By Katharina Fink, dafür gem. GmbH, Austria
The lock-down during the pandemic has challenged the social service sector, which in its basic principles is built on the personal and direct contact with service users to achieve the goals of the support process. Measures aimed to contain the spread of the virus, resulted in the fact, that – wherever possible – face-2-face-contact with service users has been reduced to a minimum. As a result, social service providers adapted their services to online services and found different ways to stay in touch with their service users. Some organisations and institutions already implemented a virtual avatar, helping potential service users in a first assessment and leading them to the right service for their needs.
DEskilling and the risks of AI
As described above, also in social services technology and artificial intelligence (AI) are challenging traditional work processes. This could result in a so-called DEskilling: Qualified employment specialists will be replaced through new technologies. As in the example of the avatar, a computer performs the first contact with the person in need of support. This reduces the strength of a personal initial consultation, where employment specialists apply a holistic and systemic consultation strategy, relying not only on just a few key words. Furthermore, a skilled jobcoach, with a background in psychology or social work and consultation experience, is replaced by standardised responses.
Another example for AI is a new algorithm in the labour market policy of the Austrian employment agency: Unemployed service users are categorized by a few socioeconomic characteristics such as gender, age, duration of unemployment, etc. They are then divided into three clusters as a basis for the further support measures that will be taken to reintegrate these people in the labour market. These kind of algorithms bear the risk of perpetuating and reproducing stereotypes if AI is fed by current data on the labour market.
REskilling and the opportunities
However, as every new development the digital transformation not only bears risks but also new possibilities. Digital consulting tools such as the game we are developing in the “workable” project are a useful way of including digital processes in supporting people with a disability. If the digital transformation is seen as a possibility to adapt consulting and support processes and adjusting them to the digital world, it rather requires a REskilling of jobcoaches.
The workable projects takes this particular and important step into account with training employment specialists and jobcoaches in creating their own online content. This will allow the employment specialists to implement a hybrid approach in their support processes and generate the best of both the analogue and digital world. Of course, digital competence then is not only a must-have on the side of employment specialists. It will become an important task to train service users in digital competences to reduce the ongoing digital divide.
Providing digital content in social services
When creating digital content, it is very important to take into account the target group. In the work@ble project, the needs of the target group have been collected through so-called “personas”. The project partners have built an “ambassador” for their target group. This is a fictitious person with the most common characteristics of the people in their target group Having a very heterogeneous target group among the partners of the work@ble project this means, finding a common denominator for creating the game. The meeting in Talling showed us, that this is possible. For the further process of the work@ble project, the personas will help us to develop a useful tool for a successful support process.
Having in mind the risks of certain digital tools, the social service sector should not close its eyes to the fact, that digital transformation and its successful integration in social support services will be a key success factor for the future.
