When the words artificial intelligence or data science come up in a conversation about HR strategy, there are
times'—especially if the context is a small- or medium-sized business'—when the eyerolls are
almost audible.
"Here comes the sales pitch," listeners think while wondering what kinds of AI insights will be valuable
enough to offset all the extra hours spent putting them into practice.
Too often when HR professionals hear about AI, the conversation focuses on the AI itself and not on how to
work with it. Knowing the nuts and bolts of how this machine-learning algorithm works or how that
statistical process is just so very efficient doesn't matter to them. What they need is a clear picture of
how these processes will help them help their people'—and how those processes fit in with the many
responsibilities HR already has. Done right, AI can help HR professionals proactively get strategic without
bogging them down. The implementation of AI in HR shouldn't become another task on the checklist. Instead, it should be
something that makes HR's other tasks easier to accomplish and gets HR to a place where it can continuously
improve
people processes in strategic ways. When adding value to everyday HR activities becomes the priority, HR's
relationship with technology becomes different because the outcomes are focused on people rather than on the
technology
itself. With a successful implementation of AI:
Anyone hiring one of those top-shelf consulting firms that most businesses can't really afford wouldn't
expect them to come in, dump a bunch of information on a desk, and then just leave. So why is it okay for HR
technology to do that? There's already enough confusion around all the different aspects of people analytics
that HR is expected to
track in order to be strategic. In an ideal world, any information obtained from an HR solution should be
served up with something that makes it actionable: guidance. In addition to being built into the single
solution HR already uses to manage data, AI should function as an advisor that takes the company's
priorities into account and gives recommendations based on what it's seeing so HR can spend less time
analyzing data and more time making an impact.
A big part of this all comes down to timeliness and flexibility. Having to go ask an AI solution for
predictions or information means putting just another item on the to-do list without getting help when it's
most needed. Instead, AI should do what any good advisor would and actively look for opportunities to help,
such as: Consultants anticipate their clients' needs and not only help them do what's best for their people and their
organizations but also help them become better leaders. AI can do the same thing if it's built to focus on
adapting to organizations and embedded in the flow of their employees' life cycles.
In addition to increasing HR professionals' efficiency and strategic ability, presenting and sharing the
right data at the right time to make an impact can help HR build strong, positive relationships with the
people managers they work alongside. Think about it: automatically receiving insights into the people
activities going on at the organization and getting time back from not having to dig through data give HR
some breathing room to align strategies with managers. HR technology can help there, too.
The benchmarks mentioned above help HR professionals tap into what matters to managers, help them to get out
of the weeds, and do what's best for their teams. It's important to remember, that it's not just a matter of
mitigating risk or penalizing people. When HR has at its fingertips a constant feed of benchmark information
that's proactively pointing out where there are outliers, those outliers can also be examined as positive
changes to be capitalized on. HR technology should guide HR professionals to those opportunities, in
addition to showing them where they can reduce risk. Consider this example: one shift manager is particularly skilled at setting up fair schedules, and their team
is starting to recognize them for it and is becoming more engaged and productive as a result. With the right
solution, HR would see the team's change in real time and get a helpful notification about where its
performance sits relative to other benchmarks (and alongside the team's scheduling patterns). This opens the
opportunity to talk with that manager, understand what it is they're doing that's working, and roll that
process out on more broadly by finding time for them to train their peers (or collaborating with them) to
draft new scheduling policies. HR forms a new alliance with a strong manager, they feel heard and recognized
for their efforts, and the wider organization gets the benefit of some process optimization that will help
employees succeed. It's a win-win situation.
How can these hard numbers really translate into insights on how people are feeling or what they're thinking?
Good AI should go beyond just advising HR on operational metrics and should also offer sentiment analysis.
By looking at people's written responses in different activities (such as recruitment evaluations, performance reviews, and engagement
or pulse surveys), AI solutions can help HR understand the feelings behind those responses. This data gives HR a fact-based way to look at and talk about something that would otherwise be just a gut
feeling in many cases. This approach has several possible valuable applications. For example, it can help
HR: Sentiment analysis enables HR to bridge the gap between common business goals and KPIs and the employees'
well-being. Having this kind of data mix in hand on a regular basis enables HR to communicate with
leadership about how overall organizational strategy should align with the needs of everyone working there
and become an even more critical part of those conversations. Conversations about AI in HR can quickly become overwhelming, and the solutions often seem like more trouble
than they're worth. But when the search for HR technology starts from the right perspective and involves
asking the right questions, HR professionals will find that there are many ways AI can benefit them, their
people managers, their organization, and ultimately all of their people. When evaluating the organization's
strategic HR options, focusing on the advantages can help HR have better, more productive conversations
about newer technologies, such as AI solutions.
The best AI is the kind no one talks about
Treat using AI like hiring a strategic advisor
Find ways to deepen relationships with people managers
Remember that emotional intelligence matters as much as business intelligence
"Practical AI" isn't an oxymoron after all