Bots can be valuable tools to lighten the workload and enable employees to be more autonomous and efficient. They are easy solutions to implement and facilitate corporate life and management.
Bots Are Employee Allies
When a department’s workload becomes too heavy, the first question to ask is, what can be automated? Which recurring tasks are particularly time-consuming? Leave requests, questions about remote working, multiple reminders about an internal survey, questions about using a new tool, etc. These are just some examples of tasks that conversational robots (chatbots, callbots, voicebots) can handle.
Another important point is anonymity. As an employee, you may not dare ask your manager certain questions. Whereas bots can answer instantly, in the most neutral way possible, and redirect you to the right department if necessary.
Bots can also be used as an assessment tool, for example to measure the percentage of questions on one topic rather than another. You can then adapt your management accordingly and highlight certain subjects via other communication channels. If you get a lot of questions about remote working, for example, it may be worth drawing up guidelines, in which you explain the terms and conditions, and communicating widely on the subject internally.
An Adaptable Tool that Supports Change
The new working methods that have emerged from the health crisis – full or partial remote working – have highlighted the usefulness of bots. Tools that are available 24/7 can also be particularly helpful for organisations with employees working off-site, in different countries, or on shifts. Or for companies that regularly call on contractors and want to grant them access to certain bot contents.
Chatbots are flexible tools, and their content can easily be adapted to any type of change, from a merger with another company, to an environmental disaster, or a social conflict at work. Whatever the situation, bots enable you to adapt and continue to provide quick answers, limiting big and rushed changes, like during the health crisis. As such, in the midst of a lockdown, 70% of respondents who use chatbots reported that the tool was even more useful in times of crisis (*).
Although bots can adapt easily and cover a wide range of topics, they cannot replace employees. If you ask HR professionals if they think this technology will replace certain jobs, 59% answer “yes”. But, if you rephrase the question and ask if they think that bots will create new jobs, 69% also answer “yes”*. Robots and employees can work together. By automating recurring questions, chatbots make employees’ day-to-day work lives less repetitive. As callbots, chatbots and voicebots become more sophisticated, time-consuming tasks are increasingly reduced, in favour of more complex and challenging actions that boost employee efficiency.
*According to a dydu Chatbot Observatory.
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