A STUDY ON THE IMPACT OF DIGITALIZATION ON EMPLOYEE WELL-BEING AND SUSTAINABLE HR PRACTICES: BENEFITS AND CHALLENGES IN THE DIGITAL ERA

Abstract

Digitalization emerged as an urgent need for organizations during Covid -19 pandemic in remote working conditions which enabled connecting over digital platforms for all kinds of day-today business operations. This adoption of technology as a means of convenience and survival in the business world, also started influencing the employees’ work well – being having both positive and negative effects. Digitalization reached its peak in the recent years due to its potential benefits in terms of e-recruitment, automation, data – driven decision making, predictive analytics etc. Its adoption into HR practices led to enhanced employee experience causing increased level of employee engagement through tailored AI – driven HRD interventions. It has been observed that a more engaged employee shows more productivity, due to alignment of goals through a mutual identification with the organization. This enables the development of a greener organizational environment and formation of green attitude where employees work efficiently, utilizing the available resources in a responsible and effective manner producing eco-friendly products and services. In fact, digitalization plays a crucial role in reducing the organization’s carbon foot print and attaining organizational sustainability through automation of repetitive tasks saving time, money and energy, digital waste reduction leading to effective production, predictive analytics to understand the future trends and identify the employee needs to provide tailored HRD interventions aimed at enhanced employee well-being. The available literature provides evidence establishing the relationship between employee well-being and sustainable HR practices which is said to be strengthened by leveraging AI adoption in HR. Organizational sustainability relies on how the HR practices are suitable enough to sustain or retain its talented employees depending on enhanced employee well-being. And this further affects organizational sustainability depending on how much an employee feels connected and dedicated to work beyond employee roles and responsibilities to achieve organizational goals. However, this adoption of AI into HR and its integration, is not free from challenges, the most notable one being ‘techno stress’ caused due to work exhaustion. It arises from techno complexity, techno anxiety and techno insecurity, affecting the employees’ work well-being in terms of fear of losing their job as being unable to adapt to the technological advancements or ethical considerations, data privacy concerns or issues of trust and scepticism due to social influence etc. This widens the gap in the adoption and integration of AI into HR and it can further lead to decreased organizational performance as not being able to sustain amidst the challenges in the competitive business world of today. The objective of this study is to analyse the current state of research on the impact of digitalization on employee well-being and sustainable HR practices, to identify the benefits and challenges coming across its way of adoption in HRM and to provide recommendations for organizations to implement AI driven HR practices in a responsible and effective manner to enable enhanced employee well-being thereby leading to organizational sustainability. The study of the available literature has given a clarity about the impact of digitalization on employee well-being and sustainable HR practices highlighting its potential benefits along with the challenges it faces in the process of its adoption and integration. The findings of the studies emphasize on few possible ways to deal with the challenges, which could be fostering a culture of work based learning, digital leadership, knowledge sharing, knowledge diversity, employee self-efficacy, technological support at the organizational and individual level, maintaining work life balance through IT mindfulness, sustainable HR strategies to enhance employee work life balance by restricting use of technology etc. But the gap identified in the existing research pertains to the lack of investigation and presentation of preventive measures to avoid techno stress thereby aiming to achieve enhanced employee well-being and organizational sustainability. A systematic review approach based on the existing literature has been adopted and PRISMA framework has been used to identify and include literature aiming to establish the relationship between digitalization and its impact on employee well-being and sustainable HR practices and providing valuable insights for industry and HR professionals to understand the challenges hidden behind digitalization. This study provides a strong base for future scope of research on identifying digitalization as a job demand or as a job resource thereby leveraging it's adoption in HRM in a responsible manner providing sustainable strategies to cope with the challenges affecting employees’ well-being within an organization.