Only 10 per cent of organisations have implemented upskilling programmes around automation

Training employees to deal with automation improves productivity and morale

Only 10 per cent of organisations have started a full-scale programme to upskill their workers to take advantage of automation, a new report by Capgemini has found.

Training employees to give them the skills that they need to deal with automation is vital, Capgemini says, with executives and employees at firms that have taken this route reporting increased productivity and morale.

Despite that, few organisations have a mature initiative in place today. 91 per cent of the 400 surveyed had completed or started to work on a skilling programme; but only 27 per cent had begun a pilot run.

The most common reasons to begin workforce upskilling are to improve quality (43 per cent) and productivity (37 per cent) - but more than half of executives and employees said that automation hadn't yet had an effect on productivity. This was especially evident in Sweden, the USA and China (66, 64 and 61 per cent of executives, respectively).

However, the benefits are more proven in organisations that combine automation with a clear upskilling programme. 52 per cent of employees and 46 per cent of executives at these firms said that automation was improving productivity, compared to 42 and 35 per cent, respectively, at organisations that have not yet started full-scale upskilling.

Employees were split, with 61 per cent saying that upskilling programmes had not helped them develop the skills to work more efficiently and 54 per cent that they had not acquired new skills to become more employable. However, 62 per cent said that these programmes had helped them to avoid redundancy, and 54 per cent that they had helped to get rid of repetitive activities.

Capgemini highlighted the importance of communication around process automation - and the relative rarity with which it happens. Only 45 per cent of the senior executives that the research organisation spoke to told their workforce about their automation initiatives and their expected impact.

Eberhard Schroder, director of HR operations management at German car parts manufacturer ZF Friedrichshafen, said, "Communication is a key pillar that change management rests on. Leaders have to come out and communicate from an organisation perspective: what are we doing, why are we doing it, and to what extent."

Automation is disrupting businesses across the globe - but despite this shift, some organisations still just don't want to hear about it. To hear from our expert panelists, end users and other organisations about the impact of automation and how you can effectively adopt it, reserve your FREE place for our IT Leaders' Forum on Tuesday the 4th December.