1. As a manager, what can you do to help employees adapt to changes brought by automation?

2. What responsibility, if any, do organizations bear for helping workers adapt to technological changes?

3. How would you advise workers themselves to adapt to changes in their jobs due to automation?

4. Might organizations use their strategies for adaptation to technological change as a retention strategy? How?

The robots are coming! The robots are coming! Well, not so fast. According to a 2017 study from the McKinsey Global Institute, only 5 percent of all occupations are at risk of being entirely automated by 2025. Even when the technical potential exists, the study’s authors estimate it will take years for automation’s effect on current work activities to play out fully. The pace of automation, and thus its impact on workers, will vary across different activities, occupations, and wage and skill levels. Factors that will determine the pace and extent of automation include the ongoing development of technological capabilities; the cost of technology; competition with labor, including skills and supply and demand dynamics; performance benefits, including and beyond labor-cost savings; and social and regulatory acceptance. Still, the study concludes, automation could raise productivity growth globally by 0.8 to 1.4 percent annually.

Workers themselves are not down on automation. In an Accenture survey of more than 10,000 workers, 87 percent felt optimistic about how technology will change their jobs in the next 5 years. Nearly the same number said they feel ready for those changes. About half of the respondents were described as high skill, with the rest split evenly between low- and medium-skill levels. Ominously, however, a majority said their employers are not providing the kind of high-quality training they need to keep their skills fresh. The bottom line is that jobs will change dramatically, and that will force workers to adapt to the changes.