Ride the Waves of Great Resignation With Help from Conversational AI

If the Great Resignation has taught employers anything, it is that they should not take their employees for granted. Employee retention will, from now on, require more than just pay. Fulfilling work and the ability to be one's authentic self at work are equally important to employees considering a job change.

Those in charge of a workforce have undoubtedly become accustomed to disruption in recent years, taking the form of geopolitical and social crises and the most significant public health emergency in living memory. Because the social and economic backdrop has shifted so dramatically over the past years, leaders are becoming acutely aware of the critical need to transform their businesses - starting from the inside out. As employers consider taking steps in this direction, a PwC survey found that employees perceive only 26% of companies to be looking to improve work through technology - a low enough number to indicate significant room for improvement.

There are many reasons why this "Great Resignation" has happened. Still, one of the most prominent is that many people have concluded that their work-life balance has become essential after spending a significant amount of time working from home without commuting. The upward trend in resignation is continuing long into 2022 and is not expected to slow down anytime soon.

Is Technology an Existential Threat or an Opportunity to Improve the Employee Experience?

Anthony Klotz, the professor who first drew the world's attention to the Great Resignation, believes that the pandemic has brought the future of work into the present of work. Before the pandemic and the rise of technology-aided activity, many people had been concerned that automation and artificial intelligence would make their jobs obsolete. However, the new reality of work has already demonstrated that the opposite is true. Machine learning and AI solutions are not a replacement for employees but rather a tool to help them do more, faster, and at better quality. That notion is gradually taking hold.

One Microsoft study shows that 63% of frontline workers, for example, are excited about the job opportunities that technology creates. They believe technology can help them in their day-to-day work by automating repetitive tasks, improving scheduling, and managing appointments. Technology ranks second only to better pay and vacation time on the list of factors that could help reduce work-related stress.

These figures point to a larger truth: creating better workplaces that meet more employees' needs of non-tangible benefits can start with something as simple as eliminating boring, redundant, or unchallenging work. Can this be done to benefit both the employees and the company? Without a doubt.

The solution entails automating processes ranging from sales and marketing to IT and human resources. Employees are thus freed from mundane, meaningless tasks and allowed to focus on more important ones. The path is cleared to create a more rewarding work environment with teams that combine human and digital talents. The impact on employees is enormous: 92% of organizations report that their automation initiatives have directly resulted in higher levels of employee satisfaction. Furthermore,  85% of leaders believe incorporating automation and automation training into their organization will help retain employees and attract new talent.

Employees are equally open and eager to take advantage of the opportunities provided by intelligent automation. Amid the Great Resignation, 52% of employees believe that artificial intelligence will make their jobs easier and more enjoyable. 31% agreed that using AI would make them more responsive to customers, and 41% said it would free up their time for more creative tasks, keeping them motivated and engaged in their work. AI, which has advanced at a breakneck pace in recent years, is now poised to become a multiplier for both process efficiency and human performance. Employees long to do meaningful work, and AI has the potential to be a powerful tool in combating the rise in burnout and poor performance in general.

Conversational AI, the Key to HR Automation

The Great Resignation is a direct consequence of the disconnect between employees and their employers, which means that the potential for transformation is most significant in HR, the department uniquely positioned to improve communication lines between these two stakeholders. Employees trying to get in touch with internal departments may quickly become a time-consuming, frustrating procedure in today's complicated work environments – and this is especially true when dealing with the human resources department. Interacting with the HR team usually entails mundane tasks such as providing information on available vacation days. Yet, when the process relies on human ability alone, it can become cumbersome and lengthy.

In a new work reality where speed is of the essence to keep employees happy and productive, using an AI-powered intelligent virtual assistant to support HR tasks simplifies the interaction and cuts the time needed to get an answer to just a few seconds. Unsurprisingly, 60% of workers want conversational AI agents to help them with human resource issues, saving them time and increasing their convenience.

However, conversational AI solutions can do far more than enable self-service human resources. The HR function in any company is simultaneously responsible for several valuable processes that directly impact employee experience. HR staff must manage the entire employee life cycle, which includes recruitment, hiring, onboarding, and training:

• The recruiting process is very time consuming and requires huge volumes of data to be processed. In its traditional form, relying on brute work, the process was often prone to bottlenecks that hurt the candidate's experience – and cost the recruiting company money. In this context, a conversational AI solution can make sifting through massive amounts of CVs and selecting the most relevant ones a breeze.
• Onboarding, on the other hand, is concerned with what happens after a hiring decision is made, and new hires are about to join the team. It includes time-consuming administrative tasks like finalizing their documentation and ensuring access to all relevant initial training materials and procedure overviews. A conversational assistant tasked solely with onboarding can be a valuable resource for new employees, guiding them through the process, connecting them to relevant information and engaging materials, reminding them of procedures and deadlines, and assisting them in completing necessary forms or quizzes.
• Training: Conversational AI assistants can use their analytical capabilities to recommend relevant skill development courses and streamline the performance review process for both employees and managers when integrated with performance or learning management systems.
• An AI virtual assistant can also collect employee feedback faster and easier, helping to foster a culture of transparency and continuous improvement. Alternatively, such a solution can manage company updates better, including employee recognition and messages from the leadership team, ensuring that employees receive these communications at the appropriate times.

Overall, conversational AI can be used to create an environment in which employees are confident to succeed in their daily work tasks. Intelligent virtual assistants, when used correctly, ensure that employees are motivated and committed to the company's values and goals. A seamless, engaging employee experience can boost retention and contribute to business growth, just as customer experience has become an essential factor in determining a company's success.

Intelligent Virtual Assistants Open the Path to Creativity and Efficiency

 Boredom, monotony, and menial tasks, such as invoice processing, manual data entry, or similar, all contribute to the Great Resignation. When processes are automated, employees can engage in more high-value customer interactions that require strategic thinking and personalized service. Automation eliminates time-consuming and often arduous processes, allowing employees to focus on what they want without feeling overwhelmed.

A customized AI virtual assistant can be a valuable digital companion, gathering data from various internal systems and facilitating employee access to information. When trained to act as AI conversational assistants, they also support personnel to be more efficient. Employees can interact with the chatbot to receive quick, consistent advice instead of putting customers on hold while they search for the correct product information. 

 Another critical area where AI virtual assistants can have a significant impact is internal services. In particular, IT service desks are essential support functions for today's businesses, which rely heavily on IT infrastructure and services to keep employees productive. It is responsible for meeting all employees' needs, resolving difficult situations, and facilitating access to critical resources and expertise. As a result, it has a significant impact on overall worker productivity. An intelligent virtual assistant facilitates self-service resolution of ordinary employee IT issues. Helpdesk AI assistants, in this way, automate common requests and processes, freeing up human support agents to focus on more complex and high-value employee needs. Thus, it helps saving money while increasing employee satisfaction.

 Artificial intelligence virtual assistants do not replace the value of a worker; they enhance it. With the help of conversational AI, the Great Resignation can and will give way to a more stable and sustainable world of work as companies invest in employees and experiment with new ways of working. Intelligent automation processes can be used by businesses to create smart teams of human-machine collaborators. This will benefit both the employee experience and, ultimately, the bottom line. According to an IDC survey, 85 percent of respondents believe that a better employee experience and higher employee engagement translate to a better customer experience and higher customer satisfaction. Furthermore, using conversational AI to enhance employees' daily activity can have actual, long-term financial results.