Benefits of Automating in Comparison to Hiring
Does your business keep growing and does your staff always seem to have too much to do? This is of course a challenge faced by any growing business, and invariably the perceived solution is to hire more staff to spread out the work load. However, it also possible to streamline your growth through automation instead of adding more people to feed a manual process. Automation can be cost-effective, efficient and scalable approach to growing your business.
1. Increased productivity. Automating solves the labour shortage by increasing productivity. If, for instance, your current business processes aren’t optimized, then by brining on additional staff might just provide a temporary solution for a long term problem. For example, a company might choose to hire new staff in order to perform basic data entry tasks. While the new employee might work superbly, there is always the risk of human error. This is where an automated solution can not only enter data faster than most staff, and in addition it can achieve this without errors.
2. Easier to deal with sudden growth spurts. While growth is needed for any successful company, if this occurs too fast there is the possibility that staff will not be able to keep up with this increase in demand. Now if you have a well coordinated automation framework in place, any company expansion is only good news. But if you don’t, you will have to hire a number of people in busy periods, almost immediately – and rarely does an outstanding employee emerge from a rushed hiring process. Therefore, with automation you end up with a far more stable and scalable business and solution.
3. Reduced Expenses Overtime. At first glance, it may seem that hiring someone is a more cost-effective option in comparison to automation (given its initial costs), adding a new employee will not only increase the up-front expenses associated with the hiring process, but you also have the on-going salary to add to your list of expenses. With automation, on the other hand, you will expect enormous savings as after the initial investment the longer term costs can be minimal. In addition, automation will truly manifest its benefits, if the obstacle that stands before you, is of a larger scale and continues to swell in which case you will have no worries of having to pay extra for each arising issue. However, if you had previously decided to hire someone, you will have to continue down that route and before you know it, as your problem grows – so do your expenses.
4. Time-saving. Hiring the perfect person for a job is a time-consuming task. A typical hiring process can range anywhere between weeks to months. Not to mention the time spent on trying to update job listings daily, reviewing resumes, and setting up interview times/meetings can all be literally wiped out with an automated solution. Thus, you not only save time with computerization, but you are also guaranteed to find the right match for your problem.
5. Eliminates the need for training and/or orientation. Unfortunately, the time-consuming and costly nature of hiring does not end with the signing of a new employee contract. In fact, it is then that you enter the next phase of hassling arrangements with having to allocate time towards training and orientation. Business automation requires neither training nor orientation–as it comes optimized already and ready to address all of your unique needs.
One Last Thought on Automation
A good tip to keep in mind, is that automation is often a more feasible option when you’re looking to add a second person. Instead of hiring a new person who may or may not work out, through automation, you are equipping the first person with the right tools and resources to work more efficiently and to continue to do the job on their own.
In general then, it’s important to always weigh your options when making any business decisions regarding automation or manual labour. A simple math equation can effectively summarize all that’s been said in this post: If you had to spend $30,000 in order to automate an existing process, or pay someone $30,000 a year to do the same thing, which makes more sense? After reading this blog, we hope that you picked the same answer as us. While the latter could be a great short-term remedy, the former will be a better, and more stable long-term solution.