Something for the weekend…
Hot off the presses from Japan is the news that a new employee has been put into a retailer’s workplace to help drive customer satisfaction.
This might not seem unusual until it is revealed that the new employee is a female robot and has been placed at the Mitsukoshi Nihonbashi department store in Tokyo to help customers as they walk into the store.
The robot, called Aiko Chihira, has been developed by Toshiba which has used technology to create her body movements and sync the movements of her mouth and voice.
She can smile and she can sing but what about Aiko’s employee benefits?
Her new employer might want consider some form of life assurance to cover her life span just in case she runs out of power. Or at least ensure it has an ample supply of spare batteries.
Also, the store might wish to cover the employee with further healthcare benefits to keep her stress free from the number of customer queries and prevent her systems from overheating.
At least they will not need to offer Aiko a pension scheme, or a company car.
Let’s hope that these benefits are aligned to the organisation’s business strategy of improving customer satisfaction.
The retailer could also seek advice from G4S which introduced Bob the security robot in 2014.