The Record - Issue 18: Autumn 2020

85 The inclination to find new approaches, to eliminate steps and to change the way things get done isn’t a bad one. As workers adapt to the working-from-home paradigm, they’ll inevita- bly see places where efficiencies can be gained through new ways of doing things. And those changes will need good governance. When remote workers are given a platform where they can offer suggestions and engage in process conversations, those ideas can be brought to light, evaluated, and approved. Where they offer savings and improvements over the status quo, they can be scaled across the organisation for greater efficiency and effectiveness. By establishing process champions that encourage and oversee these changes, a business can ensure that process evolution is managed in a way that welcomes innovation but also protects stability and best practice for everyone. With the move to remote working, many people are discovering technological tools that they’d rarely considered before. Microsoft saw video calls on its Teams platform grow by 1,000 per cent in March alone, as people working from home found new ways to meet and collaborate. That creative thinking can be turned to how processes are executed, too. Process automation tools can accelerate process execution by taking on the task of routine data handling and routing. They can reduce errors in data transfer and speed up the handover points between staff and pro- cess steps, freeing employees to focus on value- adding activities that require a human touch. Maintaining productive practices in a next gen- eration workplace is a process opportunity. With remote work becoming the new normal, busi- nesses need to provide easy and effective ways for their staff to find the information they need to execute business processes well. With platforms that engage workers wherever they are, organi- sations can encourage innovation that builds on the benefits of remote work and streamlines those improvements for everyone’s benefit. Thomas Kohlenbach is a senior product evangelist at Nintex