After a global pandemic with life, business, and economy altering impacts, the world is just starting to get back to business as usual. Despite all the talk about permanent changes and the “new normal,” businesses may be understandably hesitant about using this as the opportunity to make major changes in the way that they operate.

In fact, this may be the perfect moment to rethink the way work is carried out. One technology that’s a great fit for this is Robotic Process Automation (RPA), the use of software bots to automate certain workplace tasks. RPA can be used to carry out high volume, mundane, repetitive tasks so that humans are able to be freed up to focus on more important and strategic jobs. It’s the perfect game-changer for a post-pandemic world.

Perhaps you’re trying to convince a manager or decision-maker of the value of these tools. Maybe you’re the business owner who needs to be convinced. Either way, here are four crucial points to consider about what RPA has to offer.

The benefits are more universal than you might think

The tasks every business will require RPA bots to do will differ greatly. But, provided implementation is carried out correctly, you can expect to see many of the same benefits, regardless of industry. One such benefit includes increased efficiency and productivity — since RPA bots are able to rapidly perform routine tasks such as copying data from one application to another without losing interest or taking breaks, both of which could cause a human operator to slow down.

This can also mean higher levels of quality for customers. For instance, RPA’s consistent attention to detail may result in fewer administrative errors (such as misspelling names or other information) as well as faster response rates for customers. Thanks to RPA, a job like invoice processing can be carried out more rapidly, increasing turnaround time and resulting in happier employees, contractors, and users. Finally, companies implementing RPA can expect to see higher cost savings when they use RPA: something every business, regardless of sector, will surely appreciate.

To summarize:

• Increased efficiency and productivity
• Speeding out the execution of certain tasks
• Increased quality levels with fewer errors
• Cost savings

RPA can free up employees to focus on other tasks

You can hire the most brilliant team imaginable, but if they’re spending most of their time carrying out mundane tasks in the office, rather than making the most of their talents, you’re wasting your money. This is one of the big selling points of RPA: Freeing up employees’ time to focus on other tasks that matter more.

One of the big myths about RPA is that it can replace humans at every level of an organization. That simply isn’t true. What it can do, on the other hand, is to complement humans by taking on the tasks they don’t want to do. If the people working for you have large numbers of mundane tasks to perform on a regular basis, this likely reduces the satisfaction they glean from their work since these jobs are rarely thought-provoking or stimulating.

By automating these tasks, you get to assign employees more valuable strategic tasks, likely using the skills they possess that cannot be automated, while also increasing employee satisfaction. That’s a formidable pair of benefits.

RPA can improve compliance and audits

An administrative error like spelling a customer’s name wrong is annoying. While it’s not a deal-breaker, it could suggest to the customer that your processes are sloppy or that you don’t care as much as you could about the customer experience. It could also make it harder to find that customer’s details again in the future, since they may be entered incorrectly on your system.

Where errors really matter, however, is when you are operating in a tightly regulated industry where compliance matters. Failing to properly perform, record, and document tasks can result in big fines and other penalties. Using RPA can be revolutionary when it comes to regulations and audits due to the standardization of processes involved. This can help reduce your risks, while increasing the accuracy of processes — and even their automatic logging. That is essential for governance, risk management, audit purposes, and compliance.

It can help streamline your business functions

So long as the work is getting done, does it really matter how it’s being carried out? The answer, of course, is “yes.” While the ultimate barometer of a business is whether it can deliver what it promises, that doesn’t mean that it’s not important to look at the processes being used. After all, a certain task being completed is no guarantee that it is being completed in the most efficient way.

This is something RPA can help with. As part of the task assessment process that accompanies an RPA consultancy, companies will have to reexamine the processes by which certain tasks are carried out so that these can be turned into instructions a bot can follow. This, in turn, will help you identify inconsistent or inefficient processes which can then be corrected. Think of it as an audit of how work is carried out. You’ll be the one who reaps the rewards through more efficient tools for automating these tasks.