Today, the increased adoption of automation and artificial intelligence technologies in various job functions has led to anxiety over how the rise of the machine will eventually impact the traditional HR model. Will companies axe their human resources department and give bots the employee ID and promotions? Or will such game-changing technologies only augment the work done by humans and not make them completely redundant or complacent?
With the global business climate ripe for embracing cutting-edge AI tools and robotics, technology behemoths such as IBM, Microsoft and Facebook, among several others, are heavily investing in automating the HR function to enhance the overall employee experience. It is estimated that in the last three years alone, over $6 billion has been ploughed into more than 1,000 AI start-ups, across industries including HR.
Even as we stand on the threshold of preparing the 21st century workforce for a rapidly changing automated world, HR managers are busy redesigning their department to adapt to this seismic shift. In an earlier post, I also discussed the new hyper-personalization of HR services to meet the needs of a diverse workforce.
The use of advanced analytics through AI and robotics is slowly changing the HR landscape. For example, I have observed that the hiring process is usually a time-consuming ordeal and could take up to a month to get a new recruit on board. However, talent acquisition leaders are increasingly seeing the multiple benefits accruing from automated paperless onboarding processes for recruiting new employees. This not only drives efficiency within the organization, but also streamlines high-volume, repetitive administrative tasks, fostering a powerful employee-centric culture. Forward-looking organizations are also using cloud-based software bots to automate mundane tasks in legacy systems, primarily to free up time for their employees to build new skills and remain customer-focused. A key example of this is how the healthcare industry leverages the power of Big Data to process reams of unstructured data, resulting in improved patient care and diagnostic models.
Such radical changes automatically open up massive opportunities for the HR manager to engage better with the workforce to make the organization future ready. AI-powered machine learning tools empower HR executives with the capability to decode video interviews in real-time, recognize faces, find out when a candidate is lying, and verify educational records, among a host of other uses. Deep learning greatly assists the HR function by predicting employee attrition through advanced algorithms. Further, intelligent chatbots are the latest entrants into the HR ecosystem and assist in selecting candidates and assessing their future potential for the organization. Viewed positively, such automated systems will transform traditional HR processes by using valuable people data to create a more cohesive, interactive and inclusive workplace.
But before you turn to your company’s chatbot for career advice, I would urge HR leaders to pause and reflect on whether their organization is losing its human touch. Their real challenge lies not just in keeping pace with the speed of emerging technologies but to also be sensitive and empathetic to the human element in the ecosystem. In my view, overdependence on automation should not be at the cost of dehumanizing the workplace. While a chatbot can calculate your pending leave, does it have the emotional intelligence of a human being? This might take a while. This is one reason why trained human resource personnel will always remain relevant, even in the face of organizations preparing for a hybrid work environment where humans and bots coexist. It is, therefore, essential to strike a balance between the two.
Disruptive changes in HR are also driving organizations to actively redesign jobs around machine learning and deep learning models. As new innovations emerge every day, businesses are encouraging their employees to reskill and reinvent themselves to remain relevant in their workplace. In essence, HR managers have the onus of building a culture of learning. They should have a pulse on the kind of automated processes that will align with their business model and also predict the areas where the big job losses might occur. This two-pronged approach will maximize productivity and enable training programmes for employees to help them remain competitive.
As the HR industry stands at the vanguard of explosive growth, organizations should focus on reskilling talent and pushing the envelope to leverage technology for sustainable growth.
In other words, the future of work has its work cut out.
