The Great Resignation was exacerbated rather than caused by the pandemic. Workers' reluctance to return to cubicles, behind counters, onto assembly lines, and behind the wheel is a direct result of work cultures that, all too often, default to suspicion, inflexible schedules, and unrealistic workloads. The virtual and flexible work arrangements necessitated by the pandemic were eye-opening for many people, but they didn't liberate them from the never-ending onslaught of tasks, back-to-back meetings, and emails imposed by always-on cultures and technologies. However, the next wave of digital technology, dubbed "smart tech," has the potential and power to be different and reverse these trends. Smart technology, rather than dehumanizing us, has the potential to rehumanize work.
In our book The Smart Nonprofit, we define "smart tech" as artificial intelligence (AI) and other advanced digital technologies that automate work by taking over tasks that previously could only be done by humans. Smart technology makes decisions in place of and for humans. While some believe that workers' interests are at odds with smart technology — that humans and machines are in direct competition — we believe that this is an uninformed, unimaginative, and simply incorrect dichotomy. Smart technology and humans are not in competition; rather, they complement one another, but only when the technology is used correctly.
Parts of jobs will be suitable for automation, but few, if any, will be able to (or should!) be completely replaced by smart technology. The experience of working can be improved by automation. Rather than doing the same work faster and with fewer people, smart technology creates an opportunity to redesign jobs and re-engineer workflows to allow people to focus on aspects of work that humans excel at, such as relationship building, intuitive decision-making, empathy, and problem-solving.
In the coming years, businesses will face a slew of automation decisions. And those decisions will have an impact on how employees, customers, and other stakeholders perceive your company in the future. For example, will your company choose to implement:
Brassware — technology that lurks in the background of employees' screens all day, watching for, and presumably punishing, anyone taking an unscheduled break?
Or
Culture X software, for example, can measure and improve workplace culture to make it less toxic, increasing employee work-life balance while decreasing burnout, which leads to turnover.
When it comes to smart technology, organizational leaders will have a lot of options in the near future. Commercial applications based on smart technology are readily available for every department, from communications to accounting to service delivery. It will take informed, careful, strategic thought to ensure that technology is used to enhance our humanity and enable people to engage in the types of relational, empathetic, problem-solving activities that we excel at.
An organization that has taken a cautious and wise approach to automation by understanding "combatting," the combination of people and smart technology that brings out the best in both. Riley is a chatbot that helps train counselors by simulating real-life conversations with potentially suicidal teens. Riley significantly increases the organization's training capacity by always being available for a training session with volunteers. The Trevor Project, on the other hand, understands that staying human-centered and ensuring that teens are always talking directly to another human being is critical to fulfilling its mission. Riley does not detract from the human experience; rather, it enhances it.
Combatting entails more than just interacting with chatbots. For example, Benefits Data Trust (BDT), a Philadelphia-based poverty-reduction organization, incorporated smart technology into its application process. Clients are assisted by call center staff in navigating and completing applications for public benefits. Thousands of interactions between call-in staff and clients were used to train the computer system to make recommendations among dozens of potential public benefits. The system also pre-populated client forms, saving staff a significant amount of time. The enormous amount of time and documentation required for clients to apply for and receive public benefits was the pain point they were addressing. "At the end of the day," BDT's chief data and technology officer Ravinder Gujrat told us, "our role...is to create a human connection." Another workplace stressor that can be addressed through combatting is inclusion. The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, for example, uses automation to streamline the administration of patient encounters, which include scheduling, diagnosis, medication orders, and patient care. For example, if a doctor orders a colonoscopy during an examination, the prescription for the preparation medications is automatically sent to the prison pharmacy staff, and the 48-hour liquid diet instructions are automatically sent to food service staff.
This is just one of many patient encounters that can be tracked across the system's correctional facilities. In addition to this type of automation, visually impaired employees can use speech reading interfaces to "hear" information on the screen and voice-to-text tools to input information on the screen.
Combatting takes time and careful execution to be successful. The benefits of reducing staff overload, on the other hand, are enormous. According to a Salesforce survey of 773 automation users in the United States conducted in October 2021, 89 percent are more satisfied with their job and 76 percent are more satisfied with their stress levels at work as a result of using automation.
So, how do you begin implementing smart technology within your own organization? Here are some first steps you can take:
Determine the appropriate use cases by identifying key pain points. These should concentrate on areas where smart technology can take over rote tasks, streamlining unmanageable workloads and reducing worker stress. Outline which tasks and decision-making people will be retained and which will be automated once the system is in place. This includes determining how automation will be supervised by a subject-matter expert.
Choose the best smart technology for the job. Make certain that the product or system you select will generate the proper combatting balance. Check that the assumptions built into smart technology align with your values. And make sure that tasks requiring empathy and intuition are assigned to people, while tasks requiring data entry or analyzing large amounts of data are assigned to smart technology — not the other way around.
Establish a virtuous circle of testing, learning, and improvement. Step carefully and slowly, because it can be difficult to reverse the negative effects of smart technology once it is in place. Test the new system and workflow to ensure that your expectations and assumptions are correct.
Smart technology and automation have the potential to make work and workplaces more fulfilling and less exhausting. However, doing so necessitates leaders delving into the implications of automation and making wise, ethical decisions about how to use technology that enhances our humanity and makes work better, healthier, and happier for everyone.
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