Corporates should strike balance between tech and touch: Survey

NEW DELHI: Technology and digitalisation have a major impact on the workplace and 96 per cent see this trend as an opportunity, but a vast majority of respondents also feel technology in offices makes them feel less connected to their coworkers, says a survey.

On one hand, a vast majority (96 per cent) see digitalisation as an opportunity while on the other hand 75 per cent respondents mentioned they feel technology makes society less humane, as per Randstad Workmonitor survey.

"While keeping up with technology is imperative in today's business environment, corporates must ensure that this does not replace human interaction," Randstad India MD and CEO Moorthy K Uppaluri said.

The survey further noted that 91 per cent of respondents stated they feel face-to-face meetings are the best way to interact with someone. However, 87 per cent pointed out that owing to technology, they have very few such interactions with their clients and 75 per cent even mentioned that technology indeed limits personal interactions with colleagues as well.

"It is vital for organisations to help their employees understand how to strike the right balance between ' tech' and 'touch' at the workplace amidst all the technological innovations that are happening," Uppaluri added.

The survey further noted that while the appetite to change jobs (applying and actively looking) increased to 30 per cent in India (compared to 25 per cent last quarter), 84 per cent of the respondents surveyed expressed a satisfaction with their respective employers in India and this number increased from last quarter.

In June quarter, 57 per cent survey respondents from India mentioned they have changed their jobs in last six months, which is an increase from 45 per cent from the last quarter. This trend is reflected really high within employees in the age group of 35 - 44 years followed by employees within the age group of 25 - 34 years.

Moreover, among Indian employees, the job loss fear has increased to 27 per cent over the last quarter, indicating diminishing confidence among them, the survey said.