Post COVID-19: Automation and The Future of Work

Economic activities have come to a standstill due to the COVID-19 pandemic. For many workers, this has resulted in working from home(remote working). COVID-19 shockwave also pushed employers to the limit, leading to layoffs and organizations accelerating their automation plans to protect workers and most importantly cut costs. In a short period, the coronavirus epidemic has caused profound changes in the way we approach work and social activities. The shift gives us an idea of how the future might turn out to be.

Many companies don’t like violent external changes that disrupt the market and their profit margins. 20th and 21st century has seen tremendous growth in the field of tech and opened a window into the future where machines augment with people while increasing automated systems which positively enhances and foolproofs their future resilience to external factors.

“Future of work”- This is a term that has gained relevance recently relating to the technological disruption, challenges and opportunities, and the structural economic determinants that determine the quality of livelihood.

What changes do we expect to see in the future? How will the pandemic forever transform most aspects of our lives?

Productivity: Working from Home

COVID-19 has been an effective catalyst for change. Social distancing became the new normal, and working from home became a reality for most who are in the formal sector. Two key organizational components are playing a critical role- technology, and people.

Amidst stay-at-home orders, office workers have settled to working from their dining rooms, couches, and beds at the comfort of their homes. With no commuting, there is more time to work and take care of one’s wellbeing. Technology has made it also more comfortable to keep in contact and communicate with coworkers through video calls while reducing time squandered during nonwork things is less when working remotely.

With the growth in demand for digital products and access to the internet, there is a need for the building of more robust infrastructure to make it easier for people to work from home. Some realities will take time to settle. These includes:

• Working in an office could become a symbol of status
• The efficiency of remote working and video conferencing could lead to the end of business trips
• Office meetings could be replaced with video conferencing, emails and instant messages
• Office space could become elaborate conference centers
• Mandatory medical screening on the job could become the norm
• Standard 8 am to 5 pm office hours could become a thing of the past

Critical Workers: The Future of Essential Services

It took a pandemic to come to an overdue realization; there is a need for revaluation of the significance and critical nature of the essential services. The crisis has opened our eyes to the inefficiencies in the essential services, especially the healthcare system around the globe. Essential services workers are paid less and work in adverse conditions.

There a few scenarios that can play out: going back to the default setting post-COVID-19, automation of work that puts human life in danger, and the last one is an increased compensation for the workers who perform these essential services we can’t do without.

As these essential workers continue putting their lives at risk, there is a need to protect them, and pay them better; they do the things most of us would run away if tasked to do.

Future of AI: Accelerated Automation

There is no better time to adopt critical changes like automation than during economic downturns, and COVID-19 has provided one. Many industries and sectors are transforming to have people and machines work together. This involves the automation of most roles in the industry.

Many organizations during this period with stay-at-home orders and social distancing have been forced to operate with few employees physically present as possible. To ensure they don’t lower productivity, they are gearing towards automating repetitive jobs and using robots to streamline manufacturing and delivering of goods.

The healthcare industry has leveraged automated systems to help health workers to refocus energy and time while helping optimize healthcare to serve patients better and respond to demand. Many specialists can benefit from more considerable augmentation with AI. Increased use of tech to augment the roles of the specialists will most likely make them more valuable and resilient in the future.

The market of machines and AI in workplaces is expected to rise with the cost of automation, reducing, and fast. Company cultures are becoming more flexible with automation making them more resilient. The need for workforce learning and reskilling is needed in the strategy to prepare for the future of work.

Automation and AI will increase productivity and economic growth, but will also lead to millions of people switching occupation or upgrading skills.

Why Turn to Automation?

If there is anything we’ve learned from COVID-19 is that digital transformation can be used to not only improve businesses’ performance but also improve lives. With Automation providing tools to fight COVID-19, we’re beginning to see the foundation of innovation that will power the future of work.

Automation will bring in efficiency, increase productivity, eliminate avoidable errors, streamline workflow while providing resilience to external changes that might come.

Role of Employers and Government

To take advantage of these changes, and build back better, there a few ways to lay the foundation and make a resilient labor market. Building a future workforce will most likely involve radical changes when approached in the right manner using the right strategies and collaboration between employers, employees, workers unions, and the government.

1. The pandemic is accelerating digitization and automation across a range of industries and sectors. It’s critical that employers double down on retaining workers and the government build provisions around upskilling and reskilling into massive fiscal stimuli they are injecting into economies to best prepare workers for post-COVID 19 economies.
2. A dynamic novel way to the “Jobs of Tomorrow” is even more essential as the world rethinks its strategy about the manufacturing-driven economies which can be highly automated and the vital jobs. Jobs of tomorrow are roles deeply rooted among professions that care for people, support the planet, manage new technologies and communication products and services.
3. As the government considers the next set of fiscal stimuli, they must prioritize labor market services for redeployment and re-employment, including providing job market insights, intermediation, and job search assistance.
4. Its also obligatory that governments, businesses, and workers representatives work together to lead a shift in upgrading protocols that govern our labor markets.

The Future

While no one can accurately predict the end of COVID 19, what is certain is that the world of work will be changed forever. The vision for a future where machines empower humans is now even closer than we can imagine.

Research on the impact of automation shows a projected rise in demand for tech skills and a decline in the need for manual skills. There is also an increase in the projected demand for emotional and soft skills and expected growth in demand for cognitive skills. There is a need to prepare for the future of work. The projected changes are significant and require investments in both the structure and the workforce in the organizations.

The ideal balance lies in collaborations with an adjustment to both worlds where employees can work in both the office and remotely. At the same time, we allow more integration with technological innovations in the workplace.

Originally published at https://filbertmbugua.com on May 21, 2020.