The humanistic technology of talent

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Humanist technology is defined as an ideological philosophy or current focused on the double standards thrown up by ethics and digital innovation. Back in 1958, in a conference at London’s Institute of Metals, Sir Eric Ashby argued that the generators of technical development must be responsible for solving the problems caused by such advances.

Social networks or artificial intelligence are some of the main focuses in humanist technologies. The use of machine learning that generates betting shop advertisements targeting people with compulsive gambling problems would be an example. Organisations such as The Center of Humane Technology (CTH) or Technological Humanism and Artificial Intelligence are pushing for more human technological change.

There is even the Vienna Manifesto (May 2019) on digital humanism, signed by more than a thousand leaders from around the world.

How do you apply the concept of humanist technology to talent? Let’s define talent as a person’s intellectual capacity or aptitudes to learn or to easily undertake an activity.

In the IT sector it applies from two perspectives: humanist technology in the acquisition of talent and humanist technology in talent creation.

"There is a significant shortage of profiles with technological capabilities, we have much more demand than supply".

We increasingly require more technically specialised services, with the necessary soft skills for the new post-pandemic work paradigms.

According to The State of European Tech report, demand has increased by 30%. At the same time, the tools for talent scouting are more powerful, for example, artificial intelligence, machine learning and or reputation algorithms.  By applying these concepts we would obtain complete profiles and - even - deduce potential behaviours in certain work situations. Would it be ethical to use technology for these purposes?

Just as we can use the internet for purposes that probably wouldn't be approved by most of society. Making decisions on new situations based on background is a risk that could lead to mistakes. It is very difficult to predict behaviour when the situation to be managed has never occurred.

At the same time, we can apply it for positive aspects. For example, optimising the match between a position and a candidate, automating certain processes would increase the likelihood of success.

Generating greater efficiency for the organisation and less time loss for the professional who has applied.

We would say that we can optimise the acquisition of talent through technology from a humanistic perspective, but to obtain results we need the existence of such talent.

With the passing of the pandemic, the volume of business requiring technology has increased considerably, but actions to create talent are not progressing at the same pace.

According to the National Statistics Institute, more than 25% of students drop out of technical careers in the first year.

At the same time, this does not tell us whether they might transfer to a boot camp that will turn them into professionals in the IT sector.

Which actions could be taken? First, technological education must evolve towards much more practical, motivational and challenging aspects for students.

Organisations must be involved, as the Vienna Manifesto states: “Universities are the place where new knowledge is produced and critical thought is cultivated.”

We should help link this knowledge to the real needs of organisations and, above all, create professionals with the technological skill and attitude required for the working world in the IT sector.

On the other hand, society is under the bombardment of studying that which motivates and appeals, or that the solution to the scarcity of work is in the world IT.

At the same time, students completing engineering careers continue to decrease, the number of boot camps has grown exponentially in recent years, often with fully digitised training platforms, making use of gamification, artificial intelligence, virtual and/or augmented reality to attract and deliver the best results.

Boot camps have found a need and are using the necessary technological means to cover it. We in organisations make use of these profiles; more than 60% of students who complete them enter the workplace.

We have not found any data on how many people drop out of boot camps or leave the IT working world once they know it first-hand. Here we come to the expectations that students receive from these training courses: salaries, type of work, specialisation in areas with lower demand, etc.

It is common to apply the "Learning by Doing” concept, which is well-founded but at the same time is often lacking in context, in situations associated with real projects that are very tricky to teach in online training.

Humanist technology is present in talent, in attracting and creating it. Technology will increasingly allow us to boost our capabilities to resolve any problem and achieve objectives.

It is its use that determines whether it is a real solution or a business above and beyond the solution to generate even more problems in society.

The difference lies in being aware and knowing the context in which it is executed. From my perspective, new technologies will help a recruiter find the best professionals, allowing them to spend more time on value-added tasks and make their work more efficient.

The boot camps will improve, but they will not solve the problem of scarcity of talent with the necessary capabilities and specialisation. At the same time, applied with the right ethics, they can help a great deal in aligning the interests of organisations and society in the digital age that we live in. Remember that transformation is done by people, not technology.