7 Ways to Ensure Humans Can Augment Technology

More employers than ever plan to increase or maintain headcount as a result of automation. Here’s how to make sure humans and robots can work together.

The conventional wisdom says that robot workers are replacing human jobs. In reality, ManpowerGroup research shows more employers than ever – nearly 9 out of 10 – plan to increase or maintain headcount as a result of automation.

At the same time, organizations need to prepare for humans and robots working together. “We need a new talent strategy to help all companies integrate automation with human skills,” says Mara Swan, ManpowerGroup executive vice president of strategy and talent. Here are ways to make that happen.

Remember leadership matters

Executives need to be igniters of change, innovation and culture to ensure companies become learning organizations for changing skills. Make sure your leadership model hasn’t expired.

Ensure women are part of the solution

Creating a culture where women can thrive is more critical than ever. What works for women works for others too. Make sure your organization is practicing Conscious Inclusion.

Understand what your workforce wants

Companies must harness NextGen work models, including contract, part-time and temporary work to retain the best skills – because 87% of workers want alternative work models.

Know the capabilities of your people

Organizations need to use assessment, clean data and predictive performance to deploy talent in the most effective way and avoid creating skills silos.

Tailor training

Companies must replace one-size-fits-all approaches to training with focused strategies and guidance to develop critical, in-demand skills for their workforce, such as crucial soft skills.

Bet on soft skills

Organizations should fine-tune talent strategies to account for the fact that human skills are harder to develop than technical skills. Work on nurturing and growing these abilities.

Enable humans to augment technology

Companies must continuously upskill their workers and create talent. They must assess and re-evaluate the skills they need to ensure human talent complements automation.

These steps are important today, but they will become more critical in the future. Companies can no longer be purely consumers of work. They need to be builders of talent cycles, helping people develop their resilience and ability to move from one role to another.