Businesses 4.0 are defined by the digitalization of every process. New ways of working and tasks that did not exist until recently, demand new skills. 

Since that winter night in 1816, when Mary Shelley created Frankenstein while staying at a house rented by Lord Byron in Genève, man has been afraid of what the creatures he creates may cause to him. During today’s Fourth Industrial Revolution, a knowledge revolution in which technology and innovation transform the labour market at a pace never seen before, robots have become the main cause of fear.

Some say robots will take our jobs. Others say that knowledge, technology and innovation are produced by people.

Replacing concerns and fears with a defined strategy and coordinated actions seems urgent.

Large scale automation has created the concept of Industry 4.0. The digitalization of the industry implies the disappearance of certain jobs and the creation of others. Indeed, it is true that there are replacements, and it is also true that there is complementarity. Old factories transform into smart industry, and the level of uncertainty regarding the future grows.

Are we looking at a new phenomenon in history? During the 18^th century, economists used to debate on the consequences of the industrialization of the labour market; today, the debate is about robots, the Industrial Internet of Things, artificial intelligence, and the new order; academics, such as Erik Brynjolffson, Director of the MIT Initiative on the Digital Economy and author of the book “The Second Machine Era”, claims that society must weight how to regulate the new economic welfare.

What is currently going on with robots can be compared to what happened back then with agricultural machinery, the idea of technological progress replacing work. If we analyse current data, we may observe that the country with the largest number of robots every 10 thousand workers is South Korea, and that its’ unemployment rate is 3.7%. An education revolution based on technology, the English language and socioemotional skills transform this country from poor to wealthy in 30 years. Robotics does not seem to be the problem.

When put in a historical perspective, we can observe that, in the long-term, an increasingly growing number of people work, but that these processes demand adaptation. The company 4.0 does not mean a displacement of human capital, as long as such capital evolves to adapt to changes. The work 4.0 will be where it finds talent 4.0, which is the key for its development.

As workers cannot transform so quickly, some are overloaded with work, while others lack work. In this context, to improvise or be inactive during the management of this transition may have a very negative and expensive impact on our societies.

The so called labour market 4.0 will entail interconnections and switching roles between professionals and robots. It is a change of paradigm driven by technology. A real cultural change that must be managed appropriately.

Amidst the perspective of those who are apocalyptic and of though who are noxiously optimistic, lies the need to create talent 4.0 and to do it at the pace that the transformations we are living demand. Also, and most importantly, there is the need to contain those who could not convert at the speed that the labour market 4.0 demands.

Promoting digital literacy and designing programs of continuous training of skills based on the demand, are musts. Education must shift towards training new professional profiles that enable us to answer to the demand of the years to come.

Latin American typical factories will expand their data flow and interconnectivity. We are clearly moving from a manual workforce to using software, which means that the new generation of workers must strongly develop digital skills, STEM skills, socioemotional skills, and, most importantly, learn to unlearn in order to relearn in an exponentially more sophisticated and changing labour market.

The robotisation of the labour market requires modern, dynamic and inclusive regulatory frameworks; active employment policies that promote training and easy access to different working modes, without losing workers’ rights. Public employment services that work on vulnerable people’s employability, with the support of private employment services, which, by definition, are more agile and closer to the productive system. A diverse menu of alternatives must be experienced and implemented to deal with this profound change: explore the concept of universal basic income, modernize social security programs and implement security networks for the new types of work, create portable and transferable social rights, implement the flexicurity model, develop dual training, reinforce learning programs, promote entrepreneurship, set new security networks to protect individuals and not the jobs threatened, encourage life-long learning systems with skills certification that must be permanently updated, among other initiatives.

We have a major opportunity to make the most of the demographic pressure, and of the improvement of productivity and competitiveness that robots achieve. Artificial intelligence may enhance human intelligence and generate feedback through innovation and disruption. The Latin American creativity and passion can do the rest.

Only if we come to understand that it is not possible to address this period of history using concepts from the past, we shall have a proper chance to achieve it. This requires focus and decision.

About Martin Padulla

Founder and Managing Director of staffingamericalatina. Martin Padulla is Sociologist (USAL), MBA (UCA) and labour markets expert. He published “Flexible Work in South America” and “Regulatory framework for private employment agencies in Latin America” two books about the new realities of work in Latin America.

Follow Martín Padulla on Twitter: @MartinPadulla

mpadulla@staffingamericalatina.com

About staffingamericalatina

It is the unique independent digital media specialized in Latin American´s labour markets.

Produce and spread contents, researches and developments about issues such us Employability, Youth Employment, Training for Employment, Decent Work, Private Employment Agencies, Active policies for employment, Teleworking, Public and private actions for the creation of decent work, Green Jobs and Corporate Social Responsibility.

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