Conversational AI is reshaping human capital management for better employee well-being, productivity, and retention and revolutionizes main HR functions.
HR departments were originally created for administrative tasks, but today's HR leaders must address issues like employee well-being, retention, and performance, and foster a positive culture, while also developing AI strategies to stay on top of upcoming challenges.
Businesses originally formed HR departments to perform administrative and clerical duties such as hiring staff, managing payroll and handling complaints. Today, HR leaders face many challenges, ranging from employee well-being, retention and performance management to fostering a positive organizational culture and a myriad of other responsibilities. Furthermore, CEOs are now asking them: What’s your AI strategy?
TL;DR
Thanks to the widespread interest in Generative AI, CEOs have turned their attention to HR leaders, recognizing the potential of AI to transform HR functions. The expectations placed upon HR departments have grown significantly, requiring them to enhance their data quality and gain a comprehensive understanding of their current and future workforce.
As a result, HR professionals must now embrace data-driven approaches to inform decision-making and optimize workforce management. Tactical and strategic workforce planning has created a new urgency for HR leaders as AI impacts the workforce's makeup.
With nearly three-quarters of employees saying they are likely to quit their jobs in the next 12 months, HR departments desperately need to focus their attention on technology that improves their ability to drive employee experience as a way of retaining valuable staff, reducing costs and driving business outcomes.
This article looks at ten ways AI supports Human Resource departments to deliver more value than ever.
In recent years, there has been a popularity surge in the adoption of Conversational AI solutions, chatbot technology, virtual AI agents, and voice assistants. Conversational AI-powered assistants currently represent the top use of AI in all enterprises, and their adoption rates are expected to almost double over the next two to five years. According to Gartner, large enterprises across a range of industries, already see conversational AI-driven robots as "the future of everything that’s happening in HR".
Utilizing Conversational AI in HR can dramatically increase human efficiency, simplify or automate administrative processes, deliver better employee experiences and, importantly, augment decision-making.
Recruitment is a top priority for HR managers but demands a massive amount of data and time. Conversational AI can automate and augment every stage of the recruitment process, such as carrying out job analysis, scheduling interviews, and answering an array of candidate queries. This can save HR teams a significant amount of time and effort, and it can also help to improve the candidate experience.
For example, HR staff can use their Conversational AI platform to create automatic job descriptions, employment contracts, automatic candidate outreach messages, and even customer interview scripts, helping them find and prepare for the best candidate.
Additionally, Conversational AI can be utilized to filter resumes and employment forms to help identify which candidate is a good fit for a role. Natural language processing plug-ins can be used to find candidates with certain skills or experience, therefore eliminating the need for HR staff to screen each application manually. In addition, Conversational AI can be used to detect fraudulent activity, such as fake resumes or applications. This can help to protect the business from financial loss and reputational damage.
As Gartner suggests, ‘Fifty per cent of organizations still expect the competition for talent to increase significantly in the next six months, regardless of broader macroeconomic conditions." It is critical for HR managers to use technology to build an efficient recruitment process that supports a strong talent pipeline.
Watch this video to see how DRUID's conversational interface and automation capabilities enable self-service for users, qualifying interview candidates, reading and understanding uploaded documents (text, image, etc.), answering repetitive employee/candidate questions, or performing specific HR-related processes.
One critical aspect of acquiring talent is the design and delivery of the onboarding experience. Conversational AI can support new employees throughout the onboarding process by answering their queries, having them complete compliance-related materials and virtual exercises before their starting date and providing them with all the necessary information, as and when required. This helps to ensure that new employees are up-to-speed, and it cultivates a positive and engaging onboarding experience. High-performing businesses understand the importance of onboarding as a companywide, integrated initiative that promotes belonging and enables productivity, and Conversational AI can support and transform this process.
Conversational AI can provide employees with real-time support, answering their queries about HR policies, benefits and procedures, and resolving their issues. This can help to improve employee satisfaction and engagement. It can also reduce the need for HR intervention, therefore freeing HR staff to focus on more strategic or valuable HR tasks.
In addition, Conversational AI platforms can be used to provide employees with access to wellness resources, such as exercise programs, nutrition tips, mental health information and stress management techniques. With only 60% of workers feeling that their organization cares about their well-being, Conversational AI platforms can help to improve employee health, well-being and retention.
Conversational AI can facilitate the performance review processes by helping HR teams to collect performance data, feedback from employees, track employee progress, and provide reminders to managers and team members about review deadlines. This can help improve the accuracy and efficiency of performance management, and it can also help to create a more transparent and objective performance review process.
Conversational AI can help employees to understand their compensation and benefits packages and help them make changes to their plans. Employees can use a virtual assistant to check their payroll details, benefits deductions, and other employment-related information.
Virtual assistants can guide employees, process data and send notifications about compensation and benefits, therefore reducing the administrative burden on HR. This can also help to reduce employee frustration and improve satisfaction.
Furthermore, HR staff can use ChatGPT-infused conversational agents to gain greater insights into their company by asking questions about their systems and data. For example, HR might ask for recommendations for pay adjustments or ask their conversational agent to write a report highlighting diversity or gender pay disparities.
Employees who are confident in their growth path are 3.3 times more likely to stay with their current employer for the next 12 months. Conversational AI can help provide employees with access to training resources, and it can also help employees to track their progress and identify areas for improvement. This can help to improve skills and knowledge, and it can also help to create a more engaged and motivated workforce.
In addition, Conversational AI can suggest suitable training programs, and learning resources based on career goals and skills gaps. AI and Generative AI-infused learning management systems can automatically create content, quizzes, course tests and much more. This not only frees HR professionals to complete more valuable tasks but, more importantly, helps employees feel that they are developing skills in their workplace and therefore are more likely to stay.
See how DRUID Conversational AI integrated with Azure OpenAI ChatGPT supports employees in their career journey, providing information about internal job opportunities, detailed role insights, skill development recommendations, and personalized retention strategies.
High-performing businesses are 2.8 times more likely to build talent capacity for future needs, compared to others. Conversational AI can help HR teams forecast future workforce requirements and identify and develop current talent. This can help to ensure that the business has the right people with the right skills in the right roles, to deliver successful business outcomes both now, and in the future.
Conversational AI platforms with excellent analytics capabilities can be used to collect and analyze data about all sorts of employee interactions. For example, how often employees ask questions or are engaged with company activities or surveys. This data can be used to improve HR processes, identify areas for improvement, and make better decisions.
Once candidates are hired and trained, they become a valuable resource, and churn becomes a concern. Even without any big data, good managers can spot potential churn well in advance. Today, HR managers can depend on Conversational AI systems, rather than old-school techniques to identify churn. HR staff can ask their Conversational AI virtual assistant to produce a list of employees who are most likely to churn in the next 90 days and intervene to retain these valuable employees.
If employees do exit the business, then Conversational AI can assist in the offboarding process by automatically providing exit interview questions and then collecting and summarizing feedback from departing employees. This information can be used to prevent future churn and improve the offboarding process moving forward.
High-performing organizations are 2.3 times more likely to provide a productive employee experience than the lesser-performing competition. Conversational AI can be used to create a more engaging and interactive employee experience. For example, chatbots can be used to conduct surveys, provide feedback, and deliver news and updates. They can also help employees explore potential career paths within the business and suggest steps for skill development and advancement.
Conversational Business Applications can be created to ingest employee data, such as educational, job history, profiles, and personal connections. This can be further enriched with data such as salary information, performance ratings, documents, and other data. HR managers can then ask Conversational AI to identify high performers within the business who may have been inadvertently ‘missed’ by their managers. These employers could then be rewarded, and career pathed to higher positions, therefore helping motivate employees and reduce their risk of exit. This can also help ensure that the ‘best’ employees are positioned in the right roles where they can make the most business impact.
Watch this DRUID Talks podcast showing a real-life example of how Conversational AI has helped the HR department of a renowned bank in Eastern Europe to boost internal operational productivity and operational processes.
Finally, Conversational AI can be used to ensure that compliance is adhering to the relevant employment laws and regulations. For example, Conversational AI chatbots can be used to provide employees with information about their rights and responsibilities, disseminate important information about policy changes and make sure that everyone stays informed.
Artificial Intelligence, 45 years in the making, has become the decade's buzzword. Computer scientists have developed systems that can talk to us, create or classify images, author text or video content, code, compose music, create digital art and more. But the real power of AI systems is their ability to support and augment human decision-making.
Research demonstrates using technology to develop employees is key to increased worker well-being, productivity and retention. Generative AI, Artificial Intelligence and Conversational AI can add significant, transformative value to HR functions. Therefore, the more AI-infused technologies like Conversational AI, HR managers employ to support that objective, the better.
From automating mundane tasks to providing data-driven insights, we review key features how conversational AI transforms recruiting and managing...
While Great Resignation continues to impact the business environment, one truth remains clear: what people expect from work has irreversibly changed.
Great Resignation taught employers that they should not take employees for granted. Improving employee experience must be at the top of your concerns.