Going with the workflow: how employers are getting serious about making efficiency gains

Lee Copland, Maxxess, Managing Director EMEA

Employers have been paying closer attention to the efficiency of their operations over the last year and half, and the way their people and systems interact.

How easy is it to get on site? To move between branches and locations? To access physical and digital resources? To manage deliveries? To welcome external visitors and contractors? To work remotely, or on the move, with CRM, Microsoft Active Directory, and other core business systems?

In short, how easy is it to harmonise people and systems, and to get the best from both?

Linking all these questions (and more – because we’re finding that the list becomes as long as you want it to be) is one overarching idea that’s of increasing interest to leaders in IT, HR, security, facilities and the C-suite:

How can we upgrade and integrate our systems in a way that improves our workflows?

These is not just theoretical. We are seeing it leading to some exciting innovations and tech upgrades in widely different of corporate settings, from hospitals and airlines and oil & gas conglomerates, through to universities, global logistics and international hotel chains.

The case for streamlining workflows was given its first big boost by the pandemic and the switch – almost overnight – to home and hybrid working. Innovation was already happening, but it was accelerated, and the obstacles of corporate inertia were suddenly blown away. In many sectors, the drive has been given further impetus by ‘the great resignation’ and shortages of labour, which have focused corporate minds on attracting and retaining good people, and on questions of productivity; of doing more with less.

These factors haven’t gone away – the need for greater flexibility, productivity, and employee care – and now a new one is being added. Workflow efficiency is becoming even more compelling as budgets tighten.

A worsening economic outlook means that organisations are being motivated to look hard for systems and technologies that strip-out obvious inefficiencies and unlock new value from existing resources.

Economic pressures are rising significantly, as the twin perils of high inflation and slowing growth – stagflation – loom over the global economy. According to the latest Brookings-FT tracking index, reduced output and sagging confidence will affect most countries this year, and the IMF has downgraded its global growth forecasts. Analysts are predicting that an overheating US economy could trigger a global recession; in the UK, inflation could reach as high as 10% as cost-of-living pressures grow; and worldwide few sectors will be immune due to wage inflation, increased taxation, soaring fuel and energy prices and the price of basic supplies, components, and raw materials.

All this means that for most organisations, in most sectors, the requirement for good budget management and smart purchasing will grow.

We’ve already seen how significant efficiencies can be gained by speeding up and automating day-to day-tasks such as frictionless access and ID authorisations; granting and revoking digital passes; allocating hot desks, meeting rooms and workspace resources; managing mobile staff; streamlining deliveries; booking-in guests; and automating building functions such as lighting and HVAC to align with occupancy.

Technology integration that goes a step further to encompass wider workflows will now add a new layer of productivity gains. For example, enabling staff to access all the services they need from a single, secure platform via their phone or laptop will make it easier for them to do their own individual jobs and to collaborate with others.

It will also allow project managers to track progress; help department heads coordinate resources; and strip costs from countless unseen back-office functions from access rights administration to equipment re-supply. When these efficiencies are multiplied across large workforces and dispersed estates the savings will be massive.

For example, across the UK’s public sector, there is a new push towards connecting and collaborating, and recognition that joined up working between agencies delivers better results. This is why local authorities, health providers, social services, and private sector suppliers are being encouraged to share information, services, and facilities.

Where digitized access control is concerned, we expect see social workers, care workers, and council officers being given digital passes to move more easily between facilities – hospitals for example – when they need to. The result will be that thousands of employees will no longer have to go through time consuming ID and authorization procedures day after day, or struggle with different physical ID passes for separate buildings and facilities, even within the same organization.

Vendor-agnostic integrated solutions will allow these access control and visitor functions to happen seamlessly. Again, the overall aim is to optimize workflows.

In corporate sectors too, digitizing manual processes – a key element of streamlining workflows – is already seen as a way of reducing pressure on staff who are already in short supply. But there will be many other benefits to follow.

We expect to see dizzying innovation in this field over the next two to three years, because big gains can be achieved from workflow automation and streamlining in almost every sector.

The economic pressure is on, but there are exciting new ways to adapt.