Employees With Influence on Tech Adoption Are More Satisfied

WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. employees who say they have a lot of influence over which technologies are adopted in their workplace are more than twice as likely to report high job satisfaction as those who have no influence, according to initial results from the American Job Quality Study. Generally speaking, the more influence employees have on technology adoption, the higher their job satisfaction.

Despite this strong link, relatively few employees currently have a meaningful say in tech decisions — just over a third say they have “a lot of” (12%) or “some” (25%) influence. These levels fall well short of what most employees want: 71% believe that they and their coworkers should have a lot of (29%) or some (42%) influence over the adoption of new technology at work.

These findings are the second in a series from the American Job Quality Study, a multiyear collaboration between Jobs for the Future, The Families & Workers Fund, The W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research, and Gallup. Drawing from a nationally representative survey of more than 18,000 working U.S. adults and selected in-depth interviews, the study offers a fresh, data-driven take on the state of American jobs.

The study examines five key but often overlooked dimensions of job quality, using a uniquely large and detailed dataset. These dimensions include whether a job:

• provides an environment in which workers are safe and respected
• offers workers opportunities to learn new skills and advance in their career
• provides workers with some control over their tasks and schedule
• gives workers a voice in decisions that affect them (the focus of this article)
• provides benefits, stability and pay that support financial wellbeing

Read more about the project.

Worker Voice Lacking in Tech Adoption, Compensation and Work Conditions

Official government surveys rarely measure employees’ ability to individually and collectively share their ideas and shape decisions that affect their jobs. Yet worker agency and voice — both individual and collective — play a crucial role in shaping job quality.

Agency and voice are unique aspects of job quality because they are core elements of a good job themselves and are tools workers use to secure other key job attributes such as good pay, safety protections and high-quality work schedules.

The American Job Quality Study quantifies worker agency and voice through a “voice gap” metric: the difference between how much influence workers have and how much they want^[1] or expect over specific aspects of their job, such as compensation, working conditions and new technology adoption.

When it comes to new tech adoption, 55% of employees have less influence than they think they should have. This voice gap is smaller than the 69% gap the survey finds for matters related to compensation, but larger than the 48% gap on working conditions.

A previous study found that larger voice gaps are associated with lower job satisfaction, lower employee wellbeing, higher employee burnout, increased intention to leave the organization and increased interest in joining a union.^[2]

The American Job Quality Study reinforces this pattern: Among employees who report a voice gap on new tech adoption, just 28% are highly satisfied with their job. Among those whose influence matches what they believe it should be, that figure jumps to 46%.

Voice Gaps on Tech Adoption Cut Across Employee Demographics

Initial findings from the American Job Quality Study show that voice gaps on new technology adoption are widespread, affecting employees across a wide range of roles and backgrounds. For example, a majority of employees, regardless of their educational attainment, have less say than they believe they should.

This pattern holds across age and gender groups as well. Between 52% and 56% of employees across all major age groups (18-64) say they want more influence on new technology adoption than they currently have, as do 57% of women and 52% of men.

Employees Monitored Using Tech Want More Say on Its Adoption

Employers commonly use technology to track employee productivity, safety and performance through cameras, wearable devices or software that monitors activity and the work environment.

Overall, 42% of U.S. employees report that their employer or clients use technology to monitor details of their work performance. This estimate is consistent with prior research measuring the prevalence of automated management tools.^[3] A similar share — 40% — say their work is not monitored in this way. Notably, 17% of employees are unsure, suggesting that some employers could more clearly communicate whether or how they are using monitoring tools.

Employees whose work is more extensively monitored by technology report larger voice gaps regarding the use of technology. Sixty-one percent of workers monitored “a lot” say they would like more influence on technology decisions than they have, compared with 45% of employees who are not monitored.

In-depth interviews with survey respondents illustrate employees’ mixed experiences with employer monitoring.

One insurance administrator described a supportive environment:

My supervisor has access to all our emails. She can see the emails we’re getting and the work that needs to be completed. If she sees we’re getting close to that date that the email should be finished and it’s still in my work task, she will reach out and ask me, “Is there a question you’re having or is there an issue? Are you needing some assistance with getting that task completed?” … I think it’s a really good system of support.

But others voiced frustration. A telecoms technician said:

It’s like a big computer that tracks everything everybody does. We call it “the numbers” ... But it's really, really bad. [The company] has GPS on our trucks. They know how hard we push the brake pedal, how hard we push the gas pedal, and they send a report out every day about that ... Every little keystroke you make is micromanaged. And that's really what you do at [the company] almost every day: just deal with their micromanagement systems. It's all numbers.

Implications

As artificial intelligence (AI) tools — including large language models like ChatGPT — rapidly reshape the workplace, employers face growing questions about how these technologies are introduced and who gets a say in shaping their implementation.

Employees who report having greater influence over how new technologies are adopted are significantly more likely to report high job satisfaction. This aligns with past research^[4] showing that opportunities for worker input can boost satisfaction, retention and even organizational performance.^[5]

Findings from the American Job Quality Study suggest that involving employees in new technology adoption — whether through formal worker representation, structured feedback processes or informal workplace discussions — can strengthen job satisfaction for the benefit of both workers and employers.

The gap in worker voice on tech adoption is especially important at a moment of rapid workplace change. Most employees want at least some say in how new tools are introduced, and the majority want more say than they currently have.

Employers can strengthen worker voice by setting up feedback channels like pulse surveys and employee groups, linking employee input to decision-making, involving frontline workers in planning teams, particularly when new tools are introduced. Workers and their representatives can also play a role in shaping how technologies are adopted, including through processes like collective bargaining, and in advocating for training and support, as tools evolve.

This article was written with research collaboration with Alexander Hertel-Fernandez, Herbert H. Lehman Professor of Government at Columbia University, and Thomas Kochan, George Bunker Professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management as part of the American Job Quality Study.

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