How to Temper Employees’ Fear That AI Will Take Their Jobs | 2-Minute Video

Many employees fear that AI will eliminate their jobs. Or change their jobs.

While change is very possible, elimination is less likely. In fact, one workplace researcher found that only about 3% of jobs have been lost to AI in the past four years.

But saying that doesn’t eliminate employees’ fears.

What’s Up in This Episode: Tempering Employees’ Fear

That’s why, in this episode of HRMorning’s 3-Point, our expert, Cora Walker, the Chief Human Resources Officer at OmniCable, explains how to help employees overcome those fears. More importantly, she gives us tips on how to get employees to embrace AI so your organization runs even more efficiently.

Click, watch and listen for more details on eliminating AI fears and achieving AI adoption.

Transcript (edited for clarity):

Your employees are terrified that AI will take their jobs. Or they’re just scared they won’t be able to work with AI. That’s the reality in nearly every workplace these days. And in this episode of the 3-Point, we’re going to show you how to move forward without fear.

Cora Walker, Chief Human Resources Officer, OmniCable: “You have got to speak the truth. We have to tell employees that we don’t exactly know how this is going to work out. We need to be honest and mention that there will be work that goes away. So I think it starts there. If you have any hope at all of keeping your employees engaged, you have to be very honest with them.”

So, like our mothers told us, honesty is the best policy. Then, as employees try AI—and experience advantages or learn from setbacks—you want to continue to ease their fears and frustrations.

Walker: “So plugging AI into the right places, and emphasizing to people that this isn’t about replacing you. It’s about replacing part of your jobs. And here’s what we want you to do with that time instead. That has a lot of potential around empathy.” 

Cora Walker shared a great example of that with me: A move to AI in one role would take employees out of physically dangerous situations. Their jobs would evolve so they’d have more oversight, and they’d stay much safer. Beyond safety, embracing AI has the potential to reconnect people.

Walker: “Take away some of that administrative, very repetitive burden from the human beings. Don’t strap them to their desks. Don’t ask them to never get up and take a walk around. Allow the automation to do some of the work. Pull them up from the work. Pull them back a little bit, and ask them to, sort of, reconnect with the people around them.”

That actually works. In Cora Walker’s case, she’s seen employees become more creative and more available to clients and colleagues. And as they reconnect, the AI fears settle down.

So, to temper AI fears:

• Be honest. Tell employees that you don’t know exactly how it’s going to work out, but you’ll work it out together.
• Emphasize what AI will replace. Parts of jobs, administrative work, repetitive tasks. NOT people.
• Use time well. Show employees what they can do with time AI saves them. Remind them to use some of it to reconnect with others.

There’s a lot of good news here. AI isn’t going to replace employees en masse. And you can ease their fears about that. For more help, check out this on HRMorning: When Employees Fear AI Will Take Their Jobs: An 8-Point Guide on How to Talk about It.” As always, thanks for joining me.