AI and automation in the time of the Great Resignation
Article submitted by Margie Gniech, IoT & Analytics Specialist
Over the last couple of months, I’ve been receiving LinkedIn notifications almost daily of people in my network who have changed their jobs. The turnover seemed so high it made me wonder about the reason for which so many people are looking for new job opportunities. When I was young, I used to love playing detective so I took it upon myself to seek out insights into this phenomenon.
The Great Resignation
I started looking for articles and information and came across the term “The Great Resignation’’. I learned that “The Great Resignation’’ is a recent phenomenon in which employees feel no meaning or purpose in their jobs and, therefore, start looking for alternatives. It matched exactly with what I heard from friends who expressed their lack of passion and motivation for their work starting during the pandemic. After getting over the initial learning curve, they quickly became bored and stuck doing jobs that they found too easy or repetitive.
It turns out they were not alone. In fact, last year, an average of 3.98 million workers quit their jobs each month, making 2021 the highest average on record, topping the 2019 average of 3.5 million.[1] This includes employees throughout many sectors across the globe, all who started asking themselves about the significance and purpose of their lives and professions. The pandemic created time to rethink their priorities and motives. It’s estimated that more than 40 percent of the workforce worldwide is considering quitting their jobs this year, according to a recent report from Microsoft.[2]
Learning to love the bots
Another concern that has been brought to light during the pandemic is the role of robots in the workplace. As robots become more and more advanced, people have become concerned that they can do the job faster and cheaper and eventually replace them. While I understand the fear and feeling of instability that robots can cause, robots should instead be embraced by companies and employees.
Automation, the solution of using software (ro)bots to help with repetitive business processes, is already used by many companies. Though not nearly enough embrace it. Automation should not be seen as a threat to human beings. It should transform workflows to create intelligent teams of digital and human workers collaborating in harmony. Employees will be freed up from meaningless and mundane work to focus on more important and creative tasks. For companies looking to attract and retain top talent (so almost all of them that I know of), it’s time to start thinking about automation as a technology that can improve employees’ experiences. Companies who use automation not only can build a rewarding environment, but also improve business workflows, reduce cost and actually improve productivity.
When embraced, robots can become valued colleagues. While having dinner at a restaurant in Barcelona last week, I encountered robots delivering meals to tables instead of waiters. When I asked one of the human waiters about the experience working with robots so far, they said they could not imagine work without them. Since incorporating the new robot “colleagues’’, they found they had more time to walk guests through the menu and interact with them instead of spending the majority of their time on physical, repetitive tasks like they used to. Talking and engaging with guests is what makes their work fun and interesting.
That made me think, it’s time for all of us to shift the way people view automation throughout the workplace.
[1] Interactive Chart: How Historic Has the Great Resignation Been? (shrm.org)
