I’ve written before about the domination of office-based work in any discussion around the “future of work”.  The bias in this direction is particularly egregious because so much is written about the looming decimation of lower-skilled jobs by the march of technology.

Automation of manual work is undoubtedly a thing, with warehouse automation alone worth around $15 billion, with this figure widely expected to grow considerably in the next few years.  Amidst all of the “future of work” discussions, however, it’s rare that anyone has taken the time to ask how warehouse workers feel about this situation.

A team from Accenture set out to rectify that situation.  They built on previous work from the company into the scale of warehouse automation to deep dive into how automation makes workers feel via interviews with both supervisors and front-line workers.

Mixed sentiment

After conducting sentiment analysis on the interviews, the response was mixed, with 60% viewing automation positively and 40% negatively.  Some common themes emerged on both sides.

For instance, a recurring theme was that people were worried about losing their jobs and that they weren’t given sufficient training to effectively work alongside the machines.  On the more positive side, workers were generally optimistic that the technology would make their jobs safer and more productive, with a general feeling that it would improve the quality of their work.

The researchers believe their findings provide some clear guidance for companies on how to tackle the situation effectively.  Foremost among these is to emphasize clear growth opportunities for employees to capitalize on.  Unfortunately, as I mentioned in a recent article, this is something that employers are currently seldom doing, so this would represent quite a significant change in approach.

Changes to grow

This should not be just about providing training opportunities but also clear routes to progression in their career.  Being able to see entry-level workers moving up the ranks would be clear evidence that such a policy is working, with progression into managerial positions an ideal trajectory.

There are also clear concerns among workers about being able to work efficiently and safely with the new technology, so getting training right in this domain is also crucial.  Being able to work with warehouse robots is clearly a skill that needs to be learned so it’s important that employers provide a range of training programs to ensure this happens.

The authors advocate moving beyond classroom or even video-based sessions and highlight the use of VR and gamified programs to make learning more interesting and interactive.  There are also clear advantages in terms of health and safety of workers, not least because the robots can do much of the heavy lifting that wears the body down.  The researchers cite various examples where employees are equipped with exoskeletons to reduce the risk of injury and fatigue.

Warehouses have become the backbone of our economy, with the workers operating them more important than ever.  The research provides a nice insight into both the positive and negative aspects of automated technologies from a worker perspective.

As organizations attempt to grapple with the so-called “great resignation”, the ability and willingness to understand and then address the concerns workers have around automation, and indeed to build on the optimism they have concerning the technology, will make our workplaces a better place for all.