We’ve already discussed how automation affected the supply chain and logistics industry. This time, we’re going to explore its tendencies and benefits in supply chain management and employee onboarding.
Automation in Supply Chain Management
Logistics jobs are traditionally associated with a whole host of manual labor. Yet they’re becoming more white collar as time passes.
“No longer equated to heavy, manual work, today’s manufacturing and distribution environments are highly automated and reliant on technology,”says Tisha Danehl, vice president of Ajilon, a professional agency serving the supply chain industry.
Abe Eshkenazi, CEO of ACSM, believes that during the coming years, there will be a growing emphasis on supply chains, logistics, and transportation.
Companies will require experienced employees to work alongside and operate the automated equipment even as they deploy more software and robots.
That’s true, to guarantee that all shifts are covered, logistics and warehouse managers are now using more and more technologies.
For example, they are using artificial intelligence (AI) to provide more logic to the shift scheduling process. AI helps companies match suitable applicants with open jobs and shifts.
Improvements in IT such as blockchain technology, big data, or AI applications including the Internet of Things, have already automated certain activities in Supply Chain Management. It has given executives the opportunity to focus on strategic considerations.
According to the Delphi Study, this tendency is possible in a similar manner in the sphere of SC talent management.
Additionally, its findings support that digital technologies increase the requirement of intense learning adaptability.
Logistics managers in the digital age should not rely solely on their experience, because if they do, the skills gap between newly trained managers and employees who completed their training many years earlier will be impossible to overcome.
Automating Onboarding Process
According to the experts, onboarding is an important process in which an employee should feel comfortable right from the start. The human component, and thus the SCM manager, will continue to play a vital role.
They expect an increased combination of social and technological aspects. For example, some parts of onboarding won’t be carried out by managers and HR employees but rather by digital technologies such as onboarding software.
There are also successful cases of using online social tools and gamification in the onboarding of new employees of a worldwide leading Fortune 100 organization.
The results suggest that the use of interactive methods, such as online social interaction, can help foster employee engagement as well as lead to lower costs and higher productivity in the onboarding process.
There’s no point being afraid of software replacing people in onboarding as it can’t perform the important socialization activities like a human being, which is essential.
However, despite a lot of useful software that can be used efficiently with human assistance, many of the existing onboarding processes are manual, monotonous, and very time-consuming.
”We’re seeing a lot more interest in medium to long-term labor planning right now,” says Dwight Klappich, research vice president at Gartner, who still sees many companies doing their labor forecasts on Excel spreadsheets.
In the current, fast-paced fulfillment environment, he believes that companies can use software to manage their most critical assets: their employees.
Let’s look at the benefits of using employee onboarding software.
Benefits of Employee Onboarding Software
Time spent on onboarding may be significantly decreased by automating document gathering, data transfer, and data enrichment.
When combined with electronic signatures, this leads to completely paperless processes and gets rid of unnecessary documentation.
Recent advancements in onboarding software have significantly improved hiring management.
Enhanced Visibility
With all of the data and reports being stored online, it is now simple to manage them on the cloud and to conduct analyses effortlessly.
Nowadays, the HR employees won’t have to spend extra time storing the physical report, digitizing it in an appropriate format, and then evaluating it.
When the data is entered and stored digitally, HR employees can create dashboards with the right inputs and generate hiring-based insights much more quickly and with the fewest manual errors possible.
Centralized Management & Risk Reduction
The entire hiring process is now digitized, simplified, and linked up on a single platform, which has helped to consolidate the entire recruitment and onboarding processes.
Using software has not only shortened the duration of the many procedures required, but it has also improved efficiency, prepared the information for analysis, and decreased human mistakes while processing and storing physical data.
Because the information is all stored online, it is easy to review the audit trail to verify the data handling protocol and ensure that the processes are compliant with any emerging industry technologies.
Increased Process Efficiency
The employment process has become more efficient and coordinated thanks to using advanced software, which ensures online document storage, background checks, and streamlines the hiring and onboarding processes.
The process of collecting employee data was formerly conducted online, but it also involved manual background checks and the physical collection and storage of documents.
This led to a decrease in efficiency and increased management difficulties because the processes were not consistent.
However, when all of these procedures are carried out online, their workflows may be optimized and coordinated to provide a more seamless experience.
Using technologies in all aspects of supply chain management can’t be underestimated.
Max Ioffe, WESCO’s director of global supply chain optimization and leader of the intelligent automation center of excellence believes that employees who previously spent part of their workday on manual tasks now have time for more strategic and creative activities, analyzing data and creating value for their suppliers and customers.
What’s more, this shift boosted employee performance and also removed monotonous and tedious work that no one liked doing, which resulted in much happier and more engaged employees.
The benefits of intelligent automation go beyond productivity, Ioffe adds. “It’s about creating an opportunity to deliver more value to customers, suppliers and our own employees,” he says. “The key is in selecting the right processes. Automating what’s achievable — what’s easy to automate — is going to bring great successes“.
Conclusion
Technology has changed many spheres in business and everyday life, onboarding processes are no exception. Automation helps improve recruiting and training, saves costs and time, which is essential for companies in times of labor shortages.
Onboarding can’t be imagined without a person’s involvement, as social integration is vital. In spite of the fear that software will replace people, research shows that it actually simplifies monotonous tasks, helping employees unleash their creativity. This, naturally, results in improved productivity and increased ROI.
If you want to optimize your onboarding process,contact our experts, who will gladly assist you.
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