There was an outstanding paper last week from the The International Labour Organization (ILO); a UN agency devoted to promoting social justice and internationally recognized human and labour rights.

In “Navigating workers’ data rights in the digital age” the paper highlights the risks to workers’ privacy, dignity, and rights, showing how current protections fall short. This is especially relevant now since digitalisation, surveillance, and algorithmic management are reshaping work faster than laws can keep up. The paper calls for worker-centred data governance to balance innovation, fairness, and trust in the digital workplace.

From a workplace learning perspective, it prompted a few thoughts.

Firstly, if people don’t trust the work systems they’re on, they won’t use them. We already know BYOAI is a thing and shadow technologies and digital twinning will become even more prevalent.

If opportunities are developed based on algorithmic data in the workplace, how will we know the algorithms are fair, without prejudice, and consistent? A significant amount of work would be required to develop trust.

Lastly, The paper stresses that data harms are often collective, not just individual. The same will apply to learning: if algorithmic scheduling prevents workers gathering, collaboration and communities of practice suffer.

Make sure you’re tied into the L&D data usage conversations in your organisation. If you aren’t how do you maintain trust with your colleagues?