Digital and mobile technologies give – but they also take away. Leaders of organisations need to play an active role in designing workplaces that encourage the adoption of healthy technology habits. Such is the thrust of a recent paper entitle ‘Positive Technology’ (read it here) by Deloitte.
This paper alerts leaders to the down-side of technology, warning about the potential perils of workplace digital technology. Some of the key dangers identified include:
- Constant streams of messages resulting in a deteriorating of the individual’s ability to adequately process information;
- The ease of creating virtual meetings making it too easy to include more people, and thus create opportunities for days of endless meetings; and
- The unhealthy use of workplace technology which has seen increasing instances of poor sleep, anxiety and depression among employees; and
A very positive aspect of this report is the inclusion of suggestions for employers to address these issues. A few examples of these include:
- Using available data of employee usage patterns to help individuals better understand and regulate their use of technology;
- Incorporating ‘nudge’ strategies into workflow processes and applications to help break technology addiction;
- Ensuring that the organisations leaders openly display healthy and balanced technology habits.
The article is an important contribution to current discussions on the role of technology in the workplace, where the speed of technology adoption and change is outpacing effective workplace practices and culture. By being reminded of this issue, we are now in a position to choose to care for our employees more than we care about technology.
You can contact the Avondale Business School if you would like more information on how we can help you with this, or any other business issue. [email protected]