Applying Business Process Automation to Your HR and IT Strategies

Amidst the “Great Resignation,” HR departments are scrambling to hire and keep talent. Just as the pandemic forced our collective, rapid adoption of remote work via technology solutions, we’re now leaning into workflow automation (WA) and business process automation (BPA) tools to improve productivity. The good news? BPA and WA are ready for us – and businesses are discovering just how efficient and effective automation can be.

Sticking with the example of remote work, companies with work-from-home (WFH) and work-from-anywhere (WFA) workforces increasingly rely upon technology and collaboration platforms to manage all aspects of the employee lifecycle. Given the high level of employee turnover in today’s marketplace, automating onboarding and offboarding as much as possible is becoming an operational imperative. The need for this automation encompasses software and hardware alike, including mobile devices, which are as diverse as the employee locations themselves and represent one of the world’s fastest-growing corporate cost centers.

Automation can help to tame those challenges. At vMOX, we are hyper-focused on optimizing the management of corporate mobile assets and have found that, in addition to the advantage of easing the burden on your personnel, WA and BPA deliver four significant benefits to device lifecycle management:

Automation Lowers Costs

Automating workflows reduces personnel burdens inherently. That’s true of all aspects of business, but automation in mobility management brings about outsized opportunities for cost savings on multiple fronts:

• Automated onboarding and offboarding save direct time in labor and ensure that all devices are properly accounted for. 

• Shipping rates for receiving or returning corporate-owned devices – along with their shipping labels – can be optimized and generated automatically, helping to ensure devices reach their destinations quickly at advantageous costs.

• Reclaimed devices can be recycled or placed in cold storage for future users, generating more savings.

• Beyond device procurement, shipping and handoffs, automating mobile devices’ analysis and plan usage empowers real-time adjustments in response to changing needs, overages, policy issues, etc.

Automation Reduces Risks

Workflow automation reduces risks by injecting systematic checks and balances into device lifecycle management. Two prime examples:

• Employing processes that ensure that recycled, lost or stolen devices are wiped clean.

• Remotely disabling lost or stolen devices.  

Additionally, automated processes can reduce or eliminate human error. Device lifecycle management is a multi-step process that can create the productivity-killing swivel-chair effect and, when multiplied across your employees and devices, provides opportunities for potential errors. Automation mitigates these risks overall and, in some processes, can eliminate them entirely.

Automation Protects Employee Privacy

It’s not just your company data at risk on mobile devices. Employee data is vulnerable, too. In addition to guarding your company’s data and proprietary information, WA in device lifecycle management protects your employees’ privacy.

For example, when no process exists for device handoffs between users, many managers erroneously believe that wiping all the apps from a device “cleans” the device for the following user. But what if the previous user has placed passwords, pins, bank info into local device notes, and the manager unknowingly passes that info to the next user? This scenario isn’t hypothetical — this kind of error happens all too often.

While you may have policies warning employees against the risks of sensitive data on their employer-provided devices, the party that really needs to worry is the employer. There are now significant fines for this exact occurrence.

Automation Enhances the User Experience

When IT departments institute automated processes for things like enterprise mobility, wait times decrease, bottlenecks evaporate and customers (in this case, internal customers) see results faster. Automation speeds up procurement, delivery and ongoing service. Even chatbots checking in on users and automated replies offering assurances that requests were received provide users with confidence that their issues are being addressed. And in today’s employee retention game, user satisfaction matters more than ever.

Efficiency, Experience and Expediency

Like so many emerging technologies before them, BPA and WA have migrated from early sources of competitive advantage to competitive necessities. In the 2020s, as a result of a pandemic and resulting job reshuffling, automation has emerged as a focal point in employee hiring, enablement and management. Companies need to achieve operational efficiencies in the tighter labor market, reduce stress and workloads on their employees, and tame business processes wherever possible. Automation can deliver all of those benefits – and peace of mind for business owners and managers – to mobility management, which is vital to today’s remote-worker business models.

Want to learn more about optimizing your enterprise mobility program? Connect with a vMOX expert today.