Within HR, there is the constant drive to support your people effectively while also pushing to support all the other organisational goals.
One area that has caused real concern for many people in recent years is artificial intelligence (AI). How AI can simplify or automate elements of our workload offers significant opportunities for organisational efficiencies but also threatens to make some of our people redundant. However, as these AI solutions develop and become more widely available, we believe they can improve employee experience rather than cause concern.
We last talked about the value of technology for your HR teams in this post How HR and IT collaboration can improve the user experience. With the changes we’ve seen through AI and automation, this feels like a good time to revisit how technology can support your HR department, improving employee engagement and organisational efficiency.
AI Automation: Improving Employee Engagement Alongside Workplace Productivity
In this article, we will look at your team’s priorities and how AI automation can support you in providing the best service to the organisation while improving workplace productivity and employee engagement. We’ll break this down into four key areas - recruitment, onboarding, people management, and culture.
1) AI Automation in Recruitment
At a time when organisations are trying to reduce operational costs and the time taken to hire is increasing, improving efficiency with streamlined workflows through HR technology can bring huge benefits.
Creating job descriptions, advertisements, and application forms is one area in which automation can help. With the support of AI automation, creating more targeted messages - including customised email campaigns and dynamic landing - pages is much more efficient than it would have been in the past.
AI automation can be used to search online listings, identifying potential candidates far more efficiently than manually. Similarly, initial screening of CVs can be done with automation and - in both cases - AI can provide a more unbiased search.Â
There are many ways in which AI automation can remove simple, repetitive tasks within the recruitment process, such as interview scheduling, candidate communications, capturing data, and reporting.
2) AI Automation in Onboarding
According to research by Bamboo HR, 31% of employees leave their jobs within the first six months, with nearly 1 in 5 leaving within the first month. Giving people a positive experience on entering an organisation and ensuring their engagement early are both key.Â
Improving system integration between recruitment and HR to create a smooth process can be helped by AI, enabling employees to get up and running sooner.Â
Smart technology solutions can also automate processes, including technology setup, documentation approval and automated checks. Monitoring new employees' progress can also be handled through smarter HR technology.
Automating communication and welcome information will improve productivity for your HR team, while using AI to improve the personalisation of this information will enhance employee engagement for the new starter.
3) AI Automation in People Management
Whether we’re looking at strategic decision-making or incident management, AI automation can provide huge benefits and give your team time back and increased confidence in their work.
The use of AI automation and improved datasets can streamline workflows when it comes to many of the more routine aspects of people management, such as handling holiday requests and monitoring sickness absence.
More robust data can also report patterns and potential issues around performance and wellbeing, enabling early intervention. With AI tools also able to suggest tailored solutions, organisations can manage potentially difficult situations promptly to bring about more positive outcomes.
Better access to data and enhanced interrogation will improve decision-making around succession planning and critical vacancies across the organisation. This might also include real-time insights for effective management of workplace productivity and employee engagement.
4) AI Automation in Organisational Culture
Employee engagement is key to organisational success - something we discuss often. With AI automation removing some of the mundane work traditionally taking up most of the time of your HR teams, we’re able to put more focus on improving organisational culture and employee engagement.Â
Leveraging AI to support initiatives aligning with company values and mission will enable you to promote a more cohesive cultural vision across the organisation. Even within this work, AI automation can be used to provide communications and improved messaging as well as efficient opportunities for employee feedback.
Employees value organisations utilising smart technology not only for organisational efficiency but also to improve employee experience. While the reduction of routine work and opportunities to enable people to become more effective faster will clearly benefit the organisation - individuals will also see the benefits of this, enjoying the chance to get involved in more creative and complex work.
Improvements in data handling will provide clearer visibility of skills gaps - personally and within teams or the organisation. Alongside this, AI automation can provide personalised career roadmaps and learning pathways to provide individuals with better information and opportunities. AI will also allow you to provide training and coaching tailored to the individual and their goals - an incredibly valuable benefit for both your people and your organisation.
Digital Transformation for Your HR Technology
Making the most of AI automation within HR will not only improve productivity and employee engagement but encourage creativity and focus on organisational culture. Looking at the needs of your organisation and its people, is now the time to consider how your HR technology can support you better?
About the Author
I'm Terry Chana. I am an innovation strategist that connects customer, employee and brand experiences. My passion lies in building ecosystems to solve business problems by combining creativity and technology.