Artificial intelligence seems to be part of everyone’s conversation today, whether it’s about business or people’s personal lives. In business, AI is used to improve efficiency, productivity, and cost reductions. Analytics backed by AI help business leaders make better-informed decisions, and AI also helps businesses identify fraud attacks to avoid major financial and data losses.
But there’s another area where AI can make a significant contribution; that’s in the realm of Human Resources. We all know the problems our industry faces when it comes to recruitment and retention, so a tool that can help is greatly appreciated.
Recruitment and retention
At a recent NationaLease meeting, Patty Durkin, PHR, Aim Transportation Solutions, discussed how AI is being used successfully to find and retain qualified candidates. AI speeds up the recruitment process, using algorithms to help scan resumes faster and more accurately than humans could.
One of the problems companies face is finding the time to stay in touch with candidates during the decision-making process. No contact means applicants may go elsewhere and accept another position. AI can help with chatbots that provide 24/7 contact with applicants so communication is ongoing and applicant questions can be answered in a timely manner.
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Once you’ve found and hired that qualified candidate, how do you keep them with you? This is a big problem in our industry. Durkin noted that AI is a powerful tool here as well. We know that employee engagement and motivation are definitely predictors of long-term employment. AI can increase engagement by providing personalized learning and development opportunities much more cost-effectively than by hiring a number of in-house trainers.
Also, AI can identify HR policies that may cause dissatisfaction, enabling managers to make changes to those policies. AI can also point out areas where employee motivation is low; it can even be used to predict which employees are most likely to leave. Whether you want to retain those employees or not, it’s important to identify these people early. An unhappy worker can sow discord among their colleagues, so handling this early is vital.
Measuring performance
Supervisors would like to have one-on-one communication with their employees, but that’s not always possible if the staff is large and some work at another location. Yet performance management is as much a job for supervisors as it is a task for HR managers. AI can help identify patterns and trends in performance data, enabling managers to quickly mitigate any problems noted and continue any productive processes. Since employees want to know how they are doing throughout the year, not just at raise time, AI can provide these employees with automated feedback based on performance data. It can also pinpoint high-performing employees faster than a human could while giving insights into what makes them successful. Once those attributes are identified, HR managers may be able to use that knowledge to promote greater productivity and efficiency throughout the workforce.
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But AI has its challenges
Nothing is perfect, and that is definitely true when it comes to AI. Durkin talked about the ethical considerations regarding AI.
AI can perpetuate biases if not properly designed or trained. An example of this occurred in August of last year when the company iTutor Group had to settle a suit brought by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on behalf of older job applicants. The AI-powered recruitment software showed age bias for more than 200 qualified applicants, automatically rejecting women 55 and older and men 60 and older.
AI can also raise privacy concerns if personal data is being analyzed. People are already concerned about privacy breaches. If they feel their employer is doing the same, that will affect how those employees feel about the managers and the company. For this reason, Durkin noted that HR managers must reassure employees that AI will always be used ethically and transparently.
What’s the future for AI in HR?
The use of AI will only continue to grow. Durkin listed three points that HR managers needed to do:
- Keep up to date with AI trends and best practices.
- Ensure their employees are prepared for an AI-driven workplace.
- Be aware of the potential for AI to disrupt traditional HR roles and responsibilities.
Durkin realizes that “AI has the potential to revolutionize HR processes, from recruitment to performance management,” but HR managers will need to understand the challenges AI can still pose and take ethical considerations into account.
