NEW RESEARCH - Singapore’s Workplace Morale and Productivity Ravaged by Post-Pandemic Fallout; “Digital Assistants” to Enhance Employee Happiness and Unlock Business Growth
New research found that 91% of Singapore employers – the highest globally – struggle to keep employees engaged in their duties, with more than half saying boring and inefficient office tasks are the primary obstacle to productivity.
The report by Laiye, an intelligent automation solutions provider, surveyed 1,300 respondents across four continents, revealing the negative effects of today’s work processes on workers and businesses, known as the Work Execution Gap. It also shows how the use of AI technology helps to overcome these challenges.
The findings back up management consultancy McKinsey which estimates US$15 trillion is tied up in salaries associated with these tiresome tasks. The resulting Work Execution Gap describes the divide between the work experience employees want, and the one employers offer. But change is coming.
Guanchun Wang, Chairman and CEO of Laiye, comments: “ With major advances of artificial intelligence and key digital tools, we now stand at a critical juncture. Work has changed irrevocably, and frankly, it was overdue. Even in highly developed markets like Singapore, managers face a particularly tough struggle dealing with the post-pandemic impact on employee satisfaction and business productivity. We need to create a new link between human and digital work, driving productivity while keeping human jobs fulfilling and engaging. I predict in ten years’ time, by 2032, all employees will have their own ‘digital assistants’ that they train themselves to enhance their productivity and efficiency. These will continuously learn and evolve and be able to fulfil essential, yet manual aspects of work .”
The Work Execution Gap is directly linked to the much-discussed Great Resignation, a global phenomenon where 77% of Singapore respondents see shrinking business productivity and over half of employers claim a loss of revenue as a result. Respondents also identified Quiet Quitting, where employees limit their productivity to what is strictly laid out in their contract, as another disruptive change.
Laiye believes the answer lies in providing solutions that empower employees to improve their own jobs by automating those vital but time-consuming, low-value tasks. The new model for the future of work is the Work Execution System.
To make this possible, 57% of employers globally plan to give their staff digital assistants to increase their productivity, and 39% will increase investment in automating work-related processes.
But building such a model in a piecemeal fashion with traditional software is expensive and complex and introduces new inefficiencies even as it solves the old ones.
The Work Execution System encompasses workflow automation, intelligent document processing, conversational AI, and process mining, to identify inefficiencies. This allows businesses to process data faster and more accurately, creating better customer experiences, enable 24/7 business operations without burdening employees, automate long arduous processes, and ultimately foster employee engagement, creativity and skills retention.
Read Laiye’s research findings and the Work Evolution Guide here.
