New ISO standard puts humans at the centre of business

Gone are the days when the workplace was built around a fairly straightforward structure, consisting of employer, employee, customer. The winds of technological change may be sweeping away traditional models, but ISO 27501 is helping managers build a more sustainable one for the future.

From the advent of the Internet to what is now known as the Fourth Industrial Revolution, the latest cutting-edge technologies – among them robotics, artificial intelligence (AI), the Internet of Things – are fundamentally changing how we live, work and relate to each other. The issue for business in this new era is not so much about the bottom line, or even just corporate social responsibility, it is also about taking a human-centred approach to the future of work and finding the right tools to ensure that organizations are successful and sustainable.

The likes of AI are presenting a great opportunity to help everyone – leaders, policy makers and people from all income groups and countries – to lead more enriching and rewarding lives, but they are also posing challenges for how to harness these technologies to create an inclusive, human-centred future.