
Big data projects are transforming how some employees do their jobs, and not all workers are happy about these changes.
Many companies that have launched big data projects take into account how these initiatives affect hiring and job roles. For instance, some businesses have created new data analyst, data scientist, and chief data officer positions. On the IT side, they have broadened their concept of a corporate data architecture by including every other user department that might have a cache of big data.
Let’s take a look at three examples of how analytics and big data are transforming jobs and employees.
The office worker
Companies know it takes substantial work to find the right types of data feeds for their systems and to ensure that the data being pumped through these feeds is accurate. Vendors offer tools to assist in automating this tedious process, but many companies find there still is no clear-cut replacement for their employees’ firsthand knowledge about the data and the business. Consequently, companies must either assign lower-level office workers to hand-sort data, classify the data, and label the data, or contract the work to someone outside the company.
The commercial truck driver
There is a shortage of truck drivers; factors why include long hours, the ability of many younger people to find better paying jobs, and drivers are dealing with more regulations, such as theCompliance, Safety and Accountability guidelines. “The market for qualified, experienced drivers remains extremely tight,” Bob Costello, an economist for the America Trucking Association (ATA), told TruckersReport.
In addition, analytics has impacted the trucking industry in major ways. Sensors placed within trucks now monitor truckers’ driving habits, such as the speed they’re traveling, how efficiently they use their brakes, how far they’re traveling per day, which routes they’re taking, and even how long they’re stopping and leaving their engines to idle.
Truckers are graded on these results in their performance reviews. Some drivers welcome this electronic scrutiny, but many don’t. The shortage of truck drivers could ultimately affect what we pay for goods.
The GIS manager
For decades, geographical information systems (GIS) analysts and managers have been comfortably sequestered in their own departments, and only called upon to provide mapping information when it was needed. Now, locational analytics and improvements enable the collection and aggregation of data along the constructs in a GIS system, providing enriched information contexts for mapping data.
For instance, government roadwork planners can now see the underground utility pipelines on a map for a road that is scheduled to be dug up for repair, and construction workers can see the composition of the soils beneath a proposed building site that is to be excavated.
Most road, construction, and other departments within a government agency don’t know this GIS visibility is available; they’re using antiquated and time-consuming methods to determine what must be done to prepare a target site before work commences.
However, executive managers of these government agencies do know that GIS capabilities are now expanded, so they charge their GIS managers to get out among users to find out what types of work they are doing and then determine if GIS can bring anything to this work besides maps. The end result is that GIS jobs are being redefined from mapping support to business intelligence analytics that are to be leveraged across the entire organization.
Are GIS specialists comfortable with the change?
“Many aren’t,” said Adam Carnow, an account executive for ESRI, which produces GIS software. “They are comfortable doing their jobs the way they have always done them, and it is a new and unfamiliar role for them to get out from behind their desks and begin visiting other departments to see how work is being done and how a more analytics-intensive GIS can help.”
The bottom line for IT leaders
Companies tend to overlook the more subtle day-to-day work changes big data is exerting on employees and jobs. This is why managing change at the day-to-day level should be added to the to-do list of every manager, HR professional, and C-level executive.
This article was originally published on www.techrepublic.com can be viewed in full


Archive
- October 2024(44)
- September 2024(94)
- August 2024(100)
- July 2024(99)
- June 2024(126)
- May 2024(155)
- April 2024(123)
- March 2024(112)
- February 2024(109)
- January 2024(95)
- December 2023(56)
- November 2023(86)
- October 2023(97)
- September 2023(89)
- August 2023(101)
- July 2023(104)
- June 2023(113)
- May 2023(103)
- April 2023(93)
- March 2023(129)
- February 2023(77)
- January 2023(91)
- December 2022(90)
- November 2022(125)
- October 2022(117)
- September 2022(137)
- August 2022(119)
- July 2022(99)
- June 2022(128)
- May 2022(112)
- April 2022(108)
- March 2022(121)
- February 2022(93)
- January 2022(110)
- December 2021(92)
- November 2021(107)
- October 2021(101)
- September 2021(81)
- August 2021(74)
- July 2021(78)
- June 2021(92)
- May 2021(67)
- April 2021(79)
- March 2021(79)
- February 2021(58)
- January 2021(55)
- December 2020(56)
- November 2020(59)
- October 2020(78)
- September 2020(72)
- August 2020(64)
- July 2020(71)
- June 2020(74)
- May 2020(50)
- April 2020(71)
- March 2020(71)
- February 2020(58)
- January 2020(62)
- December 2019(57)
- November 2019(64)
- October 2019(25)
- September 2019(24)
- August 2019(14)
- July 2019(23)
- June 2019(54)
- May 2019(82)
- April 2019(76)
- March 2019(71)
- February 2019(67)
- January 2019(75)
- December 2018(44)
- November 2018(47)
- October 2018(74)
- September 2018(54)
- August 2018(61)
- July 2018(72)
- June 2018(62)
- May 2018(62)
- April 2018(73)
- March 2018(76)
- February 2018(8)
- January 2018(7)
- December 2017(6)
- November 2017(8)
- October 2017(3)
- September 2017(4)
- August 2017(4)
- July 2017(2)
- June 2017(5)
- May 2017(6)
- April 2017(11)
- March 2017(8)
- February 2017(16)
- January 2017(10)
- December 2016(12)
- November 2016(20)
- October 2016(7)
- September 2016(102)
- August 2016(168)
- July 2016(141)
- June 2016(149)
- May 2016(117)
- April 2016(59)
- March 2016(85)
- February 2016(153)
- December 2015(150)