We are the cobots: the rise of the connected, digital worker

We already share our world with robots. Have you got somewhere by using a maps app on your smartphone? That’s a robot (or at least software, algorithms and AI). Have you searched for something on Google? A robot brought you the answer. Used Uber? A robot found your nearest car and sent it to you (and before long will probably drive you where you’re going, too). And most of us will soon be spending much of our time working with our new robot colleagues – or ‘cobots’ as they’ve been dubbed – as part of our digitally enhanced and connected working environment.

The way that most of us work today already involves human-machine interaction. Bring in more intelligence and greater connectivity and you can begin to see how the future workplace might develop. For example, picture an organisation that through ‘ambient analytics’ (information gathering in the background via text analysis, facial expressions and tone of voice) can pick-up on the stress levels or fatigue of its people, and respond with the right interventions to help or prevent costly mistakes. And that could be in any environment: mine or oil rig, trading floor, contact centre or corporate office. Should we welcome developments like this? Or are we right to have misgivings about intrusion and the changes they’ll bring? The answer, of course, is: it depends.

Some might see more monitoring and connectivity as an unacceptable breach of privacy; a step too far in an employer’s right to know about its employees’ lives. Unions are concerned about job losses, as machines replace some workers. And it’s not just manual workers who are apprehensive. Professions like the law, journalism, architecture and even consultants can feel threatened by the rise of the machines.  For these reasons and more many people will, for now, probably resist attempts to make themselves more connected and visible to the organisation.  But there are two powerful forces at work against that resistance.

“If greater use of wearables and sensors can make employees safer, less stressed and better able to do their job, the question of adoption switches from why? to why not?”

The first is simply that the millennial generation, fast becoming the largest proportion of the workforce, cares far less about sharing its information than its predecessors do. The second development is that reluctance to be more connected will reverse if people see that the benefits to them outweigh what their employer receives. People happily share their data with online retailers, social media and so on. That’s because they see a clear benefit. If greater use of wearables and sensors can make employees safer, less stressed and better able to do their job, the question of adoption switches from why? to why not?

And the potential benefits go beyond just safety. How about just-in-time learning delivered where and when you need it? Or the ability to teach others by recording a procedure as it’s performed from which others can learn instantly. Or what about workers in regulated industries being able to prove, in real time, that the actions they took complied with industry rules? All of these improvements and more are possible in a connected, digital workplace.

“Getting this right could even persuade the last bastion of resistance – the unions – to enthusiastically endorse the trend to more connected workers”

Of course, companies have to be transparent and use the information in the right way – ensuring their employees are safe and able to do their work well and without risk to others, for example. Getting this right could even persuade the last bastion of resistance – the unions – to enthusiastically endorse the trend to more connected workers.  In fact, rather than being perceived as an intrusion, a company not using digital tools that gather information about employees’ wellbeing, safety and fitness to work might be seen by employees as failing in their duty of care. And we’re really not far from that point today: people may be much more receptive than some of the scaremongering about machines taking over suggests.