WordPress Developer: Benefits of work automation and knowledge sharing

WordPress Developer at Gamingtec, shares his ideas about the necessity of work automation in the project and explains the benefits of it for the team members and working process.

What is automation and why is it used?

Work automation is a way of completing repetitive tasks that is time-saving, cost-effective, and useful to increase productivity. Minimal human assistance is beneficial for projects in cases when it reduces the number of mistakes and speeds up operations.

Speaking about automation, I would like to highlight three key points:

- It is not an “out-of-the-box solution.” Automation requires individual solutions and involves using different tools that are continuously improved (upgraded).

- Even though the process automation requires additional efforts at the beginning, it ensures a higher level of comfort and, therefore, employees get used to it quickly.

- Once it is done, the automation process can be compared to magic (almost like in Hogwarts) that makes things done without employees noticing it.

Some companies, especially those that have a limited number of employees, may doubt whether to spend time and resources on process automation as it can be spent on more urgent tasks.

In my opinion, it is definitely worthwhile. Automation allows increasing productivity, improving product quality, and optimizing management processes.

From Theory to Practice

Think of the working process in a company that works with partners from different countries. To meet the needs, there should be a welcome manager that can reply in all necessary languages. It is quite doubtful that one person can cover all of them, therefore, it always takes time to figure out what language a partner speaks and to assign a request to a relevant manager.

The most obvious solution to this situation would be to create an internet bot to optimize these tasks. It will be the first who “meets” a partner and offers, for example, to choose an appropriate language. This information allows us to redirect a request to the relevant specialist in the support team.

Moreover, the bot can also provide a list of frequently asked questions popular among the group of these native speakers. In 70% of cases, the user will probably find an answer, otherwise, the bot will redirect him/her to the specialist with the appropriate knowledge that will easily advise and help set it all up.

If the process is not automated, handling of the request will take longer, more specialists will be involved in it, and the level of partner`s satisfaction can be lower. The bot fulfills the task quickly, clearly, and with the reduced risk of being wrong (comparing to humans). Moreover, by delegating part of the tasks to the bot, the welcome manager will be able to focus on other tasks and grow as a part of the support team.

Therefore, automating processes in a company can be beneficial in both short-term and long-term perspectives. Whether it is about welcoming bots, task assigning process, or any other things that can be done according to an algorithm, it is always worthwhile trying it.

Benefits of Knowledge Sharing

Another thing that can benefit your working process yet is often neglected by team leads is knowledge sharing among the team members. Knowledge sharing helps employees to grow quickly as a part of the team. Whenever the best problem-solving experience becomes reusable, the team (and the company in general) can save a lot of time and avoid reinventing the wheel in typical working situations.

There are few key points in such a practice. First, a person that shares his/her knowledge with colleagues gets an opportunity to receive valuable feedback. Second, such practice can help them win authority among the team members and, at the same time, it can motivate others to learn something new, to achieve higher professional levels. Third, it will definitely help growing the expertise of the whole team.

There are different ways on how you can implement this initiative. You can ask team members to share their achievements during regular meetings. You can also mailout information about the working process and achievements once a week or once a month. As for me, I mostly like the idea of creating a knowledge base for the project. It can include data about all positions working on the project, their duties, processes they are involved in, and working algorithms they use for implementing their tasks. This knowledge base can come in handy for new employees as they can find full information about their position and get a better idea of what is going on in the company. This way, members of the team can learn about the duties of their colleagues and once they require someone’s help, piece of advice, or collaboration to solve a problem, they can find the right person and ask them directly. The information about such a collaboration can be uploaded to the database, and once there is another person facing the same or similar problem, they can easily find out what to do or whom to ask.

Work automation and knowledge sharing allow us to avoid wasting time whilst working on tasks. This enhances the mutual trust in the team, mutual respect, and it also helps develop a new methodology of work, achieve results together better and faster, and define new ambitious goals.

Automation helps team members get rid of the most boring tasks and let them focus on the essential part of their work. This way, it prevents employees’ burnouts and motivates them to work with enthusiasm.

Sharing knowledge is a key to save critical know-how in the team, develop collaboration and innovation among staff members, and inspire them for new solutions that stimulate changes for the better.

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How to keep your IT team motivated? 5 Tips the IT Project Manager at Gamingtec