The Labor Age of Technology — Transform Your Labor Force
The eerie and looming threat of an entirely robotic and technological labor force is a tale as old as time. After being depicted in thousands of fictional movies, portrayed in television shows, spoken about within society; this is nothing new. What is new, though? That 30% of small businesses surveyed by the Verizon- MorningConsult have adopted new technology to maintain normal operations amid the current labor shortage.
Who would have thought that a pandemic would nudge society into a fully automated workforce? Yes, companies like Amazon, car manufacturers, and assembly factories have already introduced large amounts of technology to replace human employees. But now economies are seeing small businesses participate in these types of operations. Below, we have included some key points from the Small Business Recovery Survey.
1) Businesses are scaling technology to enhance customer experiences and compensate for labor shortages. Nearly 2 in 3 decision makers (63%) say they are using digital tools and technologies to enhance customer experiences and create new business opportunities, compared to just over half who were doing so this time last year (53%). In the past year, 1 in 5 decision makers have hired employees who do not live locally for roles in which they can work remotely (20%) and 30% have implemented new systems or technology to compensate for a shortage of workers.
2) Consistent with decision makers reporting new offerings and transitions to digital operations compared to August 2020, decision makers now are also more likely than they were last year to say they have improved their technology strategies since the start of the pandemic.
This is not to say the local mom-and-pop café on main street is now using automated robots to run food to tables (some restaurants have started this), but there have been notable increases in things like cloud usage, automated cash registers, and internal management systems. Other small businesses that were once centralized in an office building now have employees operating remotely or in a hybrid fashion. The pandemic is seemingly winding down with vaccinations and fewer guidelines, why are companies still participating in this new organizational structure with remote employees? Well for one, it is less expensive. Employees working from home means less in-office expenses. On top of that, the Small Business Recovery Survey reports that “among decision makers at businesses with remote staff, respondents largely report positive impacts of remote work, including better work-life balance, employee morale, and collaboration”.
In an everchanging economic environment, one question remains. How is your business evolving? Companies have reported that conditions such as flexibility among employees, client satisfaction, and quality of product/service all have improved due to technological advancements. Technology can enable the competitive advantage necessary to scale businesses looking on to the future, and the current labor shortage is speeding that process up. How is your business utilizing technology compared to previous operations? Is your company maintaining a strong digital presence? The level of adaptation to technology will be the tipping point for businesses all over the country (and world) during this new economic wave. Countless companies have already adopted or are currently transitioning to thrive in this new environment. Is your business?
