book review
By Alyson Nyiri, CHRL
REINVENTING JOBS: A 4-STEP APPROACH FOR APPLYING AUTOMATION TO WORK
BY RAVIN JESUTHASAN AND JOHN W. BOUDREAU
HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW, 2018
There is a lot of fear and hype about how AI and auto-mation
will affect our organizations, but mostly, how
many jobs might be lost. Ravin Jesuthasan and John W.
Boudreau caution leaders against asking in which jobs can
automation replace humans, saying this is a dead-end conversa-tion.
Instead, the authors present a systematic framework in the
form of a structured, four-step approach that leaders can use to
uncover optimal work-automation combinations and redefine jobs
in their organizations. Both authors are influential consultants in
the areas of human capital and the future of work.
Most experts approach the questions of how to automate work
from the technology side. Jesuthasan and Boudreau’s approach is
from the organizational and human capital perspective. The four-step
framework includes: 1) Deconstruct jobs into component
work tasks, 2) Assess the relationship between job performance
and strategic value, 3) Identify options for recombing tasks in
light of the new technology or process and 4) Optimize work by
putting it all together to reinvent jobs. The framework provides
leaders with a toolset with which they can resist the impulse of
simply cutting costs by substituting automation for humans.
In deconstructing jobs, for example, employers should look
at three dimensions: repetitive versus variable, independent ver-sus
interactive and physical versus mental. When assessing the
relationship between job performance and strategic value, it’s
important to know what the payoff is: preventing mistakes or
improving existing performance call for very different approaches
to automation. At the third step, identifying automation options,
it’s critical to understand the three types of automation: robotic
process automation, cognitive automation and social robotics.
The fourth step will help leaders determine whether automation
should substitute human endeavour, augment it or create new
work for humans.
When the four steps have been completed, leaders will still need
to integrate any new human-automation work. This new work sel-dom
fits easily into traditional job descriptions and organization
structures and is often sourced in different ways than traditional
employment. True optimization requires connecting these rein-vented
jobs to structures, decision rights, social networks culture
and other organization-level factors.
The book doesn’t stop there. Nearly a full half of the book
concentrates on the impacts to the organization, its leaders
and its workers, giving a deeper look at how leadership, power,
accountability, culture, structure, information sharing and
Harvard Business Review
decision making are affected. Of critical importance is for the
leader to avoid being seduced by cost, risk and productivity bene-fits
from work automation applied to single jobs and consider the
organizational implications.
As HR practitioners, we can help most by equipping leaders
and workers to transparently perceive, discuss and prepare for the
inevitable work changes. As ambassadors for our organizations we
can stimulate discussions with educational institutions and gov-ernments
to ensure training programs are up-to-date and develop
alternatives to unemployment benefits after automation displaces
workers, allowing them to reinvent themselves. Work today, even
with automation, is a series of careers, built upon projects and
shorter tours of duty in each organization. n
HRPROFESSIONALNOW.CA ❚ OCTOBER 2018 ❚ 55
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