Giving your employees the power to boost automation
Introduction
Citizen development: What does it mean and why is it gaining rapid traction?
Citizen development is more than just a buzzword.
In the past, developing and implementing digital solutions was the exclusive preserve of IT. They’ve rolled out a whole host of productivity-boosting, problem-solving apps to support the workforce. Citizen development turns this on its head — by encouraging people on the floor who do the work to identify pain points and design their own automation solutions — using low-code and no-code (LCNC) tools.
Unlike IT, citizen developers automate jobs they themselves do, vastly reducing the gap between supply and demand, leading to high impact automation, faster roll-out and adoption, and robots that are useful to colleagues.
Citizen development presents a unique opportunity for organizations to bridge the gap between the growing demand for automation and the shortage of skilled staff to develop these solutions.
Why is citizen development needed now more than ever?
Currently, 50% of business process automation projects fail. Why is that?
The truth is – automation initiatives are plagued by several common pitfalls. Here’re just a few:
- Tend to focus on company targets rather than making lives easier
- Resource-heavy and limited by the amount of attention IT can devote to them
- Put on the backburner whenever a more urgent tech issue comes up
- “Imposed” by management - generates fear and resentment among people
- Typically, one-size-fits-all across the enterprise
Apart from this, 91% of employees believe their organization should be more willing to invest in digital and technology skills training. The gap is also felt by senior leadership teams, with two-thirds fearing their organization is facing a digital skills shortage.
You won’t be surprised to learn that 84% of companies say digital skills are more important to their business in 2021 than two years ago. But you might (and should) be alarmed to discover that in the last six years, the UK saw a 40% drop in young people leaving university with relevant technology skills. No wonder 76% of businesses think that the digital skills gap could further hit their profitability.”
Sundara Sukavanam,
Chief Digital Officer, Firstsource
So, how does citizen development shrink the gap?
- Developing an automation mindset
- Enabling employees to identify automation opportunities and build solutions
- Teaching employees to develop automation solutions using a low-code platform
- Allowing employees to think differently and embrace innovation
Embrace
