff, could the time be ripe for an explosion in RPA? What kinds of solutions can this technology offer, and what does...
This story originally appeared on HR Daily Advisor
With companies around the globe struggling to find staff, could the time be ripe for an explosion in RPA? What kinds of solutions can this technology offer, and what does it mean for workers and employers long term?
What's Going On With the Labor Market?
It's no secret that the labor market, both in the United States and abroad, is out of whack. "The latest labor data from the U.S., for example, shows that more workers are willing to walk away from their jobs or to switch employment," writes Holly Ellyatt in an article for CNBC. "The most recent U.S. Labor Department's monthly Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, released last week, showed there were 10.4 million job openings in August whereas the number of people leaving their jobs (the so-called "quits rate') rose to 4.3 million, the highest level seen on records dating back to Dec. 2000."
The lack of available workers is more prevalent in some sectors than others, and anyone who's gone out to eat or noticed empty shelves at the grocery store lately can probably guess some of the industries that have been hit the hardest.
"Sectors particularly affected by workers quitting their jobs were accommodation and food services, wholesale trade and state and local government education," writes Ellyatt. It's a problem that's not unique to the U.S. market. In fact, countries around the world are facing the same shortages and for many of the same reasons.
These labor shortages are "exacerbating supply chain disruptions around the globe, with key industries struggling to regain momentum due to a lack of workers or raw materials," Ellyatt continues. "This disrupts both local and global production and supply networks, hampering economic growth and causing product and service shortages for consumers."
There are a variety of factors that have contributed to the current situation, including many members of an aging workforce deciding to retire early and a swath of workers reluctant to return to in-person work post-pandemic either due to health and safety concerns or simply because they've grown accustomed to being away from the office. RPA may provide a ready-made solution.
What is RPA, and What Does it Do?
RPA refers to a set of technologies, often involving artificial intelligence (AI), that allow computers to perform tasks and processes traditionally carried out by humans. RPA differs from more established computerized processes in the way it learns how to perform its tasks. In more conventional computerized processing, an application might be developed whereby a programmer instructs the application how to perform a task by programming a set of operations into a workflow. This can, and often does, involve integrating programmatically to other systems—i.e., one computer talking to another using computer language.
By contrast, RPA more closely resembles how a human would perform tasks. Consider, for example, the increasing use of RPA in call centers. "Many of the customer requests received by call centres can be supported with RPA technology; common customer queries and solutions can be provided to agents via a dashboard," writes Bernard Marr. "When an issue gets escalated to human customer service agents, RPA can help consolidate all the information about a customer on a single screen, so the agents have all the information they need from multiple systems to provide exemplary service."
On its website, Nuummite Consulting describes the key technology and software differences between RPA and traditional automation:
- Technology differences. In the past, application programming interfaces (APIs) were used to integrate different systems. RPA takes this to the next level using AI to actually understand and learn from user interactions.
