Distribute incoming mail.
Part of the output can be produced by software today.
An agent can propose the plan, chase the replies and keep the record current. To actually change anything it needs write access to a calendar or work system, and a person still owns the tradeoffs when two plans collide.
| How automatable | Partly automatable |
|---|---|
| Kind of work | Scheduling, planning and resource control |
| Jobs that do it | 7 occupations |
| Tool categories that apply | Tools and auth, Builders, Enterprise platforms |
| O*NET activity | Monitoring and Controlling Resources (4.A.4.c.3) |
What could do this work.
These are the categories of tool that address scheduling, planning and resource control, with a few live examples from our landscape. We name the category rather than promise that a specific product does your specific task, because that promise would not be true.
Tools and auth
Builders
Enterprise platforms
Categories are matched from the kind of work, not from vendor marketing. Before committing to any of them, check that the tool can reach the system your record actually lives in. That connection, not the model, is where most of these projects stall.
Who does this work.
7 occupations in the O*NET database perform this activity. Each one has a full breakdown of its other tasks.
- Brokerage Clerks
- Executive Secretaries and Executive Administrative Assistants
- Office Clerks, General
- Postal Service Mail Sorters, Processors, and Processing Machine Operators
- Receptionists and Information Clerks
- Secretaries and Administrative Assistants, Except Legal, Medical, and Executive
- Word Processors and Typists
Work that goes with it.
O*NET groups these under “Distribute materials, supplies, or resources”. In practice they tend to be done by the same person, in the same sitting.
Method. The activity, its taxonomy placement and the occupations that perform it come straight from the public-domain O*NET 30.3 database. The automatability band is ours: we map each of O*NET’s 41 generalized work activities to how much of its output current software can produce, assuming a person still reviews and owns the result. It is a coarse three-way judgment on purpose. A precise-looking percentage here would be invented.