Workforce of the future and robotics

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Although prior waves of innovations have impacted the workplace before,

the current rise of robotics is likely to be the biggest disruption since the

first Industrial Revolution. Cognitive computing and artificial intelligence

enable robotics to perceive the world, interact with the workforce, analyze

and understand the information collected, and make fact-based decisions.

This creates solutions that can fundamentally change organizations.

According to Bill Gates, robotics is an unstoppable trend which will soon

be as ubiquitous as mobile phones are today. Google is investing heavily in

advanced robotics and politics asks for a robot-agenda. The World

Economic Forum argues that robotics will change business models, the

labor market, and the required skill-set of the workforce.

To keep up with the changes of society and to prevent falling behind the

competition, companies need to take this opportunity. They should use it

to their advantage by optimizing collaboration between robots and their

workforce. Robots can, on the one hand, take over tasks from the

workforce, which allows the workforce to focus on their core tasks. These

remaining tasks include complex thinking and higher-order reasoning. On

the other hand, robots can complement the wor

experience by providing guidance and recommendations. This combination

competitive potential to capture new

growth opportunities, and thereby empower the workforce of the future.

Organizations should explore robotics developments and prepare their

workforce so they will not fall behind. However, the workforce is far from

ready as there is an incomplete understanding of the future needs to be

able to collaborate with robots. In order to fill this gap, Accenture

interviewed twenty HR and innovation managers. Based on their opinions,

nine competences that will make the workforce of the future successful in

collaborating with robots are identified. Additionally, it is described how

the HR and innovation managers think organizations can develop these

competences among their workforce further. Lastly, examples of Accenture

thought leadership regarding the future of HR in a digital age are shared.

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Not in all departments of organizations,

there is a sense of urgency yet that robots are

increasingly entering the workforce.

Robots are not yet fully incorporated in

the contemporary culture and therefore the

ethical implications are still uncertain.

High quality and relevant results

delivered by robots still need to be proven.

Therefore, there is still a lack of trust in robots.

To optimize knowledge complementary

to the robot, different disciplines - as HR and

innovation - need to collaborate more.

As robots are taking over tasks, some

jobs will disappear and others will emerge, the

workforce needs to be prepared for this.

Differences in expected added value of

robots between generations exist as older

people know less about robotics.

Increase safety

Robots can help to improve the

circumstances of work, making it safer for the

workforce to do their job.

Robots help analyzing data

Robots can make data analysis faster

and better, which can help in making a

company more relevant to its clients.

Personalize client offers

By combining client-data in a smart way,

robots can help to make client-specific

offerings and thus personalize relationships.

Robots are self-learning

As robots are self-learning, they can

become smarter, which benefits the workforce.

Increase efficiency

Robots can help to increase

efficiency by taking over tasks of the

knowledge worker and optimizing processes.

Improve knowledge sharing

Robots improve the learning offering by

better simulations and knowledge storing, thus

enabling improved knowledge sharing.

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Competences are divided into knowledge, skills,

and abilities:

Knowledge concerns the specific information

that one needs to execute the job.

Skills refer to the manipulations of tools,

methods, and techniques that are needed to

meet the requirements that belong to the job

and these need to be learning.

Abilities are seen as the cognitive factors that

achievement. These are mostly innate.

Knowledge

One of the competences is categorized as

knowledge. This is the functional and industry

specific knowledge that the workforce needs to

successfully do their tasks. Having proper expert

knowledge in their respective field enables

knowledge workers to deliver work of high quality

in an effective way. As robots are taking over

pieces of the process, what is becoming

increasingly important to have a helicopter

overview of the complete process.

Skills

Four increasingly important competences to

complement robots are categorized as skills.

Interaction with robots concerns defining the

input of the robot in order to get the right

output, sharing knowledge with the robot, and

validating and improving output of the robot.

This is especially important as the robot is

likely to carry out tasks that are beyond the

capacity of the human brain, but the

workforce will still need to be able to analyze

and interpret the outcomes.

Technical know-how of robots is seen as being

able to program and control the software of

the robot, understand how it operates, and

keep training to improve the system. The

workforce will also need an increased

technical affinity in order to maximize the

value from the collaboration between robots

and the workforce.

Problem-solving entails the activity of working

through the components of a problem in order

to find the solution. This will gradually become

more important as the robot will take over all

standard tasks, so the workforce will only be

able to complement the work of the robot by

being able to solve and anticipate the

problems that arise in the non-standard

situations.

Data analytics refers to studying historical

data to see potential trends, analyze the

effects of certain decisions, or to evaluate the

performance of a given scenario. This is

becoming increasingly important as the robot

can detect basic patterns and thus the

workforce will be able to add value by

recognizing the deeper levels of patterns and

interpret the findings in a meaningful way.

We are far from ready for this, we

are still at the start. We want to

make progress but do not know

exactly how. - HR business partner Dutch multinational -

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Abilities

Four competences were classified as abilities.

Social intelligence involves being able to

manage complicated social connections and

situations, communicate with others,

showing empathy, collaborate with

colleagues, and to transfer information. This

is becoming increasingly important as it is

believed that social intelligence is a human

aspect which cannot be taken over by robots.

Leadership is a process of social influence,

which maximizes the efforts of others

towards the achievement of a goal. It is

believed that this will change in the future,

due to robots taking over the management

tasks, leaving the leadership tasks such as

developing a strategy, having a vision,

and anticipating the market to the workforce.

Creative innovation is the multi-stage process

whereby organizations transform ideas in a

creative way into new or improved products,

services, or processes. This is done to advance,

compete and differentiate themselves

successfully in the market. As the

developments are going very fast and the

competition is fierce, organizations

continuously need to innovate. This does not

only involve thinking of new and creative

ideas, but includes the execution as well.

Learning agility is concerned with the ability

to obtain knowledge. People need to be able

and willing to continuously develop

themselves and anticipate changes.

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Knowledge

The workforce already has extensive knowledge

of their function and industry. However, it is key

to apply this in the most effective way. To do so,

change management can help to maximize value.

The intrinsic motivation of the workforce needs

to be stimulated. Organizations have to present

integrated plans and align the complete picture.

An example of how this can be achieved is to

share knowledge on everyday problems. This

increases the understanding of how the

workforce can improve day-to-day activities.

Skills

Skills are in need of the largest development

compared to knowledge and abilities. They are

best developed by blended learning. The focus

will be on teaching the workforce how new

technical aspects are integrated in their jobs. For

example by learning from an expert how a robot

is designed and what the expected output is.

Combining training with day-to day practice will

maximize their experience with the required skill.

Abilities

As abilities are mostly innate, they can only be

developed if already present to some extent.

Abilities concerning the collaboration between

robots and the workforce can be stimulated by

change management. This helps to leverage

concerns of trust, an open mindset, and a sense

of urgency regarding robots entering the

corporate world. In this way, the right

circumstances are created. Moreover, it is

important to address and underline the intrinsic

motivation of the workforce. This is to enable

them to perform to the best of their ability.

I think people are open to

robotics, but do not know yet how

they can use it. There is

unfamiliarity and ignorance of

what the workforce can add. - Leading researcher innovation strategies

Other ways to develop competences

These methods of building competences are

mostly used in the long term. However, when

competences are needed on a short term, there

are other options as well, which include buying,

borrowing or renting. Buying competences is a

very common method. For example, recruiting

new talent is crucial in preparing the workforce

for the changes to come. Renting competences

by means of a contractor can also be an effective

way to acquire new competences. Another

option is to borrow competences. This can be

done by creating multidisciplinary teams with

other departments from within the organization

or start external partnerships with other

organizations. This way, the workforce can learn

from each other. Which specific intervention is

required to be successful in the future is

dependent on the circumstances of a situation.

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Having established that organizations and HR are not ready for the robots that will be entering the

corporate world, it needs to be determined how they can be prepared. HR can make a start with developing

the discussed competences among the workforce. However, more preparations are needed to keep up with

the changes of society and to prevent falling behind the competition:

Robotics is only one of many developments making the world more digital and that needs the workforce

to prepare for the future. Digital is rapidly reinventing the experience of people at work from how work

is organized, to the work people do, to the profile of the workforce and how workers are supported by new

practices and leadership approaches. To read more about how digital can make the workforce ready for

the future by making it more democratic, networked, and human, see Humanizing work through digital .

To keep up with these digital developments, the HR strategy needs to be adapted. Many organizations have

a HR strategy that is rather static, which prevents HR from serving different kinds of employees in a

flexible, cost-effective way. The creation of one-size-fits-all talent practices are not relevant to

workforce anymore. The results are slow reaction times, a lack of innovation, and fragmented solutions

that conflict with each other. Instead, innovative HR operating models that create and sustain more flexible

and integrated HR capabilities are needed. To read more about these HR, A new blueprint for HR .

Attracting, developing, and retaining talent is not anymore only the job of HR. HR is a distinctive capability

that should be embedded throughout the organization. This requires shattering the boundaries of HR so

that its skills become embedded in the core competencies of roles across the organization. To read more

about this topic Shattering the boundaries of HR .

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About Accenture

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www.accenture.com/consulting

About the author

Anne Laure Rouw is an intern at

Accenture. This research is related

to her study

Prepare for Robots in the Corporate

The study functioned as her

master thesis at Nyenrode Business

Universiteit. For questions about

the study or to order extra copies

please contact:

Edwin Knoop

[email protected]

Maaike Kleingeld

[email protected]

Laura Deleij

[email protected]

Anne Laure Rouw

[email protected]

About the research

For this research, 20 HR and

Innovation managers from

organizations in The Netherlands

were interviewed. Their opinions

were combined into the

conclusions of this research.

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