Self-assessment questions for pilots
In an age of digitalization, especially since the pandemic, workers have wanted more flexibility, support, and collaboration. Employers often promise to improve the worker’s experience through technologies. Organisations, industries, and technologies, however, often fall short of their promises, especially when they do not put the human first. In this tension, we go for the SEISMEC shift : combining technological advances with the empowerment of workers through fair and ethical digital practices. This shift moves beyond an Industry 4.0 perspective, which prioritises technology and intensive data analytics, to Industry 5.0 perspective, which focuses on the relationship between human empowerment and new technologies.
How can industries ensure technology empowers workers while enhancing competitiveness? We argue that this can be done when industries operationalize key CAPS empowerment factors. These CAPS factors are made of 8 complementary concepts and require active participation to engage both concepts to empower workers.
But what do these concepts look like, and how can you address them in your own organisation? We provide a brief discussion below with targeted questions at 3 categories ( worker, organisation, and industry-wide ) to help you assess your own organisation.
C
Coordination + Collaboration
Streamlining and standardising operations via advanced technologies should always unlock -not restrain- new exciting avenues for both individual and collective creativity
Coordination can be defined as a managerial activity to establish coordinating mechanisms that effectively integrate and operationalize the many components inside an organization (i.e. management, workers, tools, and structures) to ensure harmonious collaboration (Castaner and Oliveira, 2020). Collaboration denotes the synergistic and coordinated interaction among human actors oriented toward common goals; whereby technological infrastructures function as mediating tools that facilitate cooperation, knowledge sharing, and collective performance (Ivanov, 2022).
SEISMEC emphasizes the importance of coordination and collaboration for the implementation of human-centric technology. Mechanisms that align management, workers, and technology support coordination, ensuring smooth and integrated workflows. Collaboration is encouraged by enabling workers to share knowledge, solve problems together and participate actively in the design and implementation of technologies. These practices empower workers, enhance collective performance, and ensure that technology strengthens both efficiency and teamwork.
A
Autonomy + Automation
In simple terms, autonomy refers to the capacity of an individual, agent, or system to make decisions and manage decisions independently, with little or no external assistance. Automation means using systems and technologies to do tasks that humans used to do, often without needing people to intervene, using machines to automate production. These two terms are often seen as contradictory. Automation processes could potentially limit the freedom of others. Currently, using automation in the wrong way could result in negative effects like job loss, economic inequality, and lower job satisfaction.
To ensure more human-centric technology implementations, decisions about automation should consider employee autonomy. Achieving human-centric innovations requires balancing autonomy and automation where technology enhances, rather than reducing, human abilities. By embracing principles of meaningful human control and prioritising the greater level of autonomy, organisations can effectively address automation complexities. This approach empowers individuals, creates human-centric work environments, fosters creativity and upholds human dignity in the face of technological advancements.
P
Privacy + Productivity
Technological innovation should engage with the individual right to privacy and productivity as synergetic concepts rather than treating them as a necessary trade-off
Privacy is hard to define, but it can be understood as sharing information outside socially agreed contextual boundaries. Productivity refers to the ratio of output to input for a specific production situation and is crucial for economic activities. The challenge lies in agreeing on what those privacy boundaries are. Workers want privacy, but employers may feel they have legal rights to limit it. Thus, management attention is needed to balance the interaction between using technology for increased productivity and respecting individuals’ privacy.
On the one hand, advanced technologies can increase surveillance and employee monitoring, which may lead to higher stress, lower job satisfaction, and health issues. On the other hand, surveillance practices and employee monitoring are often used to boost productivity and ensure fairness. Technological solutions aim to balance individual privacy and productivity as harmonious concepts, not conflicting ones.
Therefore, by prioritising workers’ empowerment, employers gain from finding a balance between privacy and productivity. Clear communication about productivity can help employees understand the company’s goals and introduce the management’s plans for improvement. However, the strategic view of productivity held by managers tends to differ from the more operational view of productivity held by assembly line operators. This indicates that productivity needs to be approached differently at each level and that the means for achieving high productivity may be level specific.
S
Physical Safety + Psychological Safety
Physical Safety refers to any risk of causing injuries to workers, such as improper postures, noisy workplaces or poor lighting conditions (RVO, n.d.). Psychological Safety is a shared belief amongst individuals as to whether it is safe to engage in interpersonal risk-taking in the workplace (Newman, Donohue and Eva, 2017).
At SEISMEC, we take a human-centric approach, integrating physical and psychological Safety into technology implementation. Physical Safety is ensured through ergonomic design, adaptive technologies and automated processes that minimize risks of injury and exposure to hazards. Psychological Safety is fostered by creating an environment in which workers feel comfortable expressing concerns, experimenting with new technologies and providing feedback. By addressing these two areas simultaneously, SEISMEC promotes workplaces where advanced technologies enhance well-being and inclusiveness, establishing safety as an important design principle rather than a reactive measure.
