Tag: Technology

Five things we’re getting wrong about the future of work

HR needs to reframe its thinking on technology, millennials and data, experts tell the Future Works conference

HR has much to learn from the academics, policy experts and economists who gathered at last week’s Future Works conference, hosted by The Economist, where they collectively laid bare the host of challenges facing every leader – and employee – as the working world undergoes a transformation, the likes of which we’ve never seen before. Here are five myths about the future of work that they collectively debunked during their discussions.

The relationship between tech and jobs is straightforward More automation means […]

How tech is reshaping work values and goals

How tech is reshaping work values and goals

Companies can find talent. They just can’t attract it. Fifteen years ago, corporate was king, and bigger was better. Companies such as Bank of America , Qualcomm , Cisco Systems , Intel , Sun Microsystems and Merck were top companies desired for employment. That mindset has evaporated. Today Stryker , Baptist Health South Florida , Workday and Genentech are among the 100 best companies to work for, according to Fortune Magazine .

Small is beautiful

Worker preferences are changing. It’s no longer good enough to tout social responsibility and entice talent with the sparkle of high earnings. Employees want […]

Is the threat of job automation affecting your recruitment strategy

Is the threat of job automation affecting your recruitment strategy

Is the Threat of Job Automation Affecting Your Recruitment Strategy?

If the threat of job automation is impacting your organization’s ability to attract top talent, it’s likely time to revisit your recruitment strategy. Because technology has become a big part of how different industries perform tasks, it can cause a fear of job stability for many employees seeking new positions in these industries. Fear of being replaced by software or an algorithm can cause job seekers to consider switching industries or independently pursue training.

According to ADP’s study 43 percent of employees believe that “automation will replace employees for repetitive […]

Automation And The Future of Work: Are Management, Creative, And Administrative Jobs At Risk?

Automation And The Future of Work: Are Management, Creative, And Administrative Jobs At Risk?

An astounding 47% of jobs in the United States alone are at high risk of being automated over the coming 20 years. A combination of new business models, technology, workforce automation, and globalization is changing the way that companies do business – and the workforce is at the crux of it all. New job categories will replace many of these automated jobs. But the real question is: What happens to the people rendered redundant, and how likely will companies help ensure their success?

Traditionally, robots and automation are associated with the displacement of more manual labor. However, the stark reality […]

Universal Basic Income

Universal Basic Income

Universal Basic Income by Independent Trader

It wasn’t long time ago when Swiss had a referendum about universal basic income (UBI). They rejected it. The initiators of the campaign for UBI wanted a minimum salary to be paid to everyone regardless of their age, occupation or level of income. The UBI was aimed to replace pensions and benefits thanks to which numbers of bureaucrats would decrease. One argument for such a change is advancing automation and the end goal is to disconnect salary from work.

The Swiss economy is one of the most efficient economies in the world. Robotised manufacturing […]

“They’ve just shot the wrong thing.” Automation, immigration and Brexit at London Tech Week

The absence of Ashok Vaswani, CEO of Barclays UK, at London Tech Week’s Future of Work panel was a telling hint at the enormous, Brexit-shaped elephant in the room.

While technology and business leaders had gathered to hear a panel talk about the changing face of work, the pound was plummeting to a 31-year low. As a result, optimistic words about the future of 21st-century employment had to jostle around the awkward fact that Britain’s future economy was, and continues to be, very much in the toilet.

The young can look forward to a “more secure” and “prosperous future”, Boris Johnson […]

Interview: Top US Labor Official Talks Job Creation, TPP

Interview: Top US Labor Official Talks Job Creation, TPP

ObamaFILE – Deputy Labor Secretary Christopher P. Lu speaks at Bladensburg High School in Bladensburg, Md., April 7, 2014 In the midst of a presidential campaign season where sustained economic recovery, job creation and trade have returned to the fore, Deputy Secretary of Labor Christopher Lu talked with VOA’s Adrianna Zhang about the Trans-Pacific Partnership and outlook on job creation efforts. Lu said more needs to be done despite recent gains.

VOA : Job creation has been a central talking point throughout the 2016 presidential campaign. Can you talk a bit about what your department has been doing to […]

The return of the machinery question

The return of the machinery question

THERE IS SOMETHING familiar about fears that new machines will take everyone’s jobs, benefiting only a select few and upending society. Such concerns sparked furious arguments two centuries ago as industrialisation took hold in Britain. People at the time did not talk of an “industrial revolution” but of the “machinery question”. First posed by the economist David Ricardo in 1821, it concerned the “influence of machinery on the interests of the different classes of society”, and in particular the “opinion entertained by the labouring class, that the employment of machinery is frequently detrimental to their interests”. Thomas Carlyle, writing […]

Automation and anxiety

Automation and anxiety

SITTING IN AN office in San Francisco, Igor Barani calls up some medical scans on his screen. He is the chief executive of Enlitic, one of a host of startups applying deep learning to medicine, starting with the analysis of images such as X-rays and CT scans. It is an obvious use of the technology. Deep learning is renowned for its superhuman prowess at certain forms of image recognition; there are large sets of labelled training data to crunch; and there is tremendous potential to make health care more accurate and efficient.

Dr Barani (who used to be an oncologist) […]

Re-educating Rita

Re-educating Rita

IN JULY 2011 Sebastian Thrun, who among other things is a professor at Stanford, posted a short video on YouTube, announcing that he and a colleague, Peter Norvig, were making their “Introduction to Artificial Intelligence” course available free online. By the time the course began in October, 160,000 people in 190 countries had signed up for it. At the same time Andrew Ng, also a Stanford professor, made one of his courses, on machine learning, available free online, for which 100,000 people enrolled. Both courses ran for ten weeks. Mr Thrun’s was completed by 23,000 people; Mr Ng’s by […]