Dignified employment

We are all worried whether our jobs are going to be affected by Artificial Intelligence. And that is understandable.

But my focus today is not on employment hazards, but on dignified employment. Allow me to define dignity as a responsibility of leadership, with emphasis on integrity, ethics, respect and honesty. Is that a tall order?

Let’s quantify dignity in four ways and look at the benefits we derive from ‘dignity at work’:

* Growth - People come to work to apply their talents and their skills. They seek an opportunity to grow and develop as contributors.

* Autonomy - Employees today want a degree of autonomy and the ability to make their own choices in their work. They also want the ability to determine their carrier path.

* Health - We cannot work where we don’t feel safe from infection or mental health. For that reason, employers are responsible for ensuring safe working conditions.

* Dignity creates opportunity. Diversity means bringing people with different background into the workplace. Equity demands equal opportunity as well as equal pay. And inclusion insists upon listening to, learning from, and promoting those individuals. None of this can happen without respect for the people and what they do. That’s dignity in the workplace!

As employers create hybrid workplaces, keeping the notion of dignity front and center creates a workplace where people want to be. It makes a value system where people feel they can contribute significantly. Why? Because they think they belong! Their workplace becomes our workplace.

When this occurs, organizations have a greater chance of fulfilling their mission because they are more engaged, productive, and collaborative.

These are the benefits we derive from creating ‘dignity at work’.

The feeling of connection is so important. Employees deserve a human-centric future, with space for trust. Every single one of us has the right to be treated with dignity. In turn, we all have a responsibility to treat everybody else with dignity.

I started my article with the sentence that we are all concerned that our jobs will be affected by artificial intelligence. Let me briefly go back to that. We need to train our workforce, all levels, for a digital economy. We have to make cybersecurity awareness a basic need. We need to champion AI not just for novelty but for competitiveness. And we need to push business leakers to go beyond delegation – to personally understand and lead technology requirements.

I am excited about these changes, in dignified employment and tech literacy! What about you? Feedback is welcome, please contact me at [email protected]