Employers and staff optimistic about impact of new technologies, despite uncertainty about safety, according to new research commissioned by the British Safety Council.
The survey, carried out by YouGov, revealed that employers and employees were positive about the impact new technologies, such as artificial intelligence (AI), augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) could have on their workplace – although decision makers felt more optimistic than staff.
When asked about AI, 63% of employers said they were optimistic about the impact the new technology would have on their workforce, compared with 41% of employees.
However, just over a quarter (26%) of both employers and employees said that AI would make their workplace “less safe”. This compared with the same number of employers (26%) who thought it would make it “more safe” and just 13% of employees.
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When asked how likely or unlikely they thought it was that their job would be replaced or superseded by AI in the next 10 years, 68% of employees thought it unlikely and just 23% said it was likely. Among the employers, 20% thought up to one in 10 of their workforce would be replaced by 2034.
Levels of optimism about the impact of AR and VR were somewhat lower, with 48% and 51% respectively of employers expressing optimism about the impact of the technologies, and just 33% and 31% of employees. Both employers and employees were also more equivocal about how far these would impact people’s safety in the workplace.
Peter McGettrick, chairman of British Safety Council, said: “While no one can predict the future entirely, change is inevitable. This is why we’re calling on the government to incentivise companies who invest in new and developing technologies – like AR, VR, and AI – for the purposes of improving workplace health, safety and wellbeing. Alongside this, we want to see more support for training to keep people safe, healthy and well in work.”
The British Safety Council has called on Keir Starmer to put a minister for wellbeing in the cabinet.
The survey findings come on the back of a roundtable discussion about the Future of Work, hosted by British Safety Council and chaired by Nathan Baker, CEO of the Institute of Occupational Medicine.
At the meeting Baker said: “If you look at where we were, in 1974, against where we now are, the world is a safer place. From 1974 to 2015, fatalities in the workplace fell by 85%, a huge drop. Non-fatal injuries are down by 77% in the same period. However, asbestos deaths are up tenfold, and we still lose 35 million days a year due to ill health and injury, costing the economy £20.7bn.”
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