According to Status Today, the provider of this AI system known as the Isaak System, over 130,000 people in the UK and abroad are being monitored which ranks their attributes, behaviour and determines whether they are ‘influencers’ or ‘change-makers.’
Employee data is being analysed on a mass level, looking specifically at their emails, time on the screen and sales performance.
This information came to light around one year ago and was mentioned in The Guardian, but has gained further exposure due to covid-19 where the majority of UK workers have had to resort to working remotely.
To ensure business owners are getting the best from their staff, especially during testing financial times, the role of AI, timers and other devices to monitor employee output is on the rise.
Trade unions have raised their concerns that this might be too ‘big brother’ and create a level of distrust or force employees to over-compensate which could impact their mental health. Equally, they may decide to work longer hours or not take sufficient breaks, especially if their time on screen is being closely watched. Without adequate feedback from their employers, they have little idea if their hard work is being acknowledged or not. In many cases, staff members are unaware that such metrics are being used.
The Isaak System has been adopted so far by various large organisations including Smarter Not Harder, a training company and JBrown, an estate agent based in London. Giant insurance company Hiscox and IT firm Cisco have used the system to monitor short-term analysis, according to Status Today.
The nature of AI means that companies can use this mass date and find patterns that can better productivity and work behaviour. The role of machine learning means that the systems can learn this information automatically and naturally give prompts to staff or recommendations to create perfect behaviour.
The Royal Society of Arts told The Guardian that scoring will be a more effective use of resources, giving high scorers more complex and important tasks, with lower scorers to be given less responsibility. In fact, you might need a certain score just to qualify for a certain job.