Introduction
Artificial Intelligence is the talk of the day. Did you know that the number of companies that started adopting AI in the last four years grew by 270%? That’s not all. Almost 9 out of 10 businesses across industries have had or are making investments in AI. The impact of AI on HR is getting considerably substantial too.
AI is becoming one of the most vital tools to progress for the industry as a whole, and this holds true for Human Resources too. While we are a group of people managing people, AI will still play a massive role in transforming HR processes by bringing in transparency, efficacy, and perfection.
At a broader level, with concepts like Machine Learning, you will be able to recognize trends easily, find and compare patterns, and use these data to make the right decisions. AI will help you gather an immense amount of vital human data that will transform the way the HR department functions. All HR experts talk about personalization. It may sound antipodal, but artificial intelligence can actually help enhance the humane part of the industry!
This article will give you a broader sense of the impact of AI on HR profession, helping you understand how AI can be used. We will also try to cover the ethical impact of AI on HR and how it may alter the job scenario in the coming years.
Learn how PossibleWorks can help you
The impact of AI on HR – The present and the future
Here is a list of HR processes that AI can definitely make better. By tapping into AI successfully, these processes can be made more effective, quick, and relevant.
Recruitment
One of the first steps of creating a workplace is recruitment. According to past data, it may take up to 100 man-hours to complete a recruitment process, and that is just the best-case scenario. If you are asking how AI will affect human resources on the recruitment side, it will be by reducing the needed man-hours to do different jobs. With AI, you can automate most of the initial steps of recruitment, including reaching out to potential employees, scanning and selecting resumes, scheduling interviews and even assessing them for some competencies, answering basic questions that the applicants may have, matching job requirements, and so on.
With all these taken care of by the AI, the HR team can actually focus more on other things – employee engagement, sourcing, appraisals, rewards and recognition, and so on.
Onboarding
If you have handled onboarding, you will know how tedious and extremely monotonous it gets. This is even worse in large organizations that hire people frequently. Artificial Intelligence can help the HR team design and automate their onboarding process to be more organized, efficient, and personalized. There are a lot of steps in onboarding that can be automated and handled by an AI system. Some of them include:
- Verifying documents
- Running an induction program
- Scheduling initial meeting sessions for new employees
- Handling administrative tasks like getting ID cards printed and providing access and device requests
Training and development
Another area where the impact of AI on HR will be really powerful is training and development. In all industries, upgrading one’s skills is an important way to stay at the top of the game. Training and development is a great way to upgrade the skills of your employees.
You can use AI tools to create training and development programs customized to every employee. Imagine offering different levels of training modules to different employees depending on their skill sets, employment levels, and requirements. How about a tool that suggests the latest courses based on the employee’s current skills and the gap that needs to be filled?
Such AI tools can further match new projects with employees who have completed a required course, upgraded their skills, making it easy to find resources internally. There is so much you can do with AI in the training and development section.
Rewards and recognition
Rewards and recognition are two of the most important factors to improve employee engagement levels at work. An engaged employee works more independently and is more productive too. When it comes to rewards and recognition, there are a few factors that matter.
- They have to be timely
- They have to be holistic
- They have to be consistent
There is nothing like AI to create outstanding R&R tools and systems. Take, for instance, PossibleWorks’ R&R tool. This is designed to encourage people to appreciate and recognize one another at the workplace through virtual platforms. The tool also automates milestone awards and other regular recognition processes, so your HR team doesn’t have to deal with these. It can also automate nominations based on approvals, making the process transparent, fuss-free, and largely social within the workplace.
Here is our blog on how digitizing your employee recognition system can help improve productivity. Check that out too. One answer to how AI will affect human resources is by creating a space for timely recognition and rewards and instilling a culture of appreciation.
Queries handling
Did you know that an HR personnel spends a considerable part of the day handling queries? It could be from new employees trying to understand the processes or wanting to know the rules of the workplace or others trying to make use of employee benefits. The number of queries about filling up review forms, submissions, and grievances at the time of performance appraisal increases multifold.
Having an AI tool to handle basic queries is an absolute boon to HR personnel. One positive impact of AI on HR profession is cutting down on the number of emails and chat messages the person has to handle a day.
A chatbot with AI can be designed to take employees through basic queries and their answers. The AI tool will be able to offer follow-up suggestions too intelligently.
Business administrative tasks
There are a lot of entry-level administrative tasks that all HR personnel needs to handle at some point in time. These are monotonous, boring, yet essential to keep things running in order. Some of these tasks include:
- Updating employee details on the internal database
- Managing employee documents
- Creating and updating organizational terms and conditions
- Data entry work
- Checking for legal compliances
AI can take over some or most of these tasks depending on what kind of customizations you get in these.
Decision making
We don’t mean to say that an AI tool can take over decision-making completely, at least not right now. But a well-implemented AI system can give you all the right information and analytics to make data-driven decisions.
You can use AI to conduct surveys, gather feedback, and analyze various business-centric data like productivity levels, engagement levels, performance, and areas of improvement. The HR leaders will be able to make decisions armed with extensive, valuable, and specific data in hand.
The ethical impact of AI on HR
While the impact of AI on HR is absolutely phenomenal, there is a slight downside that you need to be wary of too. The ethical impact of AI on HR is something that needs to be discussed, clarified, and rechecked every time AI is used in the HR department.
This is a department that handles extensive amounts of personal information about employees. As a result, safety and data security have become a number one challenge. The employees need to be reassured that their information is safe, beyond the reach of hackers and even the people who don’t need to see it.
Tweaking the AI algorithm intentionally or unintentionally can instantly change the system from an unbiased and well-thought-out structure to a tool that creates inequalities and biases within the workplace. This is something to always be aware of too.
You can prevent this from happening by choosing software developers who know the industry and give you an AI framework that is:
- Transparent
- Extremely safe
- Accountable
- Fair
Conclusion
There is no doubt that the impact of AI on HR is going to be concrete and sustainable with time. This technology keeps changing regularly, and that means your AI framework must be flexible enough to upgrade itself and change as needed. You can use AI to get rid of most monotonous HR jobs, analyze the vast amount of data to make tangible decisions, and create a holistic impact on the organization and its people.
We will love to share more such content with you if they help. Do get in touch with us to know who we are and what we do. You can also leave a comment suggesting what topic you would want us to talk on in the coming blogs.
If you want to check out more HR technology for 2022, then this is a blog you should not miss.
Are you using the right technology for your Recognition programs?
