From talent readiness to cybersecurity, the 2018 Future Enterprise Survey Results
Smart businesses will approach the automation process from the front end
In 2016 the CEDA reported that 40% of Australia’s workforce could be replaced by automation within the next 10 to 20 years. Of course, automation has been happening since the industrial
Impacts are emerging in workplaces, globally. We thought we would share the thought leadership of our colleague, Karla Grossenbacher, a partner in our Washington, D.C. team. It seems to us that her insights on these issues are equally applicable to Australian workplaces and we hope you find them of value.
As Generation Y begins to enter the workforce, many believe their preference for using texts instead of email to communicate will cause a fundamental shift in the workplace of the future, in which texting will replace email as the primary method of electronic communication. Employers need to prepare now for how they will be able to access and monitor workplace texts in the same way they do email, and preserve those texts as necessary to fulfill any legal obligations they have to preserve workplace communications.
Texting is becoming more common in the workplace. Most employees use company-owned or personal phones to communicate in the workplace to some degree, and with phones comes texting. Even if email is the sanctioned form of communication in the workplace, employees will text. Some employers may not even be aware their employees are texting with each other or to what extent. Other employers may be aware and actually permit texting in the workplace or simply tolerate it because they feel they cannot prevent it from happening.
Yet, if employers allow employees to text in the workplace, they will need to think about how they will access, view and preserve employee texts in the same manner that they do with emails. Lawyers in employment cases are beginning to demand that text messages be produced along with emails during discovery. If the texts are made from company phones, the basis for such a request would seem to be well-founded assuming the substance of the texts is relevant to the claims and defences in the case.
However, when the texts are sent or received on personal devices used by employees in the workplace, the issue becomes more complicated. In such cases, employers typically argue that they are not required to produce texts from their employees’ personal devices because such devices are not within the employer’s custody or control. But if employees are using personal devices at work pursuant to a Bring Your Own Device program, the argument that such devices are not under the employer’s custody or control is undercut. Often BYOD policies allow for the employers to take custody of the employee’s personal device for various legitimate business purposes, which would include responding to discovery requests in litigation.
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Technological advances in monitoring and surveillance call to mind the lyrics of The Police’s widely misinterpreted hit, Every Breath You Take. But how will this emerging new frontier play out in workplaces and work practices? As technology continues to accelerate, many employers are starting to think about how to harness these developments in order to achieve greater workplace productivity and consistent health and safety outcomes.
When we think of workplace surveillance, it’s easy to get stuck thinking about the traditional measures that have been widely used for the last 10 years or so – email monitoring, CCTV and the occasional dash-board camera. These methods have historically been used for safety, security and compliance. But as workplaces become more remote and isolated and there are lower numbers of employees on any one site, organisations are looking beyond traditional methods and embracing the latest monitoring technology – both to deal with safety and security, but also as a direct way of measuring employee productivity.
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‘Snapchat is about sharing moments and having fun’ reads the tagline of the mega-app that has the fastest-growing social network in the world. But despite its phenomenal popularity, what potential impact might Snapchat have on your workplace?
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Video killed the radio star…or did it?
In its most recent research paper analysing the effects and possible responses to digital disruption, the Productivity Commission observes that with each wave of change “speculation about the effects of technologies often suffers from extreme optimism or pessimism”.
While perhaps raising more questions than it answers, the Productivity Commission focuses on the potential of digital technologies to deliver economic benefits if regulated appropriately.
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In the 6 January edition of the Australian Financial Review ANZ Bank CEO Mike Smith described the effects of digitisation as being “as significant as the changes imposed by the industrial revolution”.
This comment is supported by a deep and diverse data set and important research from organisations such as McKinsey & Company and we have previously written about the Business Council of Australia’s discussion paper from last year.
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Forward thinking company directors, senior executives, managers and workers spend considerable time and effort seeking answers to critical questions about the future of their business.
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