How AI in HR is Changing Today's Work Culture

Artificial Intelligence (AI) impacts every part of our lives, from our grocery list to our Spotify playlist. Do a quick search on the impact of AI, and you will be bombarded with results that predict the downfall of humanity. Of course, the results are blown out of proportion and often based on incorrect assumptions.

AI has impacted almost every industry and not in such a drastic way. It is now a part of our lives so implicitly that we don't even notice. HR doesn't serve as an exception. AI is no longer the future aspect of the workplace; it's here for good and evolving the way people work. Slowly but definitely. How impactful is AI in HR? How is the future of work going to evolve with AI in HR? How are hr leaders and hr professionals going to deal with it?

That’s what we are going to have a look at here.

1. Enhancing Candidate Experience

One of the key areas where AI has a significant impact is hiring. With AI, relevant candidates are being recommended for a job. Similarly, relevant jobs are being suggested for job seekers according to their skillsets. In this way, it eliminates human biases and increases efficiency both ways.

AI has been a critical player in removing unconscious bias in talent acquisition. This way, job seekers are not ignored, and the process is much more than the simple matching of keywords in the job description. Candidates are known for stuffing their applications with jargon that is susceptible to unconscious bias. When using AI tools for recruiting, all candidates are considered and the assessment becomes fair to a great extent.

While AI helps out in the shortlisting process, hr departments can devote time to providing a superior candidate experience that directly impacts the company. And chatbots helps in providing the desired feedback to all candidates, whether positive or negative. This creates a positive impression of the company as no candidate in left stranded and every candidate receives feedback.

2. Streamlining Onboarding

When a new employee joins a company, it is not just the addition of a new person but also new skill sets, preferences, and perspectives. Onboarding and orientation software won’t necessarily support these changes.

So what's the way out? The answer is, again, AI.

Hiring managers can use AI-augmented software to provide a personalized onboarding experience. This is according to their existing skillsets and learning preferences. It is similar to hiring a different mentor and a coach for every new employee. And the best part? The longer you run this, the more data you can collect and the more efficient the whole cycle becomes.

3. Easier Upskilling

Identifying the skillsets gap in an organization is one of the not so pleasant hr functions. What makes the job more difficult is deciding whether the gap in skillset is practical or due to an unrealistic expectation.

AI software can identify the difference between the expected skillsets and the prospective candidate's skillsets and the current employee. It uses predictive analysis to identify the gaps between the desired skillsets and the existing skillsets. It can predict which new employees will fit in the current work culture according to previous data. It recommends employees with skillsets and cultural backgrounds that worked for the company in the past.

When it comes to training, AI takes the cake here too. AI can supervise the whole workforce and identify the areas of weakness. After supervising, it can recommend the appropriate skills that need to be developed and the learning course. And the best part is that AI can suggest ways to train employees without increasing your workforce.

4. Employee Engagement Surveys

We believe that employee engagement is the area where AI can have the most impact. Employee engagement has evolved from the 80s slowly but steadily.

The 80s was a time of annual paper-based surveys. You couldn't do too much about this except to look at the result and hunt for patterns.

This method wasn't very actionable and didn't produce too much effect on the organization's overall health.

The internet was starting, and people were beginning to talk about engagement.

The current developments in the field of pulse survey have changed the way how employers learned about their workforce. Surveys are conducted at a much higher frequency(sometimes even weekly). Pulse surveys are more actionable, and the organization gets access to an immense pool of data.

AI can take the concept of pulse surveys a step forward. It works like a routine survey. But instead of delivering the results to the employer, the results are delivered directly to the employees. It uses machine learning and gains analysis and insights from research from psychological research and past trends and provides the appropriate course of action to be followed by the employees. This ensures that team members are in unison with each other. AI makes use of the massive pool of data and fine-tunes the process.

5. Predicting Turnover

One of the biggest headaches of companies, big and small, is turnover. According to Hays, 81% of employees would consider leaving their job if the perfect opportunity pops up. And according to Gallup, the average cost of replacing an employee comes up to be 150% of the employee's salary.

Predicting attrition can be both taxing and inefficient. Using AI techniques like sentimental analysis can identify the nature of the conversation between a manager and his subordinate. This can determine the workforce is engaged or disengaged based on the conversation.

Also, AI can identify the participation of employees and engagement in company-wide events. These identifiers can indicate the level of engagement in the company. Managers and hr professionals can analyze these data, keep a check on burnout levels, and delegate workload more efficiently.

6. Data-Driven Decision making

AI and data-driven systems can help hr managers and employees to tackle daily decision-making with ease. Let's take the example of leave applications. In an organization of about 50-100 employees. But when we are talking about organizations with 1000 or even 10,000 employees, things start going haywire. This means a massive headache for the human resources department.

AI can step in and eliminate or take care of a huge chunk of the requests. If too many people have already applied for leave for vacations, further leave applications can be denied. AI can also use text analyses to identify the tone and intensity of the severity of the leave and take the decision or revert the decision to the human user.

AI can also remove the inconsistencies crept in by human biases during decision-making. Of course, any decision which is made by the use of data is likely to go right. Hr teams taking decisions based on the information is expected to increase engagement in the workforce.

Finally

In business, hr managers need to consider every aspect in which AI can impact the company. Correctly implemented AI can boost the efficiency of hiring processes, skill development, prediction, and decision making. It is essential to consider that resources might run dry when implementing AI in businesses. Proper planning must be done, and when the perfect opportunity arises, you must be ready to make bold decisions.

This article is written by Iftekar Ahmed. He works as a Content Creator and Digital Marketer at Vantage Circle. When he is not playing guitar or solving puzzles, he is often seen fussing over foods he can't eat because he is on a perennial dieting spree. For any related queries, contact editor@vantagecircle.com