HUMAN RESOURCES Transition to Business By Paul Falcone
The Future of Workplace Ethics My newest book will be out in the spring of 2022 titled Workplace Ethics: Mastering Ethical Leadership and Sustaining a Moral Workplace, part of a new five-book series titled The Paul Falcone Workplace Leadership Series (HarperCollins Leadership). Why now? We’re facing evolutionary change at revolutionary speed, and it’s time to make the topic of ethics and morals in the workplace part of our common dialog and lexicon. Some of these changes will impact us directly, while others will impact our workplace and industry and the broader economy as a whole. While we can’t know what’s around the next corner, we can remain abreast of the current hot items that will likely impact our organizations and our careers in the near future. What’s important is that we discuss these foundational changes in the workplace, both in the corporate boardroom and the nearest breakroom. The following two topics are likely highest on the list in terms of what’s hot out there in corporate America, so let’s jump right in.
• Artificial Intelligence Ethical challenges will continue to come our way for many reasons, but none more than due to the meteoric changes in technology. Artificial Intelligence (AI) impacts workplace ethics and captures more time in the media than just about anything else and for good reason: Many corporate executives believe that harnessing this information is critical to organizational growth and development, but even more will tell you that they don’t truly understand how to manage the “unintended consequences” of skewed data. Ethical issues surrounding AI for human resources, for example, represent the future of HR but pose a real risk if not handled correctly. Everything from recruitment to workforce planning to performance management will be captured by AI technology in one form or another: cognitive technology, machine learning, and roboticprocess automation (RPA) represent the very best tools available to measure human capital as a true corporate asset. But there can be a “dark side” of “unintended consequences” if the data is skewed or biased, and legal claims of disparate impact or disparate treatment may result in class action litigation if employers aren’t careful. What makes this even more challenging is that the majority of HR professionals aren’t schooled in the evaluation of data analytics, don’t know how algorithms work, and report that they don’t have the technical acumen to evaluate these new, growing technologies. The key: AI should be leveraged to augment the human experience--not replace it. In other words, human analysis and AI must work together to identify common-sense limitations to the data being generated. AI isn’t intended to a be a onesize-fits-all magical solution to all of our problems. Instead, it should be viewed as an enhancement tool to identify issues that might otherwise miss awareness. Embrace new technology but ensure that you remain diligent for unintended consequences that should require you to redefine the criteria you’re using in order to generate bias-free results. • Gender Parity and Pay Equity The subject of wage inequality between the sexes remains a contentious topic, although it has been more
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WWW.HomelandMagazine.com / September 2021
