Tag: #NeedToChange

In the aftermath of the US elections, but also seeing what is happening in other countries like Germany, France, Italy, Hungary, the UK, I believe that we need to reflect on what we as Human Resources Practitioners are doing every day in our workplaces and what the effects are (supporting business reorganizations, restructurings, outsourcing, as well as our own HR outsourcing or low-cost job placement, automation, etc.). I don’t believe that anyone should now complain about a single election outcome in the US or of raising right-wing parties in European countries or of Brexit. Are we and can we really be surprised about that? – maybe if we have lived in our own bubbles for the last few years, but not truly when we think about what we in HR have done, supported, paved the way for in the last years: In essence, more and more lower qualified jobs have become obsolete or moved to low-cost countries. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t want to say that we have done things wrong or are the sole cause of what has happened in society – and I don’t believe that we need to justify what we have done. I believe we had sufficient supportive reasons for it. However, I believe that we are an integral part of the picture – and can and need support making it right again.
Now, what I want to say is that we probably have not looked at the societal impact of what we were doing. I strongly believe that we are splitting the workforce every day. Splitting it into the ones that can participate and the ones that can’t or are even ousted. Technology is a great enabler of our every day life – also at work. It is though also an instrument to split the workforce.
Let’s take the rise of the computer as one example with which the current revolution started – slowly at first, but now more rapid than ever. With the “normal” PC coming into the workplace, more and more activities could be dealt with via Computer – and you did not need an employee for it anymore. The normal computer has taken workplaces and transformed employees into unemployment.
But it is not only about “losing” your job. Let’s take Social Collaboration as another example – Social Collaboration is how we get things done at work now, or at least when we are young and grew up with it. But what does Social Collaboration do to Baby Boomers or Generation X colleagues? – No offence, but they are truly used to different ways of working and have a hard time to adjust, if they can. Social Collaboration can in fact alienate from the workplace. If you cannot participate, you are separated and slowly lose touch with your workplace, with your work.
And there are many more of these examples where I believe that for good reasons, we in HR changed the way our company operates, but maybe did not always think about the colleagues that we leave behind. And after all, I believe that being left behind at work or even losing your job is one of the main impacts or factors that places people on the losing side of Globalisation. It is explainable – it is man-made, and now we should not complain that these former colleagues or still colleagues that have lost touch and connection are unhappy and protesting. Inclusiveness at work is not only about the usual topics, it is also about technology.
BUT, in the same way we moved these colleagues to the other side, we can and should and need to move them back onto the winning side. This is the only way to keep us all together as a strong society where everyone can participate. This is the way civilised societies deal with these kind of things. It should not be about who screams louder or who is stronger – the elite (and yes, this is us) the elite needs to be the smart party here and needs to start listening and acting. Further separation and ousting of colleagues does only further nurture the fire that is burning. Globalisation, the way we live today, the way we work today, how small the world is, what we have achieved is worth fighting for – and we should fight for it. Just not in the way that these right-wing parties are doing it, not in a way that further alienates and makes people aggressive. But in a way that brings people together again – and this needs to start at the workplace. And we as HR are the ones that are responsible for the culture at the workplace, for how we work and for how we create inclusiveness.
And with this, I will start a new series of posts around how technology has shaped our workplaces in the recent years and future years to come and what the impact on workplace culture and society have been and might be. This is a topic that I believe needs more attention and explanation as it has such a big impact on our every day lives. And only when we understand, we can change something, and we can get back on a path of an inclusive society.