A robotic sales pitch to a boss sounds simple enough.
You’ve got an email with your résumé, your resume, and some references and some samples of work.
But what if you’re not sure how to handle it, and the company has an automated script that comes with the job offer?
A new research paper published by Oxford University’s Business School looks at how automation can impact the workplace.
And it suggests that you should probably consider your next robotic offer a bit more carefully.
“Robots are now so commonplace that many people think they can do things with them that are not possible,” says Simon Hockett, one of the paper’s authors and the director of the Business School’s Digital Transformation Group.
“There is a fear that people might forget to consider how they can take advantage of automation.”
So, in this paper, Hocketts and his team analyzed data on more than 4,000 companies across a variety of industries.
They found that, in the last six months, there were more than 8,500 job offers for automated sales people, with a median salary of $150,000.
These companies are typically small and have relatively small staffs.
And the average salary is much higher for sales-force positions.
“The more automated sales agents are employed, the more they can be expected to be replaced by other human employees, in terms of salaries and work-life balance,” says Hockets.
“This is not necessarily the case if there is a more robust automation process in place.”
The authors looked at the percentage of new hires who had received an automated sales offer in the six months before and six months after the interview.
The average was around 10 percent.
This is not a high percentage.
It’s still very close to the average rate for human hires.
But it’s significantly higher than what’s typically seen in a full-time job, and it’s a big jump from the previous six months.
Hocketing’s team also looked at job openings that had been open for a while.
They noticed that the average age of candidates who had been accepted into a new job increased by just under three months after they applied to the job.
They also noticed that in some cases, the average length of time candidates had been on the job decreased.
And overall, these trends were similar to what’s seen in other fields.
There were more job openings for people who were more experienced than candidates who were less experienced.
“These changes are not necessarily a good thing for job candidates who have been in a previous position,” says Jens Boesch, the lead author and a researcher at the University of Amsterdam’s business school.
“They may have had more experience and better qualifications, but they’re not necessarily in a better position to make the transition.”
In the paper, the authors looked more closely at what automation does to the company’s reputation and employee retention.
“When we looked at these data, we found that these changes in reputation were not necessarily due to the automation itself, but due to people being offered jobs that they didn’t have a good track record of,” says Boesen.
The researchers found that the increase in job openings was driven by more qualified candidates who applied to jobs that weren’t already open.
In fact, candidates who started out with fewer qualifications and fewer experience were less likely to get a job.
“That’s not a good news for job seekers who are still seeking to secure a position in the company, or for the candidates who don’t have the right experience,” says Wouter Kjelm, the paper�s lead author.
“I think it is a bit alarming, because it suggests a lack of understanding of what this job offers entails, especially in the current economic environment.”
In other words, you may not be getting the kind of job that you’re looking for, and you may be losing the trust that your current job offers.
It�s a worry that is becoming more common in a time of automation, and companies like Walmart and Microsoft are starting to respond.
But the researchers say it�s important to note that this study doesn�t say that a robot-soldier hire should stop being an attractive option for a prospective employer.
“As a general rule, a lot of these changes are just noise, and people don’t understand them yet,” says Kjelsm.
“And they should be avoided at all costs.
If you can get rid of the noise and just focus on the good things, you will have a much better prospect for retention.”
If you’re worried about this kind of change in your career, you can still do your part to keep your job.
You can set your company�s job search goals carefully, and work with HR to develop a detailed plan for a successful career change.
If your company offers a 401(k) or other retirement plan, take advantage by putting your skills to work, and start saving for a better future.
If not, you could