How technology can drive a winning culture
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STORY
HR organizations have had to wrestle with challenges –in addressing employee concerns and in creating a positive and engaging environment with limited face-to-face interaction between colleagues amid this pandemic By Rob Rosenberg
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rior to the onset of COVID-19, technology was already transforming our workplaces – with advances in automation, artificial intelligence, and other innovations impacting all areas of a business, from the frontlines to the back office. As much activity was forced into remote working and social distancing protocols came into play for other areas of essential work, the adoption of many new technologies was inevitably accelerated by the pandemic. However, these two devel| July 2021
opments – the onset of a global pandemic and the emergence of new technologies – have also been the source of much anxiety among many workers. The disruption that COVID19 brought to many sectors of the economy – shutting down production lines, wreaking havoc within supply chains, distorting consumer demand, and creating concerns over personal safety – left people in many areas of the economy fearful about their ability or willingness to gener-
ate an income. Longer-term, some have also questioned whether technology will have a detrimental impact on employment prospects, either through replacing people or through other more insidious effects, such as fears of more intrusive monitoring of work activity. For their part, HR organizations have also had to wrestle with challenges – not only in addressing the concerns and anxieties mentioned above but also in creating a positive and engaging environment despite limited face-to-face interaction between colleagues. A lot of attention has been paid to these potentially negative aspects of technology. At the same time, beyond the benefits touted by many executives in the area of increased productivity and efficiency, many emerging technologies bring clear advantages in terms of the relationship between companies and their employees and arguably the most important competitive differentiator: culture. I see positive impacts in four principal areas:
New engagement opportunities Virtual conferencing technologies have – quite liter-
