Employees’ perception of value-added activity increase of Robotic Process Automation with time and cost efficiency: a case study

Abstract

Implementation of Robotic Process Automation (RPA) is ubiquitous in the financial industry. However, the consequences are not clear enough in terms of strategic perspective. Drawing upon the theory of Task-Technology Fit, this study explores the emerging consequences with the exploratory sequential method. Data related to the time and cost of processes before and after the RPA implementation were collected and descriptively analyzed. Even though time and cost efficiency improvements occurred in 50 out of 54 of the processes, the results indicated no labor reduction after the RPA implementation and no cost reduction in some business units, contrary to reports in the literature. To investigate what happened to the human resource environment, we surveyed 106 employees who were affected by the implementation of RPA. No variance was found between the characteristics of the employees and the changes in the working environment. However, the descriptive results of the survey revealed that employees’ perception of value-added activities increased. These results provided that considering RPA as a routine process without calculating the strategic value creates process-oriented transformation with a lack of time and cost-efficiency.