Report: Bikem Ögünç
Robot employment, a new dimension in employment and a new workforce model! With industrial transformation and technological progress, adapting to these changes, providing an alternative solution to the talent gap and helping reduce potential risks – a technological workforce. Robot Employment Agency Founder Canan Alkın points out that four out of every five companies face a talent gap.
Robot Employment Agency is Turkey's first robot employment agency and the world's first business model of its kind. The agency's objective is to accelerate digital transformation and increase the use and integration of robot technologies in the business world. This transformation aims to help businesses reduce costs, increase productivity and gain competitive advantage. We spoke with Robot Employment Agency Founder Canan Alkın about robots in industry, who states that they aim to increase the return on investment speed by identifying the right robot technologies for businesses.
Let's start by answering this: What does Robot Employment Agency do?
By providing robotic process automation (RPA) and artificial intelligence (AI) solutions, we support businesses' digital transformation processes and configure robots to human employee job roles within 48 hours. At this point, "robots" will become the new alternative to the talent gap in employment. Digital workers automate businesses' repetitive and tedious tasks, increasing productivity. These digital workers can be used in many areas such as finance, human resources, supply chain, and work 24/7. This service, offered on a pay-as-you-use model, provides cost advantages to businesses. Collaborative robots enhance production processes by working together with humans and other machines. Autonomous mobile robots, thanks to features such as voice interaction, mapping and security, can provide services in places like hotels, shopping centres, restaurants and hospitals. Research predicts that robot technologies will become more widespread in the future, with two out of every 10 employees being digital workers.
Canan Alkın
Where should we position robots in digitalisation?
Positioning robots in digitalisation depends on the business's needs and processes. Businesses can use robots to increase productivity, reduce costs, or carry out dangerous tasks while ensuring worker safety. Integrating robots at specific stages of production processes on the production line can increase output and reduce the likelihood of errors. In warehousing and logistics operations, robots can perform tasks such as material handling, sorting, packaging and storage. This can increase warehouse efficiency and process orders more quickly. In hospitals, care centres and elderly care facilities, they can be used in patient care and treatment processes. In the retail sector, robots such as self-checkout systems and smart storage systems can improve customer service and streamline the purchasing process. In office environments and management processes, they can automate repetitive tasks. In agriculture, robots can perform tasks such as automated harvesting, plant care and pesticide application. Similarly, outside agriculture, they can be used in cleaning, security and maintenance work.
How and to what extent do industries benefit from robots?
I was invited as a speaker to a conference recently and during my presentation preparation, I examined Turkey's workplace accident statistics. In 2023, 1,932 workers lost their lives; in 2022, 1,843 workers. Robots can first and foremost prevent workplace accidents and ensure worker safety. We unfortunately always focus on the empty side of the glass. In dangerous or challenging working conditions, robots can replace human workers and undertake risky tasks. When you consider that a factory worker takes an average of 10,000 steps a day, plus carrying a load – robots can take over functions such as moving materials or products from place to place and lifting weight. Not just measurable accidents, but such work also causes serious health problems for people. Scoliosis, spine and back pain... Industrial robots can perform repetitive tasks on the production line quickly and accurately. This can increase production efficiency and raise the business's production capacity and output. Robots can work for extended periods at low cost compared to human labour. Additionally, robots can reduce error rates and minimise material waste, lowering production costs and helping improve product quality. Robots can assemble parts precisely, carry out welding operations smoothly and contribute to quality control processes. Smart robots can gather data from their surroundings through sensors and analyse this data. This can help businesses optimise their production processes and increase productivity.
Can you explain robot employment?
Robot employment is a new dimension in employment and a new workforce model! With industrial transformation and technological progress, it is a technological workforce that enables adaptation to these changes, provides an alternative solution to the talent gap and helps mitigate potential risks. Four out of every five companies face a talent gap; skilled people in America don't want to work in warehouses. This is why there has been significant recent development and momentum in humanoid robots. Robot employment does not mean "let's fire people and hire robots instead". This approach means "to make the best use of human talents and robots' automation advantages". One way to support humans with robots is to develop workers' skills in working with robots. This means teaching employees how to interact with robots, programme them and maintain them. In this way, the workforce can better adapt to robot technology and help optimise work processes. Robots save time for human employees through their speed – isn't our biggest complaint always lack of time and being unable to be everywhere at once? Wouldn't it be nicer to spend that time with our loved ones?
One of workers' main concerns lately is that robots will take our jobs... Is such a thing possible? Let's say this really happens – how should this change and transformation be managed?
Workers' concerns are a natural reaction of course, but it is clear that these technologies will affect the labour market... Perhaps many of us think only blue-collar job roles will be affected, but that is not the case; every day the number of robots performing white-collar job roles increases. From accounting to finance, from human resources to logistics and reporting – robots work in every area. However, no matter what, it is very unlikely or impossible for a scenario where robots completely take away jobs from people. Of course, it is a reality that with the use of robots in certain job roles, work will transform and some jobs may change. I don't think these technologies have been correctly explained to workers – if they were explained correctly, who could say "no" to a robot team member who shares the workload, doesn't bully, works without error and helps you? For employment in Turkey to shift, these technologies first need to become more widespread, and it is unfortunately too early to worry about this. Robot usage numbers in Turkey are still very, very low compared to other countries; we must quickly explain these technologies to our SMEs that form our backbone so they can compete globally – otherwise the gap will widen significantly. Current global technologies would enable 50% of jobs to be performed through automation. With current technologies in Turkey, six out of every 10 professions can be automated to a 30% extent. Instead of sitting and worrying, we need to think about what we can produce, generate new ideas and take action to become part of the new world and business order.
What are your recommendations for working and living alongside robots?
Working and living alongside robots will become increasingly common in the business world and daily life. We cannot escape this! For this reason, we should focus on developing skills to interact with robots and work with them soon, to gain competitive advantage in the future business world. To create a harmonious working environment between people and robots, it is important to support each other and maintain communication. Working with robots – being open to continuous learning and development, collaboration and increased productivity – can boost efficiency. Ultimately, how far a robot will take on tasks depends entirely on the organisation's decision. Nvidia's CEO recently said this: I have never seen a company that uses robots, increases profit and doesn't hire people. Every profitable company will inevitably provide employment. This job role may be a digital factory manager instead of a financial expert – that's all. Companies that combine robots' capabilities with human capabilities will grow exponentially and stay in the game. This is a new era and this collaboration is called human + machine collaboration. We must be teammates with robots, whether we like it or not! This is not a race between humans and robots, but a race between robots and robots.
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