Usage of technology is gradually overtaking the workplace environment and the increasing use of Apps has changed the world of business to some extent already. The report identifies this trend and predicts the future of the workplace when employees will start to use the Apps extensively instead of doing works manually (Ally et al. 2013). The inclination towards using the Apps happens as this facilitates the employees to finish off their work sooner and much easily as well. However, the major reason why the employees are likely to adopt Apps in their day-to-day work is that the easier work life offers a perfect work-life balance (Ferdous, Osmani and Mayora 2015). Thus, the employees will have ample time to spend with the family and their personal life will be managed effortlessly. The report is purposed to determine some certain implications in the future workplace when the employees will replace the manual work procedures completely by using the Apps. In the body of the report the implications are well addressed individually for the employees, HRM and for the managers or leaders (Wang, Pauleen and Zhang 2016). Finally, the report ends with a justified conclusion summarizing all the key points mentioned in the argument presented in the body.
The implications for using Apps by the employees to accomplish regular office works have both benefits and challenges. Moreover, it will create several opportunities for the employees, human resource departments and managers or leaders as well.
Since the employees, will primarily use the Apps, the greatest implications will be for them (Jones, Burke and Westman 2013). In the first place, the vast usage of Apps will change the way of working for the employees. The entire work process will be App based and the struggle of manual working will be out of date. The Apps will make introduce an extraordinarily secure work process, which will also change the way the employees have been working until now. This is to say that with Apps the employees will have to go through proper log in process so that the right employee has access to the right thing. The Apps will also track the daily performance of the employees, which implies that with the work being easier the monitoring and supervision on them will also increase (Kim 2014). In this way, the productivity for the organization is also likely to improve, as the Apps will facilitate to perform tasks in less time.
Another implication for the employees is acquiring new technological skill sets that may become difficult for a section of employees. Technical skills are the knowledge and abilities required to accomplish special tasks through Apps. Since, the future workplace is likely to adapt the Apps as the primary medium of performing jobs; the employees will need to acquire knowledge about mechanical equipment, programming languages and the like. These technical skills will require proper professional training and experience to master (Williams, Long and Morey 2014). This new set of skills will become must for applying to any job in the future. From time management to task management everything will be supervised by the Apps in near future and this is why the employees will have to be well-versed in the technological aspects. Even for interviewing, the employers will be using Apps for video interviews to hire people.
The rising usage of Apps will also facilitate the employees to work from anywhere; that is to say that the employees, in future, will be easily note down the project details, ideas, and timelines in the Apps and can simply work from their convenient place by logging in. Moreover, the risk of something slipped or missed will not be there and that this will reduce the work worries of them as well. In addition, there are already such Apps that easily track one’s to-do-list keeping the employee ready for the upcoming days and it is very likely that employees will prefer to use these Apps extensively in future. However, the most important benefit that the employees are likely to gain from this is the work-life balance that has been lost somehow. With the adoption of these Apps, the employees will not need to attend office regularly and thus can have time to spend with their families (Dawid et al. 2016). In fact, the corporate organization at present do not realize that poor work life balance does affect the employee performance and productivity. Using the Apps, when the work pressure will be reduced and the work-life will be restored, the employees will be retaining in the jobs more.
As an extension of this topic, the matter of job satisfaction gained from the restored work-life balance and work process being easier greatly implies on the employees. The Apps, if adopted unanimously by all the companies across the globe will make the world virtually connected and there will be no need to travel leaving the families. On the other hand, when the employees will not need to do overtime beyond their shift timing as the Apps will facilitate them to complete work in time, will naturally higher their satisfaction level for the job (Williams, Long and Morey 2014). This job satisfaction is immensely important for the employees as satisfaction attaches happiness with the work and they become motivated for the job they have been doing.
The changed situation with digitalized and purely technological way of working will have significant implications for the Human Resource Management too. The HRM in the organizations will have to change the way they recruit and promote employees at present.
The principal implication for the HRM in the altered workplace scenario will be to train the employees in the detail of technological aspects that they will need to acquire while working with the Apps. This is due to that Human Resource Management is one critical support that is entailed to link the training program with the goals of the organization (Brewster, Brookes and Gollan 2015). Undeniably, usage of Apps will diminish the difficulty level of the jobs but these Apps have several layers to operate and are quite difficult to handle without expertise. It is not possible for the employees to learn these technological nuances on the job and hence, the HRM needs to train the employees before the job to make them efficient and technologically versed. However, apart from the technological skills, the HRM will also have to train the employees to be alert while using the Apps on daily basis. The training of being extra careful all the time will be necessary, as the Apps are automated and the slightest mistake on the employees’ part may lock them. Besides, since the Apps will make the work process easier, they will also have to be trained to work with the same zeal (Sheehan et al. 2016). Overall, this training will be aimed at the continuous improvement of employees while learning the new set of skills and in this context; HRM will have a major role.
Promotion is another crucial job role of HRM where recommending the appropriate employee for a particular designation is an important decision that they have to take. Now, the criteria of promoting employees at present, is different from the criteria that will be important in the age of Apps revolution. HRM at that time will need to focus more on the technological capabilities such as profound web language, WebCT skills, and knowledge of computer security, skills for web navigation, videoconferencing skills, PDA knowledge and the like (Gooderham et al. 2015). It also implies to the HRM to promote those employees who are doing well in the criteria list. Apart from promoting, giving recognition to those employees encouraging them for doing better also entails upon the HR department. Promoting the employees will new set of skills will overall encourage the usage of Apps in the workplace and this will also be judged as measure for merit in the coming days. The employees’ skill will also be utilized to grow the organization on the ground of technological expertise.
Another significant aspect of HRM’s role is to maintain employee relations in the organization, as this is a crucial factor of managing organization culture. Employee relations in the corporate culture are built due to cooperation in work and sharing of ideas. Now that Apps are to overtake this conventional way of building relations it is up to the HRM how they will maintain it. One major change that these automated Apps will bring in the organizations is that employees will become distanced from one another (Wilton 2016). This is due to that the Apps will require no cooperation like manual works and there will be no sharing of ideas as well. As a result, the employee relation will no longer be the same. Due to the rise of Apps, it will also not be necessary for the employees to work in the same office space. In this situation, it will be the responsibility of the HRM to maintain the unity and integrity among the employees so that they build up a healthy professional relation. The Human Resource management of the organizations can do this by arranging events and programs outside the working hours so that the employees will be able to communicate and maintain good relation.
Criteria for recruiting and selecting employees will be changed too in the wake of a technological business world. While at present the academic, communication and management skills matter to be recruited, in the coming years the HRM will have to concentrate on the technological expertise of the candidates more (Sheehan et al. 2016). Consequently, candidates having technological knowledge and expertise will have advantage at the time of recruitment, because these candidates will not require additional training. The comfort level of the applicants to work through Apps also to be judged at the time of recruitment.
Leaders or managers are the pillars of any organization and on whose capabilities an organization’s success lies (Northouse 2015). The leaders are responsible for setting the work environment and mindset of the employees and in the changed scenario, certainly there will be changes in leaders’ roles too.
Setting the clear vision of work and increasing enthusiasm in every employee is the traditional role of the leaders (Northouse 2015). In the changed technological way of work, however, these responsibilities will not change although the way of carrying out them will be different. Since, the employees will be working independently; the leaders or the managers will have to focus on every employee individually (Watson and Reissner 2014). Moreover, the leaders will have to ensure that the employees receive clear instructions on the digital platform about achieving a particular goal.
The leaders and the managers are also responsible for motivating the employees so that they can achieve the set goals for them and thus, in an age when the Apps will be the major medium of doing every work, the leaders will have to change the ways they now motivate their employees (DuBrin 2015). The leaders, in the changed future scenario will need to find out the difficulties the employees may face managing the Apps and in these cases, the leaders need to intervene to look into the matter that the employees’ attention does not deviate. In addition, the leaders must assist the employees to become promoted to the next level helping them to overcome difficulties in the new era of technology. Apart from this, the leaders can also motivate the employees by incorporating their current production in the Apps along with the expected production from them.
The role of guiding the employees will also remain unchanged for the leaders. With vast usage of Apps in the workplace, the leaders will need to take resort to the apps for guiding their employees. The instructions and communication between the leaders and the employees are most likely to be conducted through digital versions and that the Apps need to contain the instructions pre-installed in case the employees are not physically working with the leaders or the managers. However, for intricate details the employees might need direct conversation with their leaders and for these, the videoconferencing Apps can be used (Watson and Reissner 2014).
Integrating the technologically distanced employees’ when required will be a great challenge to the leaders. While the employees will agreeably adopt the vast usage of Apps, this way of working may make them distanced and that the unity and integrity of the teams may become lost. Now, when such projects will come where the employees will be needed to work united on a project, it will be the leaders’ responsibility to integrate them through the Apps, by modifying the instructions on everyone’s software (Schoemaker, Krupp and Howland 2013).
Thus, it can be recommended that the usage of Apps will certainly help in easing out the work for the employees in the near future. This is because the effort that the employees need to put manually will be much less due to the technological advancements in the organizations. It will keep a track of the level of output that the employees will have in the workplace so that it will help the organization to provide better training programs for the employees who have low productivity. The employees will be in a better position as they can work from anywhere and achieve the targets that has been set to them by the management. With respect to HRM, they have to train the employees to use the apps in an appropriate manner so that they can avoid the mistakes, which may cost the organization and themselves largely. The internal promotions that needs to be handled by the management will become easy as the use of apps will help in keeping a track of the daily performances and the vacancies that are available within the organization. this will help the management in choosing the best person so that the organizations can maximize its profits.
Conclusion
Thus, it can be seen that if the employees prefer to work utilizing Apps in the near future, it will entail a range of opportunities as well as challenges for the employee, HR managers and the leaders or managers. While for the employees it is mostly beneficial, the HR managers and the leaders may face challenges. For the employees, it is advantageous in the sense that it helps them to manage work life balance and that will facilitate them to work from their convenient place. However, the HRM will have to revise their recruiting procedures more preferring the technologically versed candidates. On the other hand, although the basic leadership values will remain the same, the managers will have to modify them according to the situation. Fulfilling all these conditions, the organizations thus, will attain a state of complete digitalized medium of working.
References
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Gooderham, P.N., Morley, M.J., Parry, E. and Stavrou, E., 2015. National and firm-level drivers of the devolution of HRM decision making to line managers. Journal of International Business Studies, 46(6), pp.715-723.
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