3 Ways Artificial Intelligence Can Transform Your HR Department (Guest blog)

Artificial Intelligence or AI has become pivotal to various business sectors. Be it employee management, customer feedback collection, marketing, or payroll, artificial intelligence is changing the rules of the game everywhere. 

Let us first understand the concept of Artificial Intelligence or AI. Artificial Intelligence or machine intelligence means that the computer technology can observe, learn and perform activities mostly done by humans. Such activities are mostly work-based such as speech-recognition or perceiving emotions in customer feedbacks. 

In 2017, IBM hosted a survey - “Extending expertise: How cognitive computing is transforming HR and the employee experience” - with 6000 executives, from which, 66% had agreed with merging Artificial Intelligence with the Human Resource Department.

Similarly, Human Resources Professional Association (HRPA)'s survey in 2017 had 52% of participants willing to digitalize their HR sector and streamlining their business practices.

Adopting artificial intelligence in the Human Resource Departments can significantly transform the way employees are being managed today. 

Now, the role of Artificial Intelligence in the business and HR sector is multiple and vital. 

So, let’s take a deep dive into how AI can transform the HR department. 

1. AI can help in delighting your employees and clients.

Your employees are the ones who drive your business forward. Hence, a helping hand to streamline their daily workspace decisions can bring about a big change during the office hours. While such tasks are under the HR department's undertaking, AI can take over some of these responsibilities to save time: 

•    If an employee is having a bad day and running the customer service department, it's important to track his/her mood. An off mood can create misunderstandings between the company and its clients. With AI's help, after calls, the employees can receive feedback about their tone, stating their anxiousness or discomfort. They can then decide if they require a break from the work to boost their overall energy.

•    Leaves of an employee might not be approved if the other team members are on leave during that period. Hence, an employee who wishes to take leaves will need to choose a day when the other team members are not on leaves. An AI based leave system can inform the employee about pre-booked dates for others' leaves so that the employee can plan his/her leaves accordingly. 

•    If your hiring manager is too picky and ends up with very few prospective candidates, it can become a recruitment problem as you might not be able to hire the employees on time. But an Artificial Intelligence System can analyze the properties of candidates selected by the manager and quickly find more similar candidates. Also, AI can provide the insights on candidates rejected by the manager so that you don’t send similar candidates to the manager and save his time.  

2. AI can help in easy employee onboarding

A new enthusiastic employee might wish to learn more about your company. Be it about the work environment, people to connect for help, or safety precautions, a fresh candidate’s queries are vital to building a strong workforce. Now, a busy day might turn out to be difficult for the candidates to receive proper guidance and training. In such cases, the Artificial Intelligence system can answer frequent and common queries so that the new employees are up to date with your company's functions. 

For example, if your new candidate's colleague works in a different sector, he might not be able to help a fresher. AI can help by providing the correct names, location and contact details of trainers who can help the new joinee. That way, the first few days of new joinees in your firm will be exciting and will help the new candidates in quick learning.

Additionally, your firm might have a probation period for new employees to test out their stress-endurance level and professional approach to problems. During this time, your HR might need to make provisions for space allocation, safety protocol training, and giving access to all software that will be used by the employee. 

AI can provide answers to all such common inquiries which will not only help the new candidate to train faster but will also bring efficiency to the entire process.  

3. AI can help in tracking underperforming employees

While the HR department might have other emergencies and meetings to tackle, lack of observation on employees can lead to some of them disobeying the company work protocols. Here, the AI system can keep an eye on each employee's email IDs, their browsing history and other online activities that reflect their work patterns.

After proper data analysis, the system can flag and report the behaviours which harm the company. If any such actions end up being against the company's work ethics, the employee can face termination charges. 

Hence, implementing Artificial Intelligence helps in streamlining your firm's activities towards a healthy work environment. 

Conclusion

Artificial Intelligence, although still a topic of discussion for small business enterprises, can help the firms save money and provide quick solutions to the problems of your workforce. In this fast-paced world, where your need to provide excellent services to your clients, implementing AI in your HR department will empower your employees to do that.