Why Automation Isn’t Just About Speed — It’s About Keeping Your Best People

When most folks hear “automation,” they think speed, efficiency, maybe even robots taking over. And sure, automation does make processes faster and smoother. But here’s the thing that often gets missed: automation is also a powerful tool for keeping your top employees engaged and sticking around.

Think about your team for a second. You’ve got people who know the business, who push things forward, who matter. Losing just one of them costs way more than you might realize. Studies show turnover can cost anywhere from half to twice an employee’s annual salary. On average, replacing someone runs about 40% of their salary. That’s the cost of hiring, training, lost productivity, institutional knowledge walking out the door, plus the ripple effects on morale and customer relationships. High turnover disrupts teams and slows long-term progress. 

On the flip side, companies that keep their people tend to see better productivity, higher profits, and happier employees. Retaining at least 90% of your team is the benchmark for healthy retention.

I want to share a story that really stuck with me. Years ago, I worked with a client in Vegas’s gaming world — a company that rented out all kinds of equipment to different businesses, from retail stores to leased spaces. Their deals were complicated: space rentals, revenue shares, equipment leases, all with different terms. They had to track serial numbers, where equipment was stored or deployed, who was responsible for maintenance, contract lengths, installation schedules, service tickets, and billing — especially tricky when revenue shares were involved.

They were relying on a tangled mess of spreadsheets and manual work to keep things running.

During a discovery visit, I spent a couple of days walking through their processes and meeting the people who made it all work. My main contact was a wonderful woman — let’s call her Pam (yes, a little nod to The Office).

Image via NBC

Watching Pam work was tough. She juggled multiple spreadsheets, copying and pasting data between them, typing info manually, sending emails just to track contracts. It was tedious, frustrating, and painfully inefficient. One such process could take as much as ten minutes.  Imagine doing that dozens of times a day. About halfway through the first day, I looked at her and blurted out, “I don’t know how you’re doing this. I can’t believe you haven’t quit.” (Note to self: probably not the best thing to say out loud.)

Later, when we tried to send her our recommendations, the email bounced back. Turns out, Pam had already left the company. I’m sure there were many reasons, but it was clear that the soul-crushing, manual nature of her work played a big part. She wasn’t doing work that made her feel valued or proud — she was trapped in data entry and copy-pasting tasks that automation could have handled with ease.

This experience hammered home a crucial lesson: Automation isn’t just about saving money or cutting labor. It’s about elevating work so people can focus on what they were actually hired to do — the creative, strategic, problem-solving, human stuff. Nobody wants to come home and say, “Today, I copied data between spreadsheets all day.” We need to help people do meaningful work that uses their talents and makes them feel engaged.

Why do employees leave? Often, it’s because they feel unchallenged or underappreciated. Manual, repetitive tasks kill motivation and cloud the bigger picture of their contribution. Another big factor is lack of career growth. Automating the routine frees up time for employees to learn, grow, and take on new challenges. In fact, 94% of employees say they’d stay longer if their employer invested in their development.

Tracking turnover costs is just the start. The real challenge is putting strategies in place to improve retention: building a positive culture, recognizing employees, encouraging feedback, and providing growth opportunities. From where I stand, automation has to be part of that mix.

It’s not just about saving time or trimming labor costs — it’s about creating a workplace where your talented people are empowered to do meaningful, high-value work, not the tedious stuff that makes them want to quit. When you invest in automation, you’re investing in your people, their satisfaction, and the long-term success of your business.

So please, don’t lose your Pam.