Job security is one of those things that people think a lot about. It used to be that when you got to a certain age you took a job and stayed in that job until you reached another age and that job would pay you to do whatever you want. Just thinking about that makes me a little wistful for the good old days.
Gone!
Those days are gone. According to Forbes people entering the workforce today will have 15 – 20 jobs within their lifetime. The question on that 15 – 20 jobs per lifetime are, how many were by the choice of the job holder and how many were because they were forced to get another job due to firings and layoffs.
Eye Opening
When you think of layoffs, and I write and speak a lot about this, the purpose of AP Automation is to free up as much time as possible. The point of automation is to have software or machinery do the manual work so people can go on and do more important work. The idea to the idea is that by freeing up people from less skilled tasks so they can do higher skilled tasks it will increase the overall intelligence of the workforce.
Creative Destruction
Economist have a name for this process of creating higher workforce intelligence, its creative destruction. I was floored when I heard a podcast on the topic. I really didn’t know it was a thing, I just thought it was something that I had stumbled across in an effort to explain the impact of AP Automation.
Hear For Yourself
Here is a link of the podcast. If you are an enthusiast or practitioner of any level of automation you need to know the principle of creative destruction. (more to come…)
You Really Need To Listen To This Podcast! <click here>
Want to know more? Buy My Books!
To buy the book – The Argument to Automate – How Innovation Can INSPIRE Not Fire – click here to buy
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How about a children’s book? The Princess and the Paper – click here to buy
Every level of automation has led to some new opportunities opening up. There’s some disruption, but then people adapt to new skills. Maybe people who do AP, but fear automation, need to start thinking about what ELSE they’d rather do. If you’re a lean organization and want to stay that way, do you really want to use up an entire head count on a non-value-generating position? Or would you rather hire someone who’s more focused on strategy, managing cash flow, forecasting and analysis? And likewise, if you’re only interested in doing things that could easily be done in a more automated, less error-prone way, do you think you SHOULD be hired? It’s one thing to be an artisan and do it the old way because you want to, but AP is not artisan in any way.
Excellent point Derek!