Thinking machines are not anymore a concept in the science fictions and it has already started redefining our business world as well as personal lives. Be it in the form of maps that guide us through unknown locations, smart suggestions for the e-commerce purchases or job recommendations or friend’s suggestions, intelligent machines or Artificial Intelligence have started having a strong impact in our everyday life. AI represents an area in technology that simplifies the way we do things with the right information at the right time available at our finger tips easing up the way we do monotonous and repetitive jobs. Almost all the industry verticals are in the spree of adopting AI in their business and HR functions are not an exception. Artificial Intelligence has started creating ripples in the field of HR functions. What we need to understand now is that even though AI is not a substitute of human intervention in HR, the machines are becoming intelligent day by day to source the right fit, predict the next move, and helps HR professionals take intelligent decisions which were primarily human’s forte earlier. Let us have a look on how AI is becoming a game changer in the talent acquisition sector with the self- learning machine intelligence.
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Intelligent screening of the candidates
Most of the times, recruiters have to go through vast number of candidate profiles which takes a sizeable time to analyze and filter the right fit. Yet another limitation with the current hiring mechanism is the dependency on manual process, where the recruiter screens the profiles, does limited tests and sets up face to face discussions. Following this process entails that only limited information was collected regarding the person. An intelligent screening software with AI capabilities can bring in much difference in this arena. By analyzing the necessary intricacies and past success factors in a particular job profile, the software can find the most suitable set of candidates with the required skills and experience comparatively easier than the manual methods. Organizations can also gather the behavioral aspects of the potential candidates through machine learning and predict their cultural fitment to the organization. Industry giants like SAP, Facebook, IBM, Hilton Worldwide, and many other enterprises have now added data analytics into their sourcing mechanisms and redefined hiring experience completely.
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Interviewing, engaging and recruiting the talent
Recruiters on an average spend 30% of their time in scheduling and interviewing the candidates, which is mostly an administrative task where automation can play a key role. In the current scenario, many of you have experienced the inefficiency of corporate job boards, where you never heard back after submitting the resume. Reports reveal that more than 50% of the candidates don’t hear back after submitting their resumes through traditional corporate pipelines. Automation through AI can play a key role here. AI machines can figure out the potential right fit and engage them in a much efficient way. The future is not far when the fully automated recruitment assistants takes care of the recruiting steps including engaging with the candidates, initial interviewing with contextual questions based on job requirements, and providing personalized updates, feedback, and next-step suggestions on a timely basis. Intelligent machines which address the recruiter pain points and delivering custom made messages to the potential candidates enables recruiters to focus on their time in swiftly closing the offers. In the current scenario, the candidate information collected through various job portals remains mostly unused. AI can now target and engage a very specific group of people in ATS database basis their skill and interest level in a new role which is about to open. Moreover, it can suggest potential candidates on updating their information, work experience, skill sets, tool knowledge etc. that might have been acquired from the last time they applied.
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Post offer acceptance and on-boarding
There is always an uncertainty in the period between the offer acceptance and the joining date of the candidate. AI could play a key role in engaging and following up with the potential employee to reduce the chance of last minute offer rejection. It can keep the candidate updated with any intimations, can answer to the general candidate queries and so on. While most organizations have exhaustive assimilation programs to make the new joiners aware of the company’s culture, processes and policies, 80% employees forget most of the information shared in few days itself. With the use of AI, the whole experience can be made more interactive and engaging by providing responses to most common queries and resources available for referring more details.
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Training and Talent Development
All of us know that everyone has different learning styles. AI enables personalized learning programs based on employee information skill set, experience, behaviors and learning patterns. It can also provide a customized career path information which in few instances your boss might not be able to provide. It can further scale, track or analyze career development programs for each individual as well.
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Managing Employee relations
Employees have both complex and modest queries, but nonetheless it takes a majority of the time of a HR generalist professional. Sometimes, it could be simple queries on policies, leaves, insurance or pay slip queries some may require discussion and some may not. An AI powered Chatbot can respond to the most common HR queries and it can schedule the meetings with you and your HR. Through HR analytics it can empower immediate managers to make better decision making through various information – Learning pattern, Performances Track records, Recognition Pattern & much more.
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HR Analytics
AI will take HR- MIS to a different dimension, it can derive meaningful insights through huge amount of data- predict turnover rates, employee engagement patterns, concerns about employee communication internally, and other probable issues way before it strikes an organization. This will also help in predicting attrition, enabling organizations to take retention steps on time. Analytics also play a key role in tracking the employee engagement trends which is directly proportional to the organizational productivity and efficiency.
New age technologies like Artificial Intelligence and Robotic Process Automation are inevitable disruptive forces bringing in drastic changes in the business world. In the long run, these technologies will have a significant impact on the low skilled and monotonous jobs that we all do currently. However, HR industry players like me believe that in this age of digital transformation, the role of humans will evolve into a much broader and strategic role powered by insights and data provided by the intelligent machines. Let’s wait and watch for more interesting turnarounds in this space.
Have a look at the article which also featured in The Hindu @ http://www.thehindu.com/education/careers/how-ai-is-making-hr-functions-smarter/article18437611.ece
is passionate HR professional and keen learner and loves being up to date about her domain.
She has been associated with Happiest Minds from 5yrs and is playing Senior Manager – People Practice for Digital Business Services Business Unit & Analytics, IOT Center of Excellence at Happiest Minds Technologies. She has 13+ years of experience across a spectrum of HR roles in IT, Financial, Consulting & Automotive domains.
She has exposure in various functions of HR domain: HR Business Partnership, Diversity & Inclusion, Talent Management, Talent Acquisition, HR Operations, Compensation & Benefits, Rewards & Recognition, Performance Management, HR Automation to Employee Relations.
