The impact of technology on the world of work: 5 key takeaways from business leaders, employees, and HR specialists

The rapid adoption of technology in various sectors will impact the end-to-end employment cycle, in all of its stages, reports the BBL Research Center, including recruitment, Hiring, L&D, Talent Retention, as well as performance management.

Throughout this article, we present findings of a surveyed sample and have structured interviews to shed light on the impact of technology on the future of employment, to find answers for questions such as:

• How does technology impact our lives? And how it will it change over the next decade?
• Did COVID-19 initiate the need of technology? Or did it just accelerate its adoption?
• What are the positives and negatives of technology adoption?

To answer these questions, a sample of 40 people, have been surveyed and asked to share their opinions about 19 statements regarding COVID and Technology in workplaces, the impact of technology on work environment, work/life balance, work flexibility and autonomy, stress and mental health of manpower, jobs under threat of technology, and opportunities of technology in labour market.

We have also asked 10 business leaders about the impact of technology on the employment cycle and also their thoughts about the evolution of technology in the next five to 10 years.

This sample represents 10 Sectors from Service and Manufacturing, Non-profit, and Governmental Organizations, across nine countries in Africa, Asia, Europe, and North America. They are working in organizations of all sizes (micro, small, medium, and large), either in tech or non-tech sectors, from all levels of management (top, middle, and non-managerial levels) in governmental, non-profit, and profit organization representing different age groups (millennials ‘below 35’, generation x ‘35-50’, boomers ‘above 50’).

COVID-19 has accelerated technology adoption not initiated it:

The COVID-19 pandemic impacted the global labour market during 2020. Although it had negative consequences in the short term, it also accelerated the disruption of technology in the workplace.

The majority (77%) of those surveyed agree that technology and remote working was already present before COVID-19, but the pandemic only increased its diffusion.

While approximately 85% agree that technology and remote working were already present in certain occupations/sectors and now it also covers other occupations.

According to the surveyed Business Analysts, 75% agree on the above findings, while only 65% of surveyed Human Resources representatives agree.

So, COVID-19 was just an accelerator to technology adoption not initiating it. Also we are living now in ‘the new normal’ which is a tech-based world.

Takeaway #1: Technology enhances recruitment but not in all sectors:

All interviewed business leaders stated that technology enhanced their recruitment process as it reduces the cost and increases the pool of talent. It also reduces the time of recruitment cycle and facilitates its processes and increases the flexibility regarding time and location of interviews.

According to an HR manager in a large corporate company: ‘Technology enhances utilisation of recruiters in carrying out more crucial tasks such as in-depth assessment of the potential candidates rather than doing some routine activities such as screening and filtering CVs’.

On the other hand, some of interviewed leaders, especially those involved in recruiting ‘blue collar’ workers, said that there are limitations in recruiting digitally; as the majority of prospects are not using digital tools in the same way ‘white collar’ workers are. Others highlighted that the initial costs of adopting technology in recruitment is too high especially for start-ups.

So, digital awareness campaigns among sectors or segments of employees that are not familiar with technology should be conducted to raise awareness of how the technology becomes a necessity and not an option to capture the suitable job opportunities.

Takeaway #2: e-L&D adding more flexibility but less interactions:

Although offline learning & development (L&D) is still more interactive due to the ease of conducting activities like workshops and simulations, but according to the interviewed sample, the flexibility in the time and location of the training and also the ease of having a training session ‘while enjoying the summer vacation or while travelling is a great advantage of e-L&D’ , said an executive manager of a Corporate Marketing Agency

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Also, technology in L&D enables trainees to have a self-paced development through recorded sessions and also reduces the cost of transportation and accommodation that have been spent during traditional in-person training.

But some of interviewees, especially from MENA region, shed a light on some difficulties regarding the internet infrastructure and bad connections that reduce the quality of training. Others focus on another crucial point that coaching, mentoring, and transfer of knowledge is less available in online L&D compared to offline sessions. This makes the e-L&D ‘more boring and less beneficial’ as a Co-founder of a media start-up said.

So, the main challenge is to enhance the efficiency of e-L&D to become more interactive in sharing knowledge and experience. Also, using a hyper-learning approach when available will be effective approach to mix the positives of both modes (online and offline L&D).

Takeaway #3: Technology will be a threat to some while an opportunity to others:

Approximately an average 83% of those surveyed agree that using technology improves work opportunities for people with disabilities, women with care responsibilities and also people living in rural areas (92% of surveyed Business Analysts and 81.3% of surveyed HR representatives also agree).

Regarding the differences between levels of management, the highest rate of respondents in agreement belong to middle management (71.4%) while the least is among non-managerial (57%).

While 94% of the surveyed sample agree that remote working will increase the need for highly digitally skilled workers, 72% of surveyed HR representatives agree that technology and remote working will exclude older workers with low digital skills.

The highest rate of agree on that statement is among those surveyed from the Governmental sector followed by Profit then NGOs with a negligible difference between Profit and NGOs. There are no significant differences in responses according to the region, size of organization, or between IT and Non-IT respondents.

On the other hand, 71.5% agree that ‘technology and remote working will exclude people with no access to ICTs’, 50% of ITains agree while 84% among Non-ITians, 33.3% of surveyed Business Analysts are totally agree, 66.7% quite agree with no one disagreeing on this statement.

Therefore, ICT skills are becoming the number one skill requirement, more than at any other time. Reshaping the employment skills requires a higher attention from potential employees and also from employees in different sectors to lessen the digital skills gaps and to become proficient in using technology.

Takeaway #4: Technology and retaining talents:

Among the surveyed sample, the majority agrees that technology in the workplace enhances the work environment in some aspects, for example: work-life balance, flexibility, and autonomy. This will lead to better retention of talents.

As 88.5% of the surveyed sample agrees that both the location and time flexibility that technology and remote working offer is positive, 11.5% quite disagree and no one responds as totally disagree. There were no significant differences between females (88.8%) and males (88.2%) in response.

Also, 77% agrees that technology has a positive effect on employee autonomy which plays a great role in their retention (20% totally agree while 57% quite agree).

On the other hand, 77% agree that technology and remote working increases work intensity and long working hours due to the employer expectation that employees are online (and accessible) at all times (31% totally agree while 46% quite agree).

While 75% of surveyed outside MENA region said that digitalisation in work has no or slightly impact on increasing work stress, while only 13% of surveyed at MENA region said so.

Although technology enhances flexibility and gives a room for more autonomy and a better work life balance, but it requires a new code of conducts regarding working hours to minimise stress results from higher employer expectations of being online and available all the time.

Takeaway #5: New employment modes in the era of metaverse

The head of a governmental research centre, when asked about how technology will affect our future of work in next 5 to 10 years, said: ‘There are a lot of benefits that will be gained through technology as well as a huge room for improvement’.

According to a co-founder of a media start-up: ‘There will be no need for physical training, meetings, and interviews as virtual reality and metaverse related features will replace the traditional need for being at the same physical space’. Following on from this, the head of an instructional design team in educational services (medium sized corporate) agreed that technology with enhance the e-L&D but will not replace traditional ways of learning.

A co-founder of a software development start-up believes that ‘Chatbot, AI, and Machine learning will lead a revolution in recruiting, hiring, and tracking the performance of Human Resources and will affect all aspects of work’ through a wide range of applications that would benefit from the advanced researches and features the metaverse has to offer.

A final thought: The best way to predict the future is to create it

Finally, the 4th industrial revolution has always been led by technology which is still changing all aspects of life, including the world of work. COVID-19 was just an accelerator to technology adoption but not initiating the need for technology in different aspects of life.

The next decade will see ICT Skills at the top of the skills needed in business, rather than hard technical skills.

What is more crucial is not whether technology will lead our lives, but how we must be prepared to survive, excel, and create innovative solutions about how to cope in a world of technology.

Original article: (https://www.bcs.org/articles-opinion-and-research/the-impact-of-technology-on-the-world-of-work-5-key-takeaways-from-business-leaders-employees-and-hr-specialists/)