How to increase employee productivity with business process automation and ECM

The world is becoming more and more automated, and technology is taking over many of the jobs that used to be performed by people. But there are still many, many more jobs that can only be completed by a human. So why are you still tasking your human employees with jobs that could be done automatically, instead of freeing their time to work on tasks that require creativity, critical thinking, problem-solving and innovation?

Can you give me an example? 

Most organisations have some version of the low-value task. Often, those tasks involve moving paper from one person to the next. Like at Whatcom Educational Credit Union, a fast-growing financial services company in Whatcom County, WA. As its membership grew, so did its paper piles – loan applications, membership profiles and more.

All that paper was physically stored in its main office. So whenever a team member at a branch needed to access a member’s file – while the member was standing at the teller window, no less – someone at the main office would have to find the file, find the right document within the file, and fax the paperwork to the branch.

Think about the time wasted on the low-value tasks of calling the main office, finding someone to retrieve the file, time spent retrieving and faxing the file, and reviewing the fax once it came across. 

Now consider the customer at the teller window and how those low-value tasks impact service times and member satisfaction.

How they increased employee productivity

Leaders at the credit union knew abolishing these low-value tasks would eliminate its paper woes. But more importantly, it would drastically improve customer service. And with an enterprise content management solution that integrated effortlessly with its core system, it managed to do just that. 

Now employees have instant access to member files and information. Time previously swallowed up by calling, faxing and waiting (the low-value task) is spent helping customers reach their financial goals (the high-value task).

Whatcom uses a workflow management tool to accomplish this. The tool automatically processes work and is easily configured to meet rapidly changing business conditions – and it does so safely and securely. Only the right people at the right time can access it. It improves customer with faster turnaround times, reduces costs by freeing staff from manual tasks, and helps enforce consistent business practices that ensure accountability and compliance.