My performance review was conducted ?by an algorithm and I’m not sure if I liked it.

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It was the mid to late 90s – probably 1997 – when I got my first taste of the ‘internet’.

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A friend I’d made at my part-time sales assistant job insisted he gave me a tour of the world wide web – he was a self-styled ‘hacker’ proud to have infiltrated his former school’s computer network on a number of occasions.

One evening after work we headed to his house in his Vauxhall Cavalier, complete with an augmented exhaust system that created an unnecessary roar as we accelerated at unreasonably high speeds in-between traffic lights. 

We parked up on his drive. Spiky haired and boasting wide-fit shirts we headed up to his dark room. There were X Files and Star Wars posters on the wall, stacks of books about the Roswell landings and miscellaneous cables littered everywhere. This was the house of a true 90s computer nerd.

The demo was about to begin. We sat in front of his pale greenish-cream coloured monitor and waited for the eerie murmuring of the dial-up tone to conclude. A few clicks of the mouse later and we’d made it to the internet!

My kind host showed me a few neat tricks, while explaining the core principle of this new method of communication.

‘This is called a search engine – ask it a question and it’ll give you an answer’

He said pulling up a gradually loading Lycos page. We checked not tomorrow’s weather, but next week’s weather! We looked at the news and sport too. Some sites were professionally created others were more amateur in appearance. They all took an age to fully populate the screen.

Taking the stage I was thrust in front of the keyboard for my first test drive of the internet.

‘Go, ask it something…’

I opted for cult movies – my thing at that time – and began working my way down my very first online rabbit hole. I could look up famous quotes, trivia, production lists and even purchase sought after films from the States. It was fascinating.

By this point Teletext felt very out of date.

The following day I re-engaged with my analogue life of big portable disc players and bad clothes. However, I could sense the world was changing – and the internet was to be the centrepoint.

Browsing today

If I was to conduct that same innocent movie search today, I would ignite the synthetic senses of an interconnected digital nervous system. I can investigate, research, review, buy, join, share, sample, learn, discuss, listen, rant, recommend, watch, interact and belong all in a matter of a few minutes browsing. It’s so easy to drill down to the core of what you are searching or meander off into an equally fascinating path of discovery. Today's internet is an ever-increasing labyrinth of rabbit holes where the user chooses which tunnel to take.

Then there’s the other side of the internet.

The fact I’m being watched. 

My clicks are studied; my decisions monitored. My behaviours tracked.

My browsing feels more manufactured now – as if I am being coerced into taking certain routes. 

My past moves have created a predictable future: pre-empting my preferences and reinforcing my biases.

The internet is playing me.

But I’m fine with it. 

It can be useful, sometimes, alerting me to expand my horizons and discover things I otherwise would not have known. 

When I would book a flight to Prague – or at least when I was able to – I would be alerted to relevant hotels, places to go, travel advice and climate information.

The internet – light years away from its 90s incarnation – has become a digital organism that I feed with my clicks. It knows my traits and tastes as well as an old friend…

Or at least appears to. 

Inside the cookie jar

The internet has now become an environment for human behavioural study with a commercial undercurrent open to all. It’s largely free to use, so we pay by sacrificing our data: that’s the deal and we accept it.

However, while I am a frequent user of multiple digital assets, as well as a creator of some of my own, I am not convinced that the digital world knows me as well as it thinks it does. 

At times I find some of the digital profiling relatively puerile. I engage with one piece of content and I'll be shown something similar during my next scroll. The same goes for ad retargetting, which follows me around bleating the obvious as if it feels party to my deepest most personal thoughts.

As for the social media platforms. Well, their raison d'être is to keep you coming back and to do that they need to feed you more of the same to reinforce your preferences. Hence why they have become the breeding ground for polarity.

In truth I do not feel the algorithms serve me as well as the hyperbole would suggest despite their intimate knowledge of my trigger points. I find the algorithms can be judgemental – revealing a rather superficial understanding of my characteristics. 

They rely on what I put in and the results feel, well, synthetic.

Is my online persona too elusive for a digital brain to second guess? Do I counter the manipulation with my own evasive techniques to put them off the scent? Could it be the case that I cannot simply expect technology to understand me as well as another human would?

Perhaps it’s all of these things. And this is why the workplace should take note.

Closer together yet further apart 

The absence of a physical working environment has in some cases enhanced our emotional connectivity. The true lives of our colleagues have been laid bare. We’ve witnessed vulnerabilities and rejoiced in our camaraderie during uncertainty. At the same time I wonder if it has distanced our professional solidarity.

In the physical workplace we’d experience the full spectrum of sensations that comes with work. There we’d share team wins as well as mediate conflict and all the subtle nuances in-between. The coffee runs, lift-shares and team building days were pivotal in revealing suppressed angst and unearthing inner creativity. Many would agree that not all pivotal business thinking takes place in the boardroom.

It has been near impossible to replicate these textured human interactions over Microsoft Teams. We may have discovered novel solutions, but this element of the employee experience has been missing since the cloak of the pandemic first overshadowed our working lives.

As a result, employees have relied on outputs to evidence their contribution to their employers. However, while employees continue to demonstrate value through delivery, what remains unclear are the conditions in which they are delivering to. How are they feeling? Do they need support? Are they capable of achieving more?

To gain a picture of the true lives of our employees, without canteens and desk-side chats, we turn to digital solutions. And that’s where the algorithms come in.

The virtual revolution

The virtual revolution of 2020 triggered the proliferation of digital workplace platforms designed to tighten the void of distance and bring visibility to productivity, wellbeing and communication matters.

In the early days of the pandemic, entire digital environments were tethered together in a scramble for business continuity. IT and HR teams were working tirelessly to maintain BAU. As time passed these reactionary setups were formalised with stronger software arrangements that have since worked very much to everyone’s benefit. 

When we look back on the history of the workplace, the virtual transformation of 2020 will undoubtedly go down as one of the most remarkable achievements.

Having spoken to dozens of HR and engagement contacts, particularly during the final months of 2020, it was clear that dependence on technology, bolstered by data intelligence, had soared throughout the year. The initial feverish gold rush had passed and new business processes and cultural behaviours had become embedded.

Dashboard dependency

More recently a close HR Manager client invited me to a Zoom call where we would take a look at the tools she uses to monitor employee behaviours. Her setup consisted of a HRMS (Human Resources Management System) where she monitored performance, a bespoke KPI tracker, a reward platform and a wellbeing system with a companion app. Altogether this composition of systems, in her view, gave a good overview of the employee experience. 

While this was a relatively rudimentary setup, what struck me was how powerful the dashboards had become, to the point of users becoming reliant on them – particularly the wellbeing dashboard. 

This dashboard drew my attention due its enthusiastic explanation. For good reason too: because the second most momentous workplace achievement of 2020 has to be deepening the engagement on wellbeing matters.

It’s hard to imagine now, but prior to 2020 wellbeing was far from the baseline expectation it has become today. The turbulence of the pandemic gave it that emotional uplift and profile required to hammer it into worklife consciousness.

However, the rapid adoption of wellbeing may require some reflection and refinements before it’s properly bedded-in for the long haul.

During the run-through my host went further to demonstrate how she uses the dashboards in dialogue with line managers to assess individual performance. This is where the wellbeing dashboard appeared to be particularly useful. But, it is also where I could see it becoming problematic. The outputs were indicating data points such as participation rates, completions, deficits and feedback. There was also a section which summarised the wellbeing of individual employees based on engagement and survey data. It also red-flagged any areas of concern, giving an overall mental health score.

The dashboard itself was very strong. It captured everything you’d expect and my backend knowledge could pick up on a valid use of intelligence. It was the interpretation that troubled me.

I struggled to correlate how the outputs could depict the wellbeing of an individual with any useful accuracy. But I could see how it could misrepresent the wellbeing of an individual if replied upon too heavily. 

Dashboards present a satisfying snapshot in time without the need to dig into data. 

However, when displaying metrics on a subject as complex and sensitive as human behaviour, statistics and ratings are unable to illustrate reality. 

People will be people

In the late 60s, Albert Mehrabian conducted a series of experiments to ascertain the impact that gestures and intonation have on communications. The results of his studies have been cause for much debate throughout the years. You may have heard of statistics such as only 7 % of communication is verbal, 38 % is considered para-verbal (tone and intonation) and 55% is non-verbal.

While even Mehrabian himself acknowledged that the results are not truly representative of the human conditions, it is widely accepted that words alone are not enough to fully understand the intention of someone’s message. Gestures, hand signals, and different body movements are as important.

In addition to authentic human behaviours, we should also be mindful that data is at risk of being intentionally fudged for a variety of reasons. Some employees will not welcome a system that is tracking their behaviours or feel concerned by its true purpose. By contrast, others may look to 'algo please'; telling the algorithm what they feel they want it to hear, again, for a variety of reasons. Then you have the evasive few. While internal communicators will do their best to calm aversions, it’s almost impossible to fully mitigate data infiltration.

In the case of our digital wellbeing dashboards, data inputs alone are not going to be enough to determine the health and wellbeing of an individual.

Data at a distance

The growing reliance on dashboards piqued my interest because we are now (Feb ’21) working in a world of distributed teams where technology is the conduit that ties us together. Automation unquestionably streamlines activity and reduces mundanity from the day to day. It can also dehumanise our processes both to our benefit and our detriment.

If we de-humanise our employee experiences then we desensitise our emotional connection. An area as sensitive as health and wellbeing should not be overly reliant on data outputs as it greatly undermines the textures of human behaviour.

The solution is multi-sensory

As an experienced EE consultant having developed strategies for countless digital transformations, and a long-serving advocate for workplace wellbeing, I can say with conviction that digital dashboards are part of the solution. But only part of what should be considered as a multi-touchpoint composition of assessments. I’d like to add some additional touchpoints to your thinking.

Here are some of the elements we have incorporated into the workplaces of today. I encourage you to explore each one:

1. Spaceless Workplace:

A centralised digital environment that transcends space and time. It becomes the locus of activity, in defiance of distance: a station for all to ‘commute’ to, and be immersed in worklife. The Spaceless Workplace in itself garners many dozens of individual touchpoints to help draw conclusions from.

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2. Internal communities manager:

Your workplace, my workplace, every workplace is a community. While we continue to work spacesslessly, there is a growing need for 'community management' much like you would expect from any other digital environment. This person will have a good gauge on how employees are feeling.

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3. Influworkers:

These are internal influencers. Again, all digital environments feature appreciated characters who rise to become trusted personalities. Those with a natural affinity with people and are able to engage over digital channels should be given the freedom to bring a face to your internal voice. It is no longer about seniority when it comes to conveying a message.

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4. Independent human eyes:

A behavioural specialist to assess data and draw conclusions. This position requires a high level of expertise to bring greater insights to your findings.

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5. Independent empathy:

A professional such as a life coach who becomes the person for employees to go to in times of need. This individual should proactively share teachings that will improve worklife harmony as well as acting as the reactive support network when employees need an external ear.

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6. Soulful purpose:

Soul bonds teams with companies and softens the commercial edge of business. Company values are generally designed for an external audience. Employee values tend to cover off common themes leaving little to differentiate from other employers. A soulful purpose – a purpose greater than yourself – will deepen the relationship with the business and help to solve emotional turmoil organically. 

Final thought

Without a digitally enabled, yet human-hearted ear, our working lives will become more synthetic and less sympathetic. 

After all, some of the most advanced algorithms in the world haven’t got a clue who I really am.

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In my next article, I'll explore the key roles to think about in order to maximise the opportunity of the spaceless workplace.

This thought piece forms part of a body of work which focuses on the workplaces of today and how we’ll shape the world of work tomorrow.

It was written by Stephen Willard, Chief Enchantment Officer (CEO) of the worklife discovery experience, EMBLAZE. 

The goal of EMBLAZE is to awaken companies to their soulful purpose and use the narrative to bond empowered employees with business performance.

If you are interested in any of the points within this article or would like to engage with some of our deeper pieces please message Stephen directly.

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