Alexa, grow my workforce.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) no longer belongs to futuristic fantasies—it’s here, and it’s changing the way we do just about everything. Human Resources and employee benefits are among the most recent things to be revolutionized by AI.
While most employees no longer fear having their jobs replaced by robots, the reality is that machines have made their way into many workplaces. Here are some ways that AI is reshaping the HR and benefits world, one data point at a time.
Removing bias in the hiring process. Despite best efforts, manual hiring processes can sometimes be tainted with bias. Whether it’s gender, socioeconomic background, or education level, it’s very difficult for HR professionals to completely view each candidate with zero preconceptions.
AI tools like language and sentiment analysis can assess job listings, applicant responses, and more, to make sure they have no hidden bias. Further, they can automatically respond to candidates post-interview, as to maintain complete objectivity.
Better understand workplace structure. AI tools can take a deeper look at behavioral patterns to reveal underlying characteristics of a company’s structure. For example, data visualization tools like heat maps and word clouds can assess how employees interact with specific materials as they pertain to different aspects of the workplace. The information gathered through these tools can give insight into workplace tendencies, prejudices, politics, and hierarchies.
Language assessment can also determine levels of employee engagement and gauge employee morale. Running a language assessment on samples of communication over a long period of time can indicate changes in language and behavior that could hint that the employee is no longer happy and may consider leaving. This early insight gives employees the opportunity to intervene and rectify any issues before the employee leaves.
Provide employees with benefit assistance. AI can transform benefit administration and assistance into a self-service system. Chatbots use machine learning and language processing to learn how to mimic a human experience when assisting employees with benefit enrollment and questions. These virtual assistants can be useful resources for topics like open enrollment questions, password issues, insurance coverage concerns and more. Having a resource available 24/7 all days of the week is essential to assisting younger employees, who are used to having information at their fingertips.
Free up HR resources for more strategic initiatives. With machine learning, language processing and sentiment analysis taking the place of manual processes, time and resources are freed up to tackle more strategic initiatives. They can spend less time collecting data, and more time analyzing it to make meaningful, informed decisions with measurable results.
Embracing AI in HR
Generally, employers are recognizing AI’s potential within their workplace. However, adopting these concepts is a marathon, not a sprint. AI will continue to get smarter and more efficient, and only time will tell the true impact it will make in the HR world.
Sources:
https://www.benefitnews.com/opinion/how-artificial-intelligence-is-reshaping-human-resources?utm_campaign=intraday-c-Jan%2029%202019&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&eid=0add248144953c7c69f4c8790cd7609b
