When it comes to the future of work, there’s still a measure of fear that robots, AI, and other new technologies will steal human jobs, rendering millions of people jobless.
While some may hold on to this view, we can no longer deny that the emergence of new technologies has disrupted the ways of doing this. Repetitive tasks are automated, allowing workers to solve complex problems, human errors are reduced to an extent, and employee productivity is enhanced among other things.
As expected, the tech industry is deep in the middle of this aspect of digital transformation like never before. But what about professionals that are not in the tech space?
The truth is that the world itself is a broader tech space. In one way or another, we’re using tech whether it is to communicate with people on the other end of the world, to get information in real-time, or to carry out transactions.
In the human resource (HR) space, practitioners have been encouraged to develop skills that would enable them to adopt automated systems to boost their performance.
John Obaro, Group Managing Director, SystemSpecs Holdings, made the call at a gathering of HR managers during the investiture of Olusegun Mojeed as president of the Chartered Institute of Personnel Management (CIPM) in Lagos.
Observing that the HR landscape would continue to face technological disruption, he urged that practitioners needed to start thinking of better ways to advance their skills and strategies, thereby positioning themselves for the future of work.
He acknowledged the fears that the penetration of AI and robotics in Nigeria will lead to the loss of jobs. He further stressed that with innovation, creativity, and the ability to adapt, AI would complement humans rather than replace them at their jobs.
Describing how the technology works, Obaro said, “Artificial intelligence involves the simulation of human intelligence processes by machines, especially computer systems while robots are automated machines that can execute specific tasks with little or no human intervention and with speed and precision.
AI and robotics have found application in several areas, including in medicine, agriculture, manufacturing, military activities, and even household activities.”
Obaro also highlighted the benefits of incorporating AI in HR practices. According to SystemSpecs‘s boss, robots can automate the entire recruitment process by pulling information from several systems.
“AI can monitor your employees better for productivity measurement, using objective metrics to access and predict performance. It also allows managers real-time analytics to see the impact that absences, open shifts, and unplanned schedule changes will have on key performance indicators,” he said.
Rather than ignore or even fight the inevitable as did the Luddites in the 19th century, the tech guru charged the new leadership of the CIPM and all HR professionals by extension to embrace technology so as to reap these benefits.
Featured Image: John Obaro, Founder, SystemSpecs
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