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AI for Onboarding: A glimpse at the not-so-distant future for HR Directors

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has experienced a breakthrough year in 2023. But how we embrace AI and Machine Learning (ML) without losing sight of the bigger picture – and how we can be “better together” – is a conversation that we should all be having.

With that in mind, we invite you to see how AI has impacted Santa Clause this year in our short Christmas video.

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embracent Christmas Video 2023

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has experienced a breakthrough year in 2023. But how we embrace AI and Machine Learning (ML) without losing sight of the bigger picture – and how we can be “better together” – is a conversation that we should all be having.

With that in mind, we invite you to see how AI has impacted Santa Clause this year in our short Christmas video.

read more

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has experienced a breakthrough year in 2023. But how we embrace AI and Machine Learning (ML) without losing sight of the bigger picture – and how we can be “better together” – is a conversation that we should all be having.

With that in mind, we invite you to see how AI has impacted Santa Clause this year in our short Christmas video.

embracent Delivery Centre

Membership organisations – some, not all – are struggling to stay relevant and demonstrate value to members and prospective members. The world has changed; what members want has changed and the homogeneous nature of a single membership group is unlikely to return.   

Much of the challenge is found in a failure of membership organisations to understand and/or harness the power of data. There are five crucial pillars that every membership organisation should consider when it comes to data, that can guide them on a path towards improved performance, member satisfaction, and sustainable growth. 

Pillar 1: Your Members – The Heart of Your Organisation 

Understanding your members is the foundation of your organisation’s success. It’s about more than just collecting names and email addresses. It’s about tracing their entire journey, from prospect to loyal member, and even those who leave and return. Do you have a clear picture of your members’ demographics and locations? By understanding your members and their evolution, you can identify what motivates them to join, stay, or leave. This knowledge empowers you to boost prospect conversion rates, extend member lifetime value, and minimise avoidable churn. 

Pillar 2: Your Products & Services – Meeting Member Needs 

Membership organisations offer a variety of services, from training and online courses to physical products and paid events. But do you know which offerings resonate with your members and generate revenue? More importantly, do they contribute to profitability? The ideal scenario is to identify and focus on offerings that excel in all these aspects, ensuring they align with your members’ needs and preferences. 

Pillar 3: Your Members’ Activity – Insights for Retention 

Understanding your members’ behaviour throughout their membership is vital. Are they engaged with your marketing, social media, and website? Do they have a high cost to serve? How do they utilise their membership, such as attending events or making purchases? Analysing this activity can help predict member loyalty trends, allowing you to take proactive measures to retain them. 

Pillar 4: Your Company Activity – The Internal Connection 

While member activity is crucial, understanding your internal departments and their impact on members is equally important. Are members receiving value for their money based on their interactions with your organisation? Can you efficiently manage aged debt? How does marketing activity influence conversion rates? Uncovering cause-and-effect relationships between internal teams and members’ experiences can lead to more effective strategies and member satisfaction. 

Pillar 5: External Insight – A Broader Perspective 

In addition to internal data, external sources of insight can provide a more comprehensive view. Explore public information about your members and their organisations. Stay attuned to sector-specific trends, such as shifting demographics or changes in industry demand. External factors like weather and environmental changes can also impact member behaviour. Integrating these external insights with your internal data can uncover unique compounded insights that drive informed decisions. 

Conclusion: 

In the data-driven era, membership organisations must leverage data across these five pillars to thrive and adapt to changing landscapes. By understanding your members, optimising your offerings, monitoring member activity, assessing internal operations, and tapping into external insights, you can pave the way for sustained growth.  

Embracent can help you master your membership data effectively and fast. Contact us for to find out how.  

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Artificial Intelligence (AI) has swiftly transformed from a sci-fi concept to a practical tool, driving innovation across industries. But what exactly is AI, and how can it be harnessed to enhance operations? Let’s unravel the complexity and explore the categories and applications of AI that are reshaping businesses today.  

AI, or Artificial Intelligence, refers to the simulation of human intelligence processes by machines, particularly computer systems. It involves the development of algorithms, software, and hardware that enable machines to perform tasks that would typically require human intelligence, such as problem-solving, learning from experience, understanding natural language, recognising patterns, and making decisions. 

Ok, but what does this mean? 

AI is classified into two main categories:
Specialised and Generative AI 

Specialised AI, also known as Narrow AI or Weak AI, refers to artificial intelligence systems that are designed and developed to perform a specific task or a narrow set of tasks exceptionally well. Examples of this type of AI include virtual personal assistants (like Siri), language translation (google translate), fraud detection and robotic process automation. They are not designed to understand or learn beyond the tasks they are programmed for. 

Generative AI: Generative AI refers to a class of artificial intelligence techniques and models that are designed to generate new and original content, such as text, images, audio, and more. These AI systems can create output that is not directly copied from existing data but is a result of learned patterns and creativity inherent in the model. Examples include text and image generation, AI chatbots (chat GPT) and video synthesis. 

Generative AI has numerous creative and practical applications across various industries, including entertainment, art, design, content creation, and more. However, due to its creative nature, generative AI can sometimes produce unpredictable or even biased outputs, requiring careful consideration and validation when used in critical applications. 

Ok, so we understand how it works.. but how are organisations using AI to optimise their business

Manufacturing and Quality Control: Consider Sight Machine, an AI platform that transforms manufacturing by analysing production data. It identifies anomalies, predicts defects, and optimises processes, improving product quality and reducing downtime. 

Customer Support and Chatbots: Zendesk’s Answer Bot employs AI to assist customer support. It comprehends customer enquiries, suggests solutions, and accelerates query resolution, enhancing user experience. 

Data Analysis and Decision-Making: PowerBI, a data analytics platform, empowers businesses to make informed decisions. It automates data preparation and analysis, enabling organisations to uncover insights efficiently. 

Supply Chain Management: Llamasoft uses AI to optimise supply chains. Its platform predicts demand fluctuations, allowing companies to adjust inventory levels dynamically, ensuring smoother operations. 

Personalisation in Marketing: Dynamic Yield’s AI-driven personalisation platform transforms marketing. It analyses user behaviour to offer tailored recommendations, increasing engagement and conversions. 

Energy Efficiency: BrainBox AI introduces AI to commercial buildings. Its platform optimises energy consumption by predicting climate control needs, resulting in substantial energy savings. 

Autonomous Vehicles: Tesla’s self-driving technology displays AI in action. Cameras and sensors process data, enabling Tesla vehicles to navigate autonomously and adapt to changing road conditions. 

Finance & Administrative tasks: UiPath is the market leader for RPA (Robotic Process Automation) and offers products to automate repetitive and mundane tasks, “taking the robot out of the human”. Their offering continues to evolve with emerging technologies, offering connectors to recent generative AI such as ChatGPT and offering its own machine learning products to read and process invoices and understand documentation. 

 

Incorporating AI into operations involves choosing the right product for specific needs, understanding its functionality, and ensuring ethical considerations. While AI offers immense advantages, addressing biases, privacy concerns, and human oversight is crucial. The data we feed into models is imperative for the success within your business, poor data in.. bad decisions out.  

In conclusion, AI has transcended the realm of theory, becoming an integral part of modern operations. By grasping its categories and real-world applications, businesses can harness AI’s capabilities to streamline processes, enhance customer experiences, and drive innovation. As AI continues to progress, its transformative impact will reshape industries, creating a landscape where technology and human ingenuity collaborate seamlessly. 

Beth Younger

As Process Excellence Lead, I help our clients understand, simplify and optimise their processes, using a Lean continuous improvement methodology. With over 10 years hands-on experience, my toolkit includes Lean Six Sigma, Business Analysis, Process Mining and Digitalisation and Automation Techniques.
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One of our founding principles at Embracent is to be a business with a social conscience.

This year, in support of the Alzheimer’s Society, our team took on the South Coast Challenge, a 25km walk to raise awareness and crucial funds for the charity.

We raised nearly £5,000 collectively. Our small contribution to an important cause.  

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Embracent is proud to announce the appointment of Richard Brenner as Industry Lead for Real Estate. With decades of experience in sector, Richard brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise to further enhance Embracent’s capabilities and drive innovation within the sector.  

Richard’s career has been marked by significant contributions and accomplishments in various leadership roles across the real estate landscape. Most recently, he served as the European Operations Director at Yugo, where he played a pivotal role in driving growth strategies, business transformation, and organisational culture. Prior to that, he held the position of UK and Ireland Operations Director at GSA, where he led operational excellence in the student housing sector. 

Richard’s appointment adds further weight to the team that counts several leaders in the PBSA and BTR sectors as clients and comes at a time of growing demand for sustainable, efficient, and flexible spaces that cater to the evolving needs of students and other communities. The adoption of PropTech solutions, such as smart building technologies and data analytics, is further reshaping how real estate assets are managed, enhancing operational efficiency and tenant experiences.  

Commenting on his appointment, Richard Brenner said:  

“I am absolutely delighted to be able to be working with the team at Embracent, a business that I’ve had the pleasure of being on the receiving end of their great work and first-hand experience working with a number of the amazing team. 

Being a part of a business with huge growth ambitions, with amazingly talented people underpinned by clear values was an obvious choice which has been further validated by their commitment and focus for a more sustainable planet. 

Through my role as Industry Lead for Real Estate, I bring 12 years’ experience of the sector that coupled with first-hand experience of leading multi-disciplined and remote teams through wholescale change I’m looking forward to bringing a practical and client centric support.” 

Embracent CEO, Mark Lockton, commenting on the appointment, said:

“Richard is not just a professional; he’s someone who believes in the power of teamwork and sustainable growth. Embracent, with its ambitious journey and incredibly talented team, felt like the right home for Richard, and he felt like the right fit for us. He is a fantastic addition to the team and I know will be appreciated by our clients in the sector.” 

 

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 Digital transformation, machine learning platforms, and generative AI are causing an exponential rise in the amount of data being stored and processed every day.

But there’s a problem…

All data, no insight:

Increasing data complexity is making real insight harder than ever to find.
Do you know where to find the pearls in your ocean?

Huge hidden costs:

Companies are deploying huge teams (at significant cost) trying to organise every droplet of data, but is this really needed?

High environmental impact:

Data centres consume energy at an incredible rate, impacting the environment. Heating the sea probably isn’t on your firm’s ESG agenda.

There is a better way

Our data simplification toolkit starts with a very simple principle – that not all data is created equal. By identifying the really valuable information in your vast sea of data, and organising it in simple and cost-effective ways, we can deliver clear business insight at a fraction of the cost. 

Stop trying to ‘boil the ocean’ and start to understand the real value of the data itself. 

Contact embracent.com and we will help. 

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Diversity in the workplace. We need to do more.

 

As pride month draws to an end for another year, it’s worth reflecting: UK companies have come a long way, but there’s every reason to do more.  

LGBTQ+ employees who work in supportive environments are 2.4 times more likely to be engaged at work and 1.5 times more likely to be satisfied with their jobs. 

However, despite those stats, support for LGBTQ+ employees is not universal. And while we mighty consider that we’ve made great strides in the UK, it’s easy to forget that not everyone feels as supported as they could or should be. 

Before diving into what support looks like and practical steps that companies can take, here’s some more stats that might focus your mind: 

 

Bringing the best out of your people 

LGBTQ employees who work in supportive environments are more likely to: 

  • Stay with their current employer for longer periods of time 
  • Recommend their employer to others as a good place to work
  • Are more productive at work 
  • Be more likely to speak up about their ideas 
  • Be more likely to take on new challenges 
  • Companies in the top quartile for LGBTQ+ equality are 1.4 times more likely to have above-average financial performance
  • Companies with more diverse leadership teams are 25% more likely to outperform their industry peers.

It’s clear that by fostering an inclusive workplace culture, organisations provide a safe and supportive space for LGBTQ+ employees to thrive and contribute their unique perspectives. This support can take the form of implementing inclusive policies, offering LGBTQ+ inclusive benefits, providing training on LGBTQ+ issues, and creating affinity groups or employee resource networks. By championing diversity and supporting the LGBTQ+ community, workplaces can cultivate an atmosphere of respect, understanding, and empowerment, ultimately fostering the well-being and success of all employees.

 

 

An inclusive approach is better for people and better for business

Upholding diversity and cultivating an inclusive workplace culture can have a profound impact on a company’s reputation and brand image. Embracing diversity positions organisations as progressive, forward-thinking, and socially responsible, thereby elevating their standing in the eyes of customers, investors, and partners who value these principles. By prioritising diversity, companies not only attract like-minded individuals but also establish a reputation that resonates with the broader community, ultimately enhancing their brand image and leaving a lasting positive impression. 

Empathetic organisations recognise the value of a broader talent pool and the recruitment advantages that come with embracing diversity. By embracing individuals from diverse backgrounds, companies open their doors to a wider array of skills, experiences, and perspectives. Moreover, fostering a culture of inclusion and empathy attracts top talent, as individuals are drawn to organisations that prioritise diversity and provide an environment where everyone feels valued and respected. 

 

How you can be a good ally

Becoming an ally for the LGBTQ+ community is helped by the following steps.

 

Educate

If you want to be a good ally, a good place to start is by educating yourself about the experiences, challenges, and history of the LGBTQ+ community, gaining insight into diverse sexual orientations, gender identities, and the issues they face. Relying solely on LGBTQ co-workers for information can be burdensome and uncomfortable for them, as they may frequently face inquiries that are personal or intrusive. Showing respect and sensitivity by independently educating yourself demonstrates a commitment to equality and supports a more inclusive workplace where everyone can feel valued and understood. 

 

Listen 

Actively listen to LGBTQ+ individuals, honouring and valuing their lived experiences. Dedicate time to hear their stories, concerns, and perspectives without judgement or interruption. This listening process allows us to challenge biases, stereotypes, and misconceptions, fostering a more inclusive and accepting environment. It also provides an opportunity for LGBTQ+ individuals to be heard, validated, and empowered, promoting their well-being and contributing to the overall diversity and richness of our society. 

 

Use inclusive language and appropriate pronouns 

Utilise inclusive language and appropriate pronouns in order to create an inclusive and respectful environment for all individuals, regardless of their gender identity or expression. It acknowledges and affirms people’s self-identified genders, validating their identities and experiences. Consciously avoid assumptions about people’s identities, remember not to jump to conclusions based on someone’s appearance or attire, and consistently respect and use individuals’ preferred pronouns, acknowledging the impact of your words. Options like ‘he/him’, ‘she/her’, and ‘they/them’ are commonly used. Alternative pronouns like ‘ze/zir/zirs’ offer more choices. 

Making mistakes is okay if it wasn’t intentional, and is followed swiftly by a genuine apology, and a willingness to learn.  

 

Take a stand against discrimination 

Take a stand against discrimination and prejudice whenever encountered. Challenge and confront instances of homophobia, transphobia, and other forms of discrimination. It requires courage and conviction to speak up and advocate for those who are marginalised or oppressed. By doing so, we signal our commitment to fairness, justice, and human rights.

 

Support LGBTQ+ organisations 

Demonstrate support by engaging with LGBTQ+ organisations, events, and causes. Supporting LGBTQ+ organisations is a tangible way to contribute to the advancement of LGBTQ+ rights, inclusion, and equality. These organisations play a vital role in advocating for LGBTQ+ individuals, providing resources, support, and education to the community and beyond. By donating funds, volunteering time, or participating in events and campaigns organised by LGBTQ+ organisations, we actively contribute to their efforts in creating positive change. 

 

By embracing these steps, you can become a valuable ally, contributing to the creation of a more inclusive and accepting society for all.
Remember, supporting diversity in the workplace goes beyond legal compliance; it reflects an ethical commitment to equal opportunities. By adhering to laws promoting diversity, organisations demonstrate their dedication to maintaining an ethical and socially responsible environment

 

Final Thoughts

Wishing you all a wonderful Pride Month! Let’s celebrate the beautiful diversity of the LGBTQ+ community, spreading love, acceptance, and equality not just during this special month, but throughout the year. We’ve made incredible progress, but let’s continue our journey towards a more inclusive and supportive world. Together, we can make a difference and create a future where everyone feels embraced, celebrated, and valued for who they are.  

Keep shining your rainbow colours!  

 

Nicola Comerford

As an analyst in the digital and marketing team I make sure our people and clients are communicated of all things embracent through our social platforms
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Like many after college, I hadn’t landed on what career I wanted to pursue. I loved English Literature, so studied that for enjoyment rather than long-term aspirations.

Post university, I discovered technology as a profession, somewhat by chance.  I was invited to an IT course by a friend. They insisted the course had been designed for people without formal IT training or education. Well, that would be me.

The course was based on software robotics and creating them for clients. This was the first time I heard the terms ‘Robotic Process Automation’ (RPA) and ‘Citizen Developer’. I felt immediately out of my depth. But it was that feeling that lit a fire in me.

For the next week, I learned the basics of using Automation Anywhere (IFs, Loops, variables, UI interactions etc.) whilst simultaneously studying and attempting to create my own automations at home. This is also where I learnt what an excellent learning resource YouTube can be. Thousands of people, all posting videos on Guides, common exceptions, hierarchy, security, architecture, and best practices. I became intent on learning as much as I could as quickly as I could.

On day three of the training course, we were introduced to the Automation Anywhere University. This is a resource that offers training and accreditations for free. I began investing as much time into this resource as I possibly could. One accreditation after another, I eventually gained my Advanced Developer, Master Developer, Train the Trainer, and more.

I had started the course as a novice; the only member of my class intake without any IT experience, but by the end of the course, I received full marks and a job offer. I was the only student to do so.

Fast forward six months, I became the person who taught the course to both national and international corporate clients.

Whilst I had downtime from the course demands, I was also developing automations on client projects including IQ Bot implementations as well as mastery and accreditation of multiple versions of Automation Anywhere (v10, v11 A2019 & A360).

When the pandemic hit the UK in early 2020, I decided to diversify my expertise. I was intrigued that UiPath was dominating the European RPA market. I wanted to learn why and build further expertise aligned to this business that clearly had much to offer.

I utilised UiPath’s free training resource. Again, this was a deep and detailed resource offering large amounts of free accreditations and certifications. I decided to complete as many of the training courses as possible.

I began implementing UiPath automations via a community license for my own business startup. Who doesn’t have a side hustle, right? I used these automations in lieu of paying for premium costs such as stock inventory, email receipting and sticker printing of addresses.

Shortly after starting that business, I was offered a chance to utilise and expand my UiPath skills at Embracent – a UiPath partner – and have now been a UiPath specialist at Embracent for over two years. What I have really enjoyed is that, accreditations aside, working day-in day-out with clients – beyond the theory – one can see first-hand the real-life challenges businesses face, and the tangible difference a well-architected RPA solution can bring. In my experience, study is essential but there’s nothing like real client experience to bring understanding of these solutions to life.

For those who may wish to become Citizen or Professional developers, here are my top five tips from my own career journey;

  1. Self-development can’t be optional.
    You must strive to be the best in the room at all times, whereas people may have natural advantages such as Computer Science degrees, you must makeup what you don’t possess with niche skills, curiosity, charisma and willingness to go the extra mile.
  2. Learn as much as you can from other people.
    YouTube, training courses, online resources, uDemy and forums are great ways to help you solve developmental problems as well as learn.
  3. Stay up to date.
    RPA Software vendors are constantly updating their software. You must stay up to date on all the new features, betas and marketing they release as this is what clients will want to know.
  4. Practise by yourself.
    People learn in very different ways: for me, I found the most effective to be hands-on learning. The majority of RPA software is free for personal use. Both Automation Anywhere and UiPath have free community versions that can be downloaded, installed and setup in less than thirty minutes.
  5. If you find it interesting – learn it!
    Whilst RPA is a skill in its own, it leverages several other technologies that can broaden your horizons when attempting to become a professional developer. Databases, APIs, Excel and Python are just some of the technologies that RPA can leverage. If you find anything interesting about these sub-topics: playing around, learning and perhaps getting accredited in these technologies can boost your skillset as well as your CV.

Cam McMahon

As an Analyst Developer, I help our clients to automate repetitive and mundane processes through the development of intelligent and automated solutions.
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THE CHALLENGE 

Like many local authorities, Derby City Council provides a myriad of services, each reliant on its own set of dedicated application systems.  As a result, there are silos of data about its citizens and the services provided to them. Unfortunately, this means that there is no single view of people, places, and services.   

This is problematic, particularly in social care and Supporting Families, where several different teams work with various systems, but have no single view of these families.  

Supported Families are those who are encountering separate social care-related issues potentially across different members of the family. This may involve issues at school, welfare or financial difficulties, anti-social and criminal activity, domestic abuse, or health issues. 

Without a single view of a household and the activities of those who lived there, it was difficult for the council to understand how any of the support they were providing to one individual, may be either influenced by, or influencing others, in the same household. 

Many of these household challenges are interlinked, but the council lacked visibility across its various teams. The result was a systemic difficulty in making those associations proactively, allowing earlier targeted intervention and support. Derby City Council recognised the urgent need to become an Insight-Led Council. 

OUR APPROACH 

Embracent was able to take the high-level designs/aspirations provided by the council, and architect these into a strategic automated solution.  This involved ingesting data from 6 different application data sources within the council.   

We undertook a significant programme of work integrating data, verification, data quality and error handling checks, and transforming all data into a Microsoft SQL Server-based central repository. This was aligned to a single council business view, rather than reflecting each of the distinct data sources that hold inconsistent data that cannot easily be joined back together.  

Further to engineering the platform, a series of business-intuitive dashboards were deployed. This allowed end-users in different council services to effortlessly obtain data from other teams to build a complete view of any one supported family that will need their help. 

Embracent worked with the council collaboratively as a single project team (both with business users and IT teams), bringing in specific technical and domain expertise, whilst also imparting all key project and live support knowledge throughout the process. 

THE RESULT 

The live central data repository provides Derby City Council with a single version of the truth for all Supported Families households, individuals, and activities. 

Insight is intuitively presented, and available – subject to carefully-controlled security permissions protecting data sensitivity – to the council’s teams. This means that council teams can now identify issues easily, and work with other departments to provide joined up support the same household and individuals. 

The improvements to data and insights confer numerous benefits to the council: 

  1. All manual effort to look up citizens of Supported Families across multiple different systems can be removed, as everything is now accessible via one single data source. 
  2. The improvement in the quality and efficiency of services that can be offered, due to the new overarching understanding of what a household and/or individuals need. 
  3. Proactively identifying households/individuals early, even before they qualify / become an actual Supported Family. This means that support for families becomes available very early and can easily mitigate bigger issues later due to earlier interventions. 

      The council teams have also been trained, empowered, and mentored to manage this solution by themselves, with no unnecessary or costly dependency on external resources.  

      The end result is a strategic (and expandable) data platform that provides all necessary high-quality insight for Supported Families instantaneously, and in a secure and ethical manner. Derby City Council has now become an Insight-Led Council. 

      “Embracent lived and breathed this project from start to finish; they fully committed and invested their time, recognising the importance and impact of the solution and how it could help to change lives. The whole team were friendly, accessible and gave their all to deliver the final product.”


      Heather Greenan – Director of Policy, Insight & Communications – Derby City Council 

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