This week in HR news: Energy levels, scams and AI

In this week’s roundup of HR news, how can energy levels be maximised? One method involves adjusting meeting schedules. Also, text message scams have hit Aussies hard, and companies are banning AI, but is it worth it?

Boost energy by adjusting schedules

Harvard Business Review (HBR) reported on how people can boost their energy at work by adjusting meeting schedules.

HBR notes that keeping a balance of individual tasks and time spent in meetings is key to promoting high energy at work.

“We found that, on a given day, the more time knowledge workers dedicate to meetings relative to their own individual tasks, the less they engage in small break activities (e.g., a short walk, casual conversations, brief fun reading) to restore their energy during that day,” said HBR.

Keeping some variety in scheduling and allowing time to accomplish meetings and individual workloads allows for some change in pace and in turn, helps boost our energy at work.

Some tips to stay on top of this, as listed by HBR are:

• Focus on the relative proportion of meeting time to individual work time on a specific day, not just the total hours spent in meetings
• Design your workday to create complements between meetings and individual tasks
• Adopt a more holistic approach to workday scheduling

Text scams takeover

As seen on Accountants Daily, text messages have become the “weapon of choice” for scammers.

We are amidst a “golden era” for scams, according to BDO’s inaugural Scam Culture Report.

The report found that over $70 million was lost across Australia in the June quarter due to investment scams, making it the biggest form of scam to hit Aussies.

Text messaging was the most popular way to conduct these scams, overtaking phone calls, with 40 per cent of scams using this method.

“This is a golden era for scammers – people are using their phones to do their day-to-day admin, business systems are connected to people’s personal devices, and AI is ramping up and giving scammers an opportunity to automate and tailor their approach, meaning they will reach more people with greater ease,” said BDO National forensic services leader Michael Cassidy.

AI ban may not be the best

A recent article from AHRI HRM found that three in four employers are considering banning ChatGPT at work.

Dr Sean Gallagher, director at the Centre for the New Workforce says generative AI “is the most disruptive technology we have probably ever seen in our lives.”

“AI was expected to reach the median level of human creativity at around 2037. It achieved that this year. It wasn’t expected to be able to write at a top-quartile human level until 2050. It’s now expected to get there next year,” he said.

Banning this tech may not be the best move, as more and more workplaces are utilising it. Federal Education Minister Jason Clare believes the recent bans hitting schools across the country could be reversed in the coming year as people begin to realise the potential of AI.

“This is the sort of thing that students are going to need to learn how to use properly,” said Mr Clare.

“You can’t just put it away and assume that students won’t use it. But at the same time, I want to make sure that students are getting the marks they deserve, and can’t use it to cheat.”

There are certainly benefits to keeping generative AI in use at a company. However, caution should be used, and AHRI HRM says employers should put up ‘guardrails’ to keep things in check.

“When empowered to use these tools, workers reported much higher levels of job satisfaction and much higher levels of self-efficacy,” commented Dr Gallagher.