digitalization labor shortage
News

Digitalization investments provide an edge amidst labor shortage

There has been much talk about how digitalization and automation are supposed to replace workers. Many dark scenarios have been painted about how simpler jobs are supposed to disappear and ordinary people lose their jobs while big companies make bigger profits. That is pretty far from what is happening right now with a massive ongoing labor shortage in the U.S.

Amongst the most heavily impacted industries are manufacturing, transportation and logistics. But regardless if you are in direct contact with them or not you have probably felt the impact. It’s one of the reasons why prices are going up and products are out of stock. Employment rates are rising but they still have not caught up to pre-pandemic levels. So shouldn’t there be plenty of people available for hire?

While there are reasons for the shortage, there’s a big one that causes workers not to go back to their old jobs. People are not happy. The situation is no longer about how companies should invest in digitalization to replace workers. It’s about how they should invest in it to attract and keep them.

The Great Resignation

It’s not only hard to hire it’s hard to keep employees as well. Wage stagnation and widespread job dissatisfaction have led to people quitting their jobs at the highest rate since the statistic was first recorded in 2000. It’s now been dubbed the Great Resignation and it’s an economic trend that companies will have to navigate.

Stress, boredom and working conditions take a toll on long-term health. These are amongst the most common reasons given by workers as to why they quit. It’s also why many unemployed people choose to not accept jobs. Many desperate companies are now asking their workforce for more and more over time. In the long run, this will just make matters worse as more unhappy workers will look elsewhere for work.

Rugged Computers – A part of the solution

In order to address the problem of labor shortage companies will have to create a better working environment. That means solving the previously mentioned problems and not just refurbishing the cafeteria.

This is where technological solutions come in. They make work both more efficient and safer for the employees. It can also reduce the number of monotonous tasks that have to be performed manually. Use computers and wearable technology to take some of the pressure off the employees.

Manufacturing is one of the areas with the biggest problems and it’s also one that’s behind as far as digitalization goes. It’s also an area where rugged computers have the potential to help reduce the time spent on repetitive tasks. It makes diagnostics, quality inspections and inventory control both easier and faster. Replacing pen and paper with a long-range scanner will make quite a difference.

The logistics industry is another business that is feeling the impact of the labor shortage. High demand and a lack of workers lead to plenty of stress and overtime. Using technological solutions like rugged wearables is an easy way to relieve those issues. Handheld Groups SP500X ScanPrinter is a new unique solution specially developed for the logistics business and package handling. It’s a scanner and printer built into one and the groundbreaking device frees up both of the user’s hands. It offers huge time savings which could remove the need for overtime and take some of the pressure off the workers.

Happy employees will stay and as word spreads workers from competing companies will realize that the grass is indeed greener on the other side.