Career prospects are one of the most influential factors to consider when deciding on a profession. By 2029, the employment of Business process analysts is projected to increase by over 11% (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics). And with good reason – it opens up a range of industries to work in, has lower entry barriers, and offers steady year-over-year career growth.

The digital transformation trend has introduced a shift in terms of future-oriented professions, and business process analysts have managed to ride the wave.

In this blog, you’ll find out what the job of a business process analyst is, the approximate salary range and career prospects to expect, and finally – how to become a business process analyst.

How much does a business process analyst earn?

Whatever one may say, salary range is one of the most defining factors when considering one’s career. According to Glassdoor, the average annual salary of a business analyst in the United States is circa $77K. 

Meanwhile, Payscale comes in with a humbler amount, yet the number still sits at over $70K. This is the base pay which can be increased with additional income (e.g., bonuses). Industry and years of experience in the field of business analysis, whether it’s a full-time or part-time business analyst position, etc., all influence the business process analyst salary range.

Watch the video below to learn more about the position of a business process analyst:

Which factors influence the salary of a business analyst?

Industry

Like in any profession, salary range differs from industry to industry. A business analyst is an in-demand job in finance, IT, retail, manufacturing, healthcare, education, legal, and many other fields. The top 5 most popular industries for business process analysts in the US are finance, IT, healthcare, education, and legal. Here are their wage levels according to a Linkedin users’ self-report:

Experience

Clearly, the more years of experience you have, the higher salary you can expect from a potential employer. In the US, the difference between an entry-level business analyst and an experienced one can increase by double or even more.

Types of business process analyst jobs

Another important point is that business analysis has a wide range of specializations. Depending on the job responsibilities, these include (but are not limited to):

• Business process analyst specializes in analyzing business processes. This includes business process modelling, creating and implementing business analysis into these processes to effect change, especially when new procedures and policies are introduced. The process analyst job implies assessing business requirements and making recommendations to support process improvements. Finally, a BA is also responsible for the overall process performance.
  
• Data analyst (or data process analyst) primarily gathers and interprets data to solve a specific business problem. This job implies spending a number of hours on data analysis as well as communicating the findings.
  
• Business intelligence analysts review data that becomes the basis for creating finance and market intelligence reports. Such reports highlight trends and patterns in a selected market which eventually influence a company’s operations and goals.
  
• Business systems analyst helps organizations operate in a more effective and efficient way by designing and implementing IT systems. These professionals use both business and IT tools to assess an organization’s operating systems and develop improvements.
  
• Operations analyst reviews and checks policies and procedures, and creates reports with guidelines on how to enhance a company’s operations. Other than gathering information, the responsibilities include identifying operational requirements, the appropriate methods of operations analysis, and more.

The average salary for the above variations of a business process analyst role is as follows:

In 2022, many professionals began mastering new business process analyst skills in the field of business analysis, like those of the related jobs listed above. This move will allow them to acquire useful knowledge, expertise and soft skills that will eventually turn into a financial benefit.

What does a process analyst do exactly?

So, what is a business process analyst? Evolution is integral to the survival of any organization. As new business objectives are set, new products and services need to be launched and new business processes must be put in place alongside to support them. 

With competition becoming more intense, companies are striving to achieve business automation success to thrive in the post-COVID world. Technologies like robotic process automation are becoming more commonplace. Moreover, when a business reaches a certain size, comes the time for process improvement. 
A business analyst is typically the engine for that change. Business analysts process high volumes of data to build reports, create new processes to replace existing ones, and consult on how to build a process from the ground up for maximum efficiency.

Business process analyst job description requirements

Here’s an approximate range of responsibilities commonly listed in a business process analyst job description:

• Create reports and presentations that utilize qualitative analyses regarding companies, markets, and industry trends. 
• Conduct site observations to identify which methods, equipment, and personnel are necessary for effective processes.
• Prepare financial reports in support of monthly/quarterly business review meetings with senior management and stakeholders. 
• Analyze emerging business best practices and technological developments aimed at automating and streamlining processes to increase performance efficiency.
• Collect information and data (for developing better process engineering) through flow-charting, process mapping, and workshops. 
• Conduct meetings with clients (to determine their business goals) as well as different stakeholders and participants in various parts of operational processes; conduct business process analysis flows using the revealed information.
• Maintain regular interactions with project controllers, project managers, cost center owners, and accounting personnel to ensure that business operations are closely monitored and potential risks are mitigated. 
• Analyze the actual results against budgets and/or forecasts and communicate variances to senior management. 
• Gather data, analyze, and make recommendations to meet project objectives, prepare client presentations, and assist in pre-call planning. 
• Analyze and review monthly financial results and ensure any identified errors are corrected in a timely fashion. 
• Assess business requirements and provide recommendations for process improvement.

Business process analysts are often confused with business analysts. To help you avoid this mix-up, we’ve created a short Business analyst vs. Business process analyst comparison table:

Who is a good fit for business process analyst jobs?

Typically, a business analyst’s skills are a mix of technical knowledge and soft skills. Some job listings include a higher education requirement, however, most entry-level jobs in this field, and especially business analyst internships, do not. It’s not a rare case when business intelligence analysts are entirely self-taught, getting all of their education for free on the internet. 

Here are just some of the skills and knowledge required to do the job well:

• Research – skilled researchers will be valuable in pretty much any role, but business analysts can especially benefit from understanding how other organizations work. This skill will also come into play when conducting internal research on how any given part of a company functions from day to day. 
  
• Analysis – once the research is out of the way, it’s time to analyze. BPAs are well aware of what the business analysis process is and what it consists of. To that end, process analysts will benefit from understanding process mapping as a method of visualizing an ongoing process. It’s an extremely helpful tool that shines light on inefficiencies and other problem areas within the scope of what is called a business workflow.
  
• Communication – not only will this help conduct the interviews mentioned above but many problems can be solved by communicating. Often enough, different parts of a company will speak different languages, acting as if they’re pursuing different goals. Helping facilitate that communication can deliver value and stand out in the overall results. 
  
• Education – most positions in this field will require a certain range of skills rather than a specific degree, with automation being the newest and most valuable. In fact, it is more likely that an employer will not look for a specific degree, but rather a Business Analyst Certification. 
  
• Automation knowledge – automation in the workplace is no longer something we talk about as a feature of the future, but more as a necessity of the now. More on this below.

These competencies will not only make you a perfect fit for a process analyst job description but also move up the career ladder. For example, in IT, this type of career path is as follows:

What does the Business Process Analyst Program cover?

This program is the perfect option for those looking to obtain business process analyst qualifications. The program teaches students how to get the most out of a business by reducing the amount of time and money spent on routine processes. 

The Business Process Analyst Program covers the following areas:

1. Workflow Analytics with airSlate reveals how to ensure internal business processes are functioning effectively, which analytics tools and metrics can be adopted, and ways to determine areas of improvement. Students will learn more about the methods, mechanisms of data collection, analysis, exporting, and what makes analytics part of a business process.
   
2. Introduction to Document Process Automation helps students stay in the know on Document Process Automation (DPA), Business Process Automation (BPA), and the correlation between the two. Students will learn how to distinguish between different solutions designed for automating business processes and observe multiple options for task optimization so that they can help a business rededicate time and money towards other vital goals. 
   
3. Digital Security at airSlate acts as a deep dive into the main legal regulations and standards of security and compliance and teaches why they’re essential. Students will possess a deeper understanding of privacy and security while setting up document workflows. 

Upon program completion, you’ll be fully equipped with the necessary skills and knowledge to improve team productivity and start building your career in the BA field. Here’s how individuals who took a Business Process Analyst Program estimate their career benefits:

• 21% – Increased fulfillment at work
• 12% – Salary increase
• 14% – Promotion
• 8% – Greater confidence at work
• 45% – All of the above

Where does the process of business analysis meet process automation?

You may have noticed that our Business Process Analyst Program focuses on learning automation in the context of becoming a business analyst. And there’s good reason for that. 

In 2022, going digital is not so much a trend but a necessity to remain competitive in the market for almost any industry. Therefore, process automation has become an integral element of maintaining workflow efficiency, which is the BA’s area of responsibility.

To show you how process automation enhances business workflows and why companies choose to hire business analysts with process automation skills, we’ve prepared several real-file examples of implementing airSlate into an organization’s daily operations.

T2 Biosystems (healthcare)

Being an emerging leader in the field of in-vitro diagnostics, T2 Biosystems faced issues connected with forms processing (e.g., inability to save partially completed forms). As a rule, medical records contain highly sensitive information. Due to the compliance process of obtaining such data, T2 Biosystems was unable to revisit a form and complete it later without restarting the entire workflow.

The airSlate workflow automation platform provided T2 with the necessary integrations for streamlining such processes. For example, the Salesforce integration enabled T2 to send out forms to their clients and automatically attach completed documents that meet compliance regulations back into Salesforce. 

The automation built by airSlate allowed T2 Biosystems to remove many manual steps, save employee time, streamline its processes, and enhance customer satisfaction.

Claremont Graduate University (education)

The key issue the Claremont Graduate University was facing concerned sending paper documents back and forth, which resulted in errors, misplaced signatures, and time and money lost. On average, it would take from three to six weeks to get an employment contract completed and signed. Besides, due to the huge amount of paper documents, file management and storage were also a heavy challenge.

To start, airSlate allowed CGU to go paperless. As a result, physical document sorting and storage issues were resolved. Another benefit was that CGU could now send dozens of contracts for signing within one day and receive completed copies by the end of the week.

These are just a few examples of how process automation helps business process analysts to accomplish their main objective — improving an organization’s business processes.

The bottom line

When a business reaches a certain size, its processes inevitably need review, alignment, and streamlining. In these continuous processes of evolution, business analysts are the true engine for making change. Research, analysis, communication skills, automation knowledge, and the right education make for the perfect package for anyone planning to become a professional business analyst.

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