Once merely a futuristic concept, artificial intelligence (AI) has now rocketed out of its sci-fi orbit and is quickly becoming a game-changer in the modern workplace. It’s not just influencing employee wellness and health coaching; AI is revolutionizing human resources (HR), redefining the roles of professionals in the field while creating opportunities to enrich employee experience and strengthen corporate culture. AI’s potential impact on corporate culture is so profound, it’s nothing short of a revolution.
This article covers essential AI tools for HR professionals, highlights the benefits of automation in HR, and explores the intricacies of its integration into business practices.
Pressed for time? Here’s a quick summary…
- AI tools can assist in hiring and recruitment, workforce planning, training and development, and employee self-service.
- Beamery, Anodot, Totara, and Talkpush are leading AI solutions that can help automate HR processes, from identifying top job candidates and predicting strategic hiring periods to personalizing employee training experiences and streamlining routine HR interactions.
-
AI automation in HR can boost productivity and efficiency, enhance employee engagement, improve communication, and reduce operating costs.
-
Embedding AI into business operations can be complex, requiring organizations to navigate cultural shifts, manage the scarcity of AI-specific expertise, and mitigate potential risks such as bias and inaccuracies.
Generative AI sifts through vast amounts of online information. It can leverage any publicly available career data from platforms such as LinkedIn to optimize hiring and recruitment processes.
AI tools can connect seemingly unrelated information about individuals scattered across the web. For example, AI could help a health care organization match with a qualified nurse by locating their certification registry. This capability enables the efficient identification of top candidates for a role based on their job history, skills, and characteristics.
Moreover, by drawing connections from disparate data, generative AI doesn’t just identify potential candidates, it can also help employers build a comprehensive understanding of a candidate’s profile. This facilitates a more holistic approach to hiring, thereby improving the recruitment process, and enhancing the efficiency of talent acquisition. However, recruiters must be mindful of the biased results some AI tools inherently produce, which may result in discrimination against minority candidates.
AI-powered recruiting software includes:
- Beamery: Identifies skills data from resumes and publicly available resources, channeling it directly into a recruiter’s talent pipeline.
- Eightfold AI: Allows candidates to upload their resumes and find open job matches. It also eases the process of sourcing, screening, and scheduling for recruiters.
- SeekOut: Clones profiles of current top-performing employees or ideal candidates to find similarly skilled individuals for potential hiring.
The process of hiring forecasting and corporate strategy often relies on manual methods, involving time-consuming tasks like spreadsheet analysis. This presents challenges as it is a widespread practice across companies and consumes significant time and resources. By analyzing internal economic data and relevant external information, machine learning can provide recommendations for optimal hiring periods and strategic hiring pauses.
In addition, the versatility of generative AI is evident in areas such as schedule management and employee retention. By harnessing its power to process and interpret extensive amounts of data, organizations can gain deeper insights into workforce trends and better address employee needs, leading to improved planning and, ultimately, enhanced business performance.
AI tools for HR workforce planning include:
- Anodot: Analyzes business metrics to deliver insight on strategic hiring periods.
- ObviouslyAI: Predicts revenue and sales based on historical performance and company data.
- HR Signal: Predicts how likely each employee will seek a new position within 90 days and recommends a proactive retention plan.
AI tools can provide a more personalized learning experience and accelerate information delivery for employees. It can translate training materials into multiple languages, promoting global accessibility and diversity, equity, and inclusion in the workplace. AI chatbots can act as around-the-clock virtual tutors, providing immediate answers to employees’ queries based on training data.
Not only does AI software expedite the learning process and boost completion rates, but it can also transform how learning is assessed. It can customize assessment techniques and eliminate traditional, tedious evaluation methods.
This integrated approach, combining accelerated learning and advanced evaluation, makes AI a comprehensive solution for training and development, leading to an empowered and highly skilled workforce.
AI HR software for training and development includes:
- TalentGuard’s WorkForce GPT: Leverages live labor market data to identify the most in-demand skills, which can inspire training programs.
- Docebo’s Learning Suite: Turns internal or external knowledge into engaging learning content and measures its effectiveness.
- Totara: Helps create customized learning pathways, tracks learner progress, and evaluates the impact of training programs.
AI tools, including self-service technology or smart assistants, can enhance employee self-service by managing routine interactions, such as clarifying remaining paid time off. This can liberate HR teams from rudimentary tasks, allowing them to concentrate on strategic decisions within their companies.
Beyond just managing routine interactions, the advancement of AI tools also gives employees more control over their work-related requests and information. These tools can provide immediate responses to inquiries, further facilitating employee autonomy and increasing overall satisfaction.
By reallocating the focus of HR teams towards strategic operations and empowering employees through self-service, AI tools are reshaping the dynamics of the modern workplace.
AI tools for employee self-service include:
- Paradox: Answers questions and sends reminders to employees using conversational software.
- Talkpush: Provides instant communication to candidates and employees, tailoring the tone and messaging to each company’s culture and values.
- ChatGPT: Allows employees to access information, troubleshoot problems, and seek services with its integration into self-service portals.
Reaping The Rewards Of AI Automation In HR
AI automation in HR is not about programming human relationships, but about eliminating routine tasks which are often laborious, repetitive, and susceptible to errors. By shifting to automated procedures, HR can concentrate on strategy and workplace connections, contributing to organizational success.
Increased Productivity & Efficiency
Automated workflows reduce time spent on repetitive tasks like scheduling calendar events, messaging employees, and integrating systems. This leads to rapid responses to employee queries, accelerating delivery and enhancing efficiency.
A key area that stands to gain from this increased efficiency is document management—a significant aspect of any HR role. Automation can eradicate the need for time-consuming manual document searches, allowing HR to focus on fostering company culture and employee relationships.
Enhanced Employee Engagement
The primary goal of automating HR is to allocate more time for HR professionals to focus on strategic planning and decision-making, improving both candidate and employee experiences.
Contrary to the fear of automation replacing the human element in HR, the goal is to aid HR professionals in working smarter and achieving better outcomes. By automating manual HR tasks, HR professionals can focus on building meaningful relationships rather than being swamped with administrative chores.
For instance, automating the onboarding process allows HR managers to focus more on personal interactions with new hires, reducing employee turnover and improving employee engagement.
Improve Communication & Collaboration
HR automation promotes smoother collaboration by expediting the routing of items for feedback, approval, or status updates. This enhances visibility across all departments, promoting better communication and cooperation.
Moreover, automation reduces the chances of human error. This unifies data across departments, platforms, and apps for more accurate records. The end result is a more reliable, efficient, and collaborative environment that stems from improved communication mechanisms.
Reduce Operating Costs
Traditional paper-based processes involve purchasing stationery and investing in physical storage solutions. The maintenance of these physical resources, whether it’s organizing paperwork or ensuring the upkeep of storage spaces, further escalates costs and demands additional human resources.
By transitioning to digital practices, companies can substantially mitigate these expenses. Digital storage allows for an extensive amount of information to be held within a virtual space. This transformation not only reduces operating costs but also optimizes resource allocation, underscoring the economic benefits of digitalization.
Navigating The Intricacies Of AI Automation
The integration of AI within businesses holds transformative potential. However, effectively embedding AI into operations can be a complex process. Many organizations are still in the process of shaping their AI strategies or searching for relevant applications.
A well-defined use case demonstrating the value of AI adoption is crucial to navigate these hurdles and secure leadership support.
Define The Project: The justification for AI will be for a particular business scenario, challenge, or application as part of a broader, comprehensive solution. Determine the following:
- Who is this solution being delivered to?
- What is the purpose of this project?
- How will AI be integrated?
- Why is this solution effective?
Navigating Cultural Changes: Incorporating AI can cause ‘cultural anxiety’ due to the significant shifts in mindset and behaviors it demands. This can be especially prominent among senior demographics like Baby Boomers due to generational differences. Acknowledging these changes, building trust, and fostering two-way communication are key to creating open-mindedness.
Aligning Projected Returns With Strategic Goals: Unlike traditional IT solutions, AI projects can seem costly without immediate returns. Aligning AI outcomes with aspirational values can help decision-makers see beyond short-term gains and consider AI’s game-changing potential. Such values could be greater efficiency, digital proficiency, risk management, etc.
Facing The Lack Of Specialized AI Skills: Adopting AI in the workplace may highlight a lack of AI-specific skills among current employees. To bridge this gap, companies can organize targeted training programs to enhance AI literacy and utilize user-friendly AI tools that require minimal technical expertise. Partnerships with educational institutions or using online resources can also build a more comprehensive understanding. In some cases, hiring new talent with AI expertise may be an effective solution.
Addressing Potential Risks: AI systems learn from the data they are fed, and if this data is biased or inaccurate, the output could reflect these issues. To mitigate these risks, businesses must implement rigorous testing and validation processes and maintain a diverse data set to ensure the AI’s learning isn’t skewed. Having a system of checks and balances in place, such as human oversight, can ensure systems are held to the highest standards of accuracy and fairness, avoiding discrimination, reputational damage, and regulatory issues.