The world of HR has undergone significant changes in this decade. The primary driver has, of course, been technology. From sorting and scanning job applications, scheduling interviews, and printing appointment letters, HR is slowly taking on the role of a strategic partner for senior management, looking to align the people‘s practices of the organization with its business goals.
Artificial intelligence is leading the march of technology!
When it comes to HR tech, artificial intelligence (AI), people analytics, augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR) and more are being embraced by talent management professionals in their endeavor to reimagine how people work in an organization and how recruitment is done.
AI in HR tech and talent management offers a range of benefits:
· Short-term: automation for lower cost, better experience, and higher quality and accuracy of processes
· Medium-term: self-learning, prediction analytics, interaction
· Long-term: better workforce productivity, improved decision-making
AI is not just the future of HR “ it is in fact transforming the present too! Let us look at some of the major effects and advantages.
Automating repetitive tasks
As a key HR technology, AI helps to automate low-value, repetitive tasks, a lot of which HR does on a daily basis. Tasks such as payroll, reports, time and attendance, and more can be fully or partially automated. This frees up significant chunks of time for HR members, who can now look to do more strategic work along with giving more attention to key steps such as interviewing and onboarding candidates for the available job openings.
Improved workforce planning
A key responsibility of talent management professionals, this requires an evidence-based mindset, along with the ability to analyze workforce requirements and status, extract relevant insights, and structure processes accordingly. An organization is a complex system and AI, an important HR tech, can sift through the data and figure out processes that are time- and resource-inefficient, aiding in streamlining operations. HR professionals can thus make more informed, strategic decisions related to the workforce, aligning it with the overall goals of the organization.
Smoother HR administration
Gone are the days of employee records being stored as one or more paper files per person i.e. as bulky records prone to damage or degradation. Courtesy AI in HR tech and talent management, digital personal records can be conveniently created. Employees can track and update employment milestones throughout their careers, and they can also perform simple HR transactions themselves, aided by the system pushing specific data points when requested. The role of HR here is to oversee the management of such records and determine how much detail is to be shared with whom.
HR analytics
Arguably one of the most groundbreaking changes in the HR domain, people analytics is a key benefit of incorporating AI as part of HR technology. An immense amount of people-related data is available with organizations, and it is possibly the most valuable source of deep people-related insights. Helping to track, analyze and manage employees, AI helps to develop a stronger digital IQ through looking at the statements, moods, and intentions of people. With the help of machine learning models, it becomes possible to validate the employee experience, which helps to strategically manage the workforce and minimize attrition.
Support for compensation decisions
Presently, compensation is determined largely through human analysis of internal and external data points (i.e. what others pay for the same position or tasks). The right amount to be paid is decided after HR personnel looks through the derived data. AI in HR tech and talent management makes this even simpler, making it easy to access, interpret, and contextualize the data. It is important that the advice is easy to comprehend for HR professionals so they can make an informed choice.
Better talent acquisition
One of the most important uses of AI in recruitment is in talent acquisition. There is much benefit to be had for organizations that include AI in their HR technology plans, as it can reduce the time to hire, deliver an excellent candidate experience, and improve overall productivity.
A virtual bot could help in screening candidates for positions that receive a huge volume of applications and would otherwise overwhelm a human. Resumes can be screened against the required skillsets, with eligible candidates being informed and assisted with relevant queries.
Personalizing the employee experience
AI could be a great addition to HR tech to be used in the onboarding process of new hires. An AI-powered program can instantly provide them all available information on the organization, along with relevant documentation such as organizational guidelines and training modules.
More effective compliance
Regulations and policies in HR are ever-evolving, necessitating a lot of data gathering and analysis. AI can leverage the power of cloud-based solutions to store essential documents and data for anytime-anywhere access. It can also monitor sources of compliance rules, notifying company leadership whenever there is any change. This can help businesses to stay on top of reporting requirements.
What is the way ahead? There is no one standardized route for sure, though starting with natural language capabilities is a good choice, to interact with employees and get some workforce insights. It is important to look to implement AI initiatives in line with the particular requirements of the organization, not just looking at what others have done. Research from Deloitte suggests that 40% of companies are already using AI in HR in some of the other forms. Clearly, AI is the future of human resources!
