SPOTLIGHT u Automation and the Workforce
Design automation with employees in consideration
By Craig Le Clair, VP and principal analyst, Forrester I
n Ireland, one person in every five is reported to have suffered increased psychological distress as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The burden of restrictions and financial and emotional worries are reflected in record high internet searches for worry, anxiety and therapeutic techniques. Sadly, advancing automation and a faster pace of work life are contributing to such growing concerns. For many of the quarter of a million
employees in Ireland’s manufacturing sector, the working day is now dominated by what is happening on computer screens – a relatively new environment for many. With this in view, we must design automation setups that do not degrade employee psychology and should help employees work alongside machines in increasingly sophisticated ways. Forrester conducted a study in early 2021 to help understand the impact of automation on employee psychology. We asked employees how they feel about both mainstream as well as emerging automation, which now includes machine-learning-based decision management and chatbots. The study highlighted seven distinct ways organisations can actively counter the negative effects of advancing automation on employee psychology.
1. GIVE EMPLOYEES CONTROL AND LET THEM BE AUTOMATION CREATORS
To date, workers have been recipients of automation’s value, but they must now become contributors. The “ability to program the automation myself” was a top respondent choice, resulting in reduced anxiety and increased positivity through employees feeling more in control.
Amongst the Irish workforce, replacement of jobs by automation is a current concern. But, when people buy into the automation, they become less fearful and, at the same time, have opportunity to advance their career skills and protect their jobs. This seems simple, but today employees struggle with complex interfaces of automation apps and are mystified by the inner workings of NLP and machine learning. Automation setups that employees can understand, enhance and personalise will encourage more willing adoption.
2. RECOGNISE EMERGING AUTOMATION TRENDS AND PROVIDE A SENSE OF POWER TO THE EMPLOYEE
The most popular response for how emerging automation makes an employee feel is that it
6 June 2021 Irish Manufacturing [Image: The Creative Exchange for Unsplash]
When setting up automation, make employees feel empowered by new technologies such as AI and machine learning
gives them a sense of power. This power comes from the belief that they can automate further and innovate. The top choice for “mainstream automation” was more tactical; “the automation simplifies my schedule”. This is a positive finding that means that emerging automation can help emplyees present themselves as smarter, more capable and more productive; i.e., more powerful.
3. THINK TWICE BEFORE GIVING ALL COMMON TASKS TO ROBOTS
The average worker spends 60% of their time with tedious paperwork, e-mail and administrative tasks that are better allocated to automation. Robots eliminate many boring tasks, but also take out much needed breaks and less demanding tasks that make jobs less intense and stressful. Leaving humans with only challenging activities will increase stress because time throughout the working day to momentarily rest, disengage and think creatively is reduced.
4. DISPEL MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUT AI WITH A CLEAR AND TRANSPARENT ADOPTION PLAN
The benefits of AI will not be intuitive to all members of the workforce. Words like advancement, empowerment, innovation and revolution will resonate with some but will frighten others. How the technology will augment the human workforce, enhance employees’ daily lives and handle routine tasks should be highlighted with examples. Leaders must explain why the change is being made instead of emphasising the features of the technology. Automation deficits like job losses should not be concealed but honestly portrayed, along with plans for employee upskilling and updated job descriptions.
5. DON’T LET MONITORING BE THE BOSS Monitoring is sensitive but potentially rewarding for the business and employee. Email data, text messages and Slack chats can help understand collaboration patterns and what employees are doing, helping a company perform better. But the more people are monitored, the
more anxious they are. AI is being used to monitor factory workers’ productivity, and even software developers can now have their lines of code monitored. We found data gathered on the employee is more accepted if the employee feels it can help improve work performance. The employee’s ability to monitor the automation is also important. In other words, make the monitoring a two-way street and respect the natural privacy barriers.
6. HAVE AUTOMATION ADAPT TO THEM Some employees are more comfortable on the phone, others prefer chat, some like to bury themselves in spreadsheets while others just want answers. Overwhelmingly, our survey found the ability for an automation to adapt to an employee is a top desired feature. In fact, this was a top-three employee requirement for both emerging and mainstream automation setups. Employees want to configure an automation to their work habits, preferring a specialised user interface for training the automation. This will require new low-code and user-led approaches that allow a worker to configure a digital assistant to meet their needs without requiring a computer science background.
7. RECOGNISE THAT EMERGING AUTOMATION REQUIRES EDUCATION
Our research clearly shows that ongoing education on automation is key to making employees more comfortable. Confidence grows when employees know how to use it and experience its added value. For example, if a company offers management training on a new AI-powered system but neglects to teach shop- floor employees how to use it, they will become confused, angry and negative. The goal of protecting human experience might seem contrary to automation’s focus on removing humans from business processes. Yet, following this guidance can bring humans and machines together more rapidly, seamlessly and successfully and in new, more-innovative and rewarding ways. The big win for intelligent automation
is where machines augment and enhance employee experience, which means protecting respect for employee psychology in automation design and deployment.
www.irish-manufacturing.com
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