Automation can be a double-edged sword. On one hand, it can eliminate low-level work and open up employees to new opportunities; on the other, it can lead to job losses, often for those who are already in low-wage, precarious work.

Capita has been on both sides of this equation. Criticised by some for its involvement in the automation of welfare services, it has also found automation a significant help to both its own workforce and for those of its clients.

Katja Hall is Capita’s Corporate Affairs Director. She describes automation as bringing “huge benefits across our business”. “It helps manage workload spikes, it improves the speed and accuracy with which GP pensions are calculated...” she says.

The company has also spent time thinking about the downsides of automation, Hall explains: the things that businesses need to do to prepare their workforce for changing tides. Last year, the company worked with an academic, Lynda Gratton, and think tank BritainThinks to create a report exploring how people’s job roles are changing. It isn’t always the case, Hall says, but she believes that automation can be “harnessed in a way which is responsible towards stakeholders, colleagues and society more broadly”.

“Obviously we see the huge potential for automation technologies to drive productivity, efficiency, security and reliability,” she says. “But we also recognise that technological progress will have broader impacts.”

“We’re seeing a new and critical interdependency taking shape between business and employees – and between people and technology.

How to communicate these changes is key, as many employees affected by automation will (sometimes unhappily) vouch. Hall believes employers should have “honest conversations” with their employees, engaging the workforce along the way and minimising job losses as workers move into new roles.

“Businesses can, and absolutely should, be supporting their colleagues in the transition,” she says. “The only way to combat automation anxiety is through engagement – there’s an important role for leadership in helping people see where they fit in.” She suggests businesses encourage the development of ‘human skills’ – things like empathy and critical thinking – as well as offering staff training and alternative career pathways.

Automation is about more than just the roll out of a new workflow system or process, Hall says, and thinking of it as just a technology issue would be a mistake.

How many jobs will be outsourced to robots is yet to be seen – as is who these changes will primarily affect, and how their lives will change as a result. But Hall believes that the problem should be approached by bodies from across the board.

“This is a big challenge that individual businesses can’t tackle alone,” she concludes. “Government, policy makers, organisations and employees – we need to work together to ensure that automation benefits everyone.”