Ethics in the digital workplace
Digitisation and automation technologies, including artificial intelligence (AI), can affect working conditions in a variety of ways and their use in the workplace raises a host of new ethical concerns.
IBM intends to build a new innovation centre in Croatia. The IBM Croatia centre will be located in Zagreb and will open in the first quarter of 2017. IBM plans to hire 500 people at the beginning of operations, and will hire an additional 300 employees later in 2017. The IBM Client Innovation Centre will provide technical support service to users worldwide 24 hours a day and in the languages of countries using the IBM system.
The IBM centre will also collaborate with Croatian universities in creating mentoring programmes designed to prepare young people for work at the centre. Investors hope to attract skilled labour by enticing young people who have sought work in the IT sector abroad to come back home.
The Minister for the Economy stated that the Government was informed of IBM's plans, however, they did not offer special terms to the US company. Slovenia and Slovakia were also potential locations for the new centre, but it was determined that Croatia offered the best "investment package" of all the countries in the neighbourhood.
Eurofound (2016), IBM Croatia, Business expansion in Croatia, factsheet number 88195, European Restructuring Monitor. Dublin, https://restructuringeventsprod.azurewebsites.net/restructuring-events/detail/88195.