The Impact of a New Workplace Technology on Employees

ABSTRACT How does the implementation of a new technology affect workers? Using detailed worker‐level data for Germany, we analyse the impact of new technologies on non‐monetary working conditions such as overtime, training and perceived labour intensity. We show that the strongest effects arise in the first year of their implementation. These effects diminish after the introduction period. We further provide evidence that the impact of technology adoption varies across diverse occupational and industrial contexts. Workers in occupations with a higher task substitution potential show stronger increases in overtime, training measures and labour intensity. Analysing industry characteristics, we find that employees exposed to a new technology react more strongly in industries with higher business dynamics in terms of organisational capital and R&D investment. Extending these considerations to information and communication technology (ICT) usage, we show that new technologies exert stronger effects in industries with high investment in ICT equipment or low investment in software.