The CIPD issues new guidance on how employers can adopt technology to optimise job quality and business outcomes. As technology becomes increasingly advanced, there is a growing need to consider how different technologies can optimise business outcomes while supporting workforce engagement, enhancing job quality and providing ‘good work’.
Why is responsible investment important and why now?
As technology becomes increasingly advanced but also more readily accessible, there is a growing need to consider how different technologies can optimize business outcomes while supporting workforce engagement, enhancing job quality and providing ‘good work’. Macro external factors such as the global pandemic, which accelerated changes in how technology is used in many organisations, as well as rising skills and labour shortages and the need to operate more sustainably, make responsible investment in technology even more important.
The question of who technology benefits depends on why and how it is adopted. If designed and deployed responsibly, technology can boost productivity and secure better outcomes for both the organisation and its people. Being responsible means having ethical and sustainable practices that consider and involve the workforce and other stakeholders during business decision-making. Conversely, a failure to adopt good practices can reduce return on investment, undermine workers’ well-being and performance, and even result in the loss of valuable skills. This guide is for people professionals and business leaders whose organisations are looking to invest in technology in ways that benefit both their organisation and its people. It provides an overview of the key considerations for embedding technology responsibly into the workplace. It also outlines a framework for the critical stages of investment and implementation and can be referred to at any stage of iteration.
The aim is to help ensure that when organisations adopt new technology, they consider the central people management and workforce issues that are critical to promoting job quality and good work wherever possible, in addition to maximizing return on investment. While the examples in this guide are from large organisations, the framework shared may be applied to small, medium or large organisations. For more detail on the case for adopting technology responsibly, and its impact on good work, see the Institute for the Future of Work’s (IFOW) Case for importance: understanding the impacts of technology adoption on good work.