Corporations Fired Staff for Bots. Now They Need Them Again, and It Gained’t Be Low-cost
A new survey finds companies are reversing automation-driven layoffs, but former employees want higher pay, job-security guarantees, and greater transparency before returning.
While the rapid adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) tools by companies hasn’t resulted in the employment apocalypse that skeptics had forecast, it has been blamed for the lower number of layoffs that have occurred as apps increasingly automate work tasks. Now, many employers realize they were too quick in making those cuts, and are asking former staffers back—with even more of that corrective rehiring forecast for the coming months.
The problem with that backtracking is that a lot of the ex-employees being called back aren’t sure they want their old jobs—or bosses—again unless they provide better pay and job security than before. In other words, managers who broke off relationships with workers when they embraced AI are going to need to be pitching a lot more than occupational woo to seduce many of those departed staffers back.
A fifth of AI-offed workers rehired by ex-employers
That reversal in fortunes was identified and quantified
That reversal in fortunes was identified and quantified by talent recruitment and management company SHL, following its survey of 2,030 employees in the U.S. and U.K. The first major finding from that was that nearly a fifth, or 19 percent of all American respondents said they’d personally been rehired by former employers in what SHL dubbed the “AI rebounding trend.”
That figure rose to 24 percent of workers aged 18 to 24 who’d been booted in favor of work automating bots, only to be recruited anew by their former companies when the tech failed to produce expected results. That cohort increased to 36 percent among respondents who said they knew people who’d lost their job to AI deployment, and were subsequently asked to return by ex-bosses.
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That “AI rebounding trend” is significant for more reasons than just reflecting businesses having gotten too far over their staff-cutting skis in adopting the tech, then needing to reverse course when bots didn’t fill the labor gap. It’s also a likely a sign of even more re-recruitment to come, and unexpected challenges that process will face.
For example, just last week tech, HR,
For example, just last week tech, HR, and business consultancy Gartner doubled down on a specific forecast it made earlier this year about the then still-looming rehiring trend. That estimated 50 percent of all companies that replace their customer service employees with AI bots will refill those roles by 2027. Then, at the end of October, Gartner broadened that expectation to business activities generally.
“By 2029, 30 percent of employees who were terminated and replaced by AI will be rehired, “a Gartner report said. It added that those re-recruitment efforts will often come at “higher cost, as organizations struggle to align workforce decisions with evolving business needs.”
Source: www.inc.com
