More than two hundred fifty years ago, the first industrial revolution made its mark. The rise in faster and easier production via machine manufacturing changed the course of the world. Albeit differently, albeit similarly, it’s happening all over again. This time through automation – as the fourth industrial revolution dawns on us.
Since 1760, manufacturing has propelled technology disruption and transformed fundamentals. Contrary to the utopian or dystopian hypothesis, the rise of machines has created more jobs than naysayers claimed it destroyed. Not just jobs, the mechanism has launched life-changing products, improved living standards, raised the quality of life, connected far reaches of the world, created new global supply chains, new businesses, and even new economies out of thin air.
Today, at this confluence of crossroads, automation is repeating history. Much like the industrial revolution, we are experiencing a tectonic shift towards the technology-enabled, more advanced and dynamic automated world. Just like Industry 1.0, automation’s promises have long-established its intent. A new age of automation ushers in through advances across robotics, digital twin, artificial intelligence, internet of things and machine learning. Braced with all these powers, the connected, thinking neo machines are matching, outperforming, replacing a plethora of human tasks. From mundane to cognitive, automation has the potential to complement the erstwhile work habits of human labor from across the industries and domains. Add to that, new, unforeseen skills that organizations will look for in their people in consequence.
The workplace began transforming as far back as the first industrial revolution. Today, the widespread proliferation of collaborative technology buoyed by automation is altering the way dispersed, multi-generational employees, connect, collaborate and communicate. The question is, how quickly these technologies will change the way human work today. How are they going to impact productivity, wage, and employment? With the pace of change continues to accelerate, the imperatives are further exacerbated by the demand to push productivity while shredding cost to the minimum. For modern businesses, complexities are manifold. As if dealing with disruptive forces like macroeconomic shifts, political and societal upheavals, policy and regulatory compliances are not enough, today’s businesses also need to adapt to rapid futuristic evolutions across the disruptive digital and data-centric environment.
Such unforeseen transitions pose huge talent and challenges for HR. No wonder, HR wants to create a momentum around collaborative technologies and innovation as two of its most critical levers to drive productivity, yield competitiveness and attract the right talent for the right role. But no one knows what today’s job descriptions, titles, skills will look like tomorrow. How can HR prepare for a future that none of us have seen? How prediction of the future of work can ever be certain?
The answer lies in ‘acting now’ instead of some ‘far future’, leveraging people with as much as future-ready technology, enabling human-computer interaction and empowering technology-workforce collaboration across the flat world.
Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) to boost productivity: As defined by Interaction Design Foundation, HCI, a multidisciplinary field of study focuses on the design of computer technology and, in particular, the interaction between humans (the users) and computers.
With the integration of intelligent machines and software into the workplace, humans and machines work hand in hand to improve productivity and performance. Optimized workflows and evolved workspaces not only make things more productive and convenient but also neutralize the impact of working ageism by reskilling employees easily. Human-computer interaction improves performance, quality, and speed while eliminating errors. What’s more, in some cases, employees working alongside computers attain optimized precise outcomes otherwise thought impossible through human capabilities. Employees are adding technology-driven capabilities to their arsenal to be relevant and more productive.
Collaborative technologies blurring geographical boundaries: Workspaces of today are not merely physical space with limited working hours. With traditional offices transforming into boundaryless network of offices and delivery centers, employees leverage the benefits of broad-ranging technology. From distributed computing solutions to supporting a range of devices, maintaining security to self-service support devices, IoT sensors to secure networking, employees experience an environment that helps them to be at their best.
The proliferation of digital knowledge has democratized uneven societies. With the right knowledge and right digital tools resources can make their presence felt and assimilate — provided the compliance buy-ins, access control and process standardization are in place. By opening the windows of opportunity beyond geographical locations, by drawing resources from unsimilar domains or departments, by creating an intelligent and immersive infrastructure, businesses can create that elusive competitive niche.
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