Framework
ART — Work Resource Administration
Design the work first. Decide whether a human, an artificial resource or a hybrid should do it second. The post exists before its occupant.
ART — Work Resource Administration — is the discipline that designs, assigns, governs and optimises work regardless of whether the resource executing it is human, artificial or hybrid.
The founding idea is to separate the post from its occupant. First there is an organisational need; from it a post or responsibility is born, with purpose, ownership, results, KPIs, authority, limits, relationships, tools and escalation. Only then do you decide which resource should fill it.
Architecture
Where ART sits
Human resources and artificial resources should not be designed as isolated disciplines. Both live inside a higher one.
ART — Work Resource Administration
The work, its posts, results, authority and controls
Optimal workforce architecture
Human Resource Management
People who execute work
Performance + rights + human development
Artificial Resource Management
AI systems that execute work
Performance + safety + technical control
Hybrid Workforce Management
Interaction and allocation between both
Coordination, transition and optimisation
Classification
Three classes of principle
This separation avoids two errors: anthropomorphising software unnecessarily, and managing powerful agents as if they were simple tools.
Universal
Principles of work administration that hold regardless of who executes.
Role, responsibilities, KPIs, manager, authority, escalation, audit.
Adapted
Human principles that keep an equivalent function but change mechanism.
Probation → shadow mode; coaching → configuration feedback; promotion → wider scope.
Exclusively human
Rights, needs and experiences that follow from the human condition.
Health, rest, freedom of association, belonging, satisfaction, wellbeing.
AI does not “need holidays” and does not “feel engagement”. Forcing those analogies degrades the framework. Equivalence must be operational, never anthropomorphic.
Scope
The ten domains
Organisational and job design
Purpose, responsibilities, authority, ownership, unity of command and interdependencies.
Selection and allocation
Define the post first, then assess fit, competencies, cost, risk and prior testing.
Onboarding and enablement
Company knowledge, SOPs, policies, org chart, tools and access.
Direction, collaboration and communication
Delegation, escalation, handoffs, channels, context and interaction rules.
Objectives and performance
KPIs, quality standards, feedback, review, underperformance and improvement.
Learning and development
Gaps, training, updates, memory, knowledge and capability evolution.
Human experience and rewards
Motivation, compensation, health, rest, rights and labour relations — when the resource is human.
Governance, security and risk
Least privilege, segregation, auditability, privacy, incidents and compliance.
Mobility, continuity and exit
Promotion and scope, succession and fallback, transfer, offboarding and knowledge retention.
Workforce planning and analytics
Capacity, make-vs-buy, human/AI mix, costs, productivity, quality and continuous improvement.
Lifecycle
The lifecycle of a work resource
Automating does not remove management. It makes it continuous.
| # | Stage | Objective |
|---|---|---|
| 01 | Design | Define result, responsibilities, KPIs, authority, limits and risk. |
| 02 | Allocate | Decide Human / Artificial / Hybrid. |
| 03 | Select | Person, model, agent, vendor or architecture with demonstrable fit. |
| 04 | Onboard | Knowledge, SOPs, culture and policies, relationships and escalation. |
| 05 | Enable | Tools, access, credentials, budget and authority. |
| 06 | Prove | Probation or shadow mode, simulations, evaluations and intensive approval. |
| 07 | Operate | Recurring work with observability and management by exception. |
| 08 | Measure | KPIs, quality, cost, incidents, interventions and outcomes. |
| 09 | Develop | Coaching or updates to instructions, knowledge, models and tools. |
| 10 | Reassign | Change scope, move Human ↔ Artificial, redesign the hybrid split. |
| 11 | Suspend | Stop work or access on risk, incident or unacceptable performance. |
| 12 | Retire | Offboarding, revocation, knowledge transfer and retention or deletion. |
Non-negotiable
Ten non-negotiable rules
- 01
Every post must exist before its occupant, with purpose, responsibilities, results and KPIs.
- 02
Every work resource must have exactly one accountable manager, even when it collaborates with many people or areas.
- 03
Responsibility and authority must travel together: no result is demanded without granting the necessary faculties.
- 04
All authority must be explicit, limited and revocable.
- 05
Every resource must know its limits, its handoffs and when to escalate.
- 06
Access is granted under least privilege and is separated from the identity of the model or the prompt.
- 07
Every material action executed by an AI Employee must be traceable and auditable.
- 08
Performance is measured by outcomes, quality, risk and cost — not by activity, hours, tokens or message count.
- 09
A Human ↔ Artificial transition must remain reversible until stable performance is demonstrated.
- 10
Final responsibility for an AI Employee stays with a person or a human governance structure.