Ways Artificial Intelligence Is Reinventing Human Resources in 2022

Anna Russu

3 years ago

Table of Contents

Should we ask you “What makes a successful company?”, you’d probably say “Its clients and employees” which is absolutely right. And although your clients may be utterly important, it’s your employees who render services to them. So it is crucial to improve the hiring, as well as make the onboarding and the overall working experience better. In 2021 it is much easier to do this thanks to advanced technologies like AI and custom software.

To power up your HR department and make its work easier, you do not need to reinvent the wheel. All that is required is a custom-made AI solution with a certain set of features. AI and human resources can become powerful allies able to transform your business.

Therefore in this post, we’d like to discuss with you key HR challenges that technologies can address, the role of artificial intelligence in human resource and recruiting, and the market of ready made AI solutions for HR departments. So, without further ado, let’s get started.

Top 5 HR challenges that AI can address

The job of HR managers can hardly be called an easy one, since they are responsible for a tremendous amount of tasks. HR generalists in companies are trails and pipelines that hold everything together. They deal with employee integration, handle all kinds of conflicts and queries, monitor employee performance and training. And apart from being responsible for all those tasks, they also cooperate with recruiters on job description postings and may help with candidate selection, interviewing etc.

The day of a common HR manager is very busy and sometimes even messy and chaotic. And why is that? Simply because there are no tools available to automate some of the routine processes to save them a couple of hours here and there, and the time can then be spent on other, more important and impactful tasks.

We interviewed several HR managers and explored the internet to collect all the major challenges these specialists face. And here is what we’ve got:

Hiring takes much time

Talent acquisition can be rather challenging and time consuming. Before you hire a person you need to go through numerous steps – job description writeup and posting on relevant platforms or sites, application and resume review, selection of the suitable candidates, candidate screenings, scheduling interviews, answering post-interview questions, assessing the candidates, making decisions and extending offers. It’s a lot of tasks, and thanks to AI it is possible to streamline them and reduce the time outlay spent on hiring. Combining AI technology with human efforts can improve the quality of getting through these administrative tasks, create better candidate databases, and ultimately result in superior hiring outcomes due to the automation of run-of-the-mill tasks.

Onboarding is ineffective

When people are hired, it is necessary to help integrate these people into the team and immerse them into the working environment and introduce to all key processes. And that is what onboarding is for. In addition, thanks to AI, it is possible to improve onboarding quality and minimize human involvement. For example, AI powered systems can help a person access all necessary information about the company, fill in starter documentation, and find out who the key team members are. In other words, AI can help with introducing new employees to company values, practices and specificities. What’s also great about AI systems is that they can be customized to meet the onboarding needs of each separate employee.

HR administration is complicated

HR administration includes many activities among which are management of absences and sick leaves, entitlement to paid holidays, monitoring of employee performance and experience, timesheet management. And that’s not all, apart from those tasks HR managers are responsible for gathering data, creating reports and handling questions about raises, salaries, etc. Is it possible for one person to handle all those tasks? Yes, especially if there is AI software working alongside as a helping tool. Such solutions can effectively manage shifts in schedules, monitor employee performance, sick leaves and vacations, and even answer employee questions related to administrative matters.

Low level of employee training

In a world where skills have short shelf life and every job position requires constant learning to stay relevant and keep up with realities, it is hard to ignore the importance of employee training. And this aspect of work can be significantly improved with the help of AI technology. AI systems can create personalized learning and development plans, create programs adapted to company needs and employee abilities, and power up e-learning analytics. As a result, the qualification of company employees will grow and so will their KPIs.

Questionable security of employee data

Every company has a database full of various information related to each employee, organized into separate profiles. And should a breach of that data happen, the company can face serious consequences. Unfortunately, even in 2021 some businesses and HR departments still suffer from issues with security. And AI has the capability to solve them all once and for all. Intelligent AI security programs are able to gather and process data about cyber threats and respond to them fast and in real-time.

Not only can AI address all those challenges, but also it can add a lot of value to your business. IBM in its recent report has provided the following table demonstrating the real benefits that AI can bring into HR:

Image source: IBM report

Practical use of AI in HR industry

Now that we briefly overviewed major HR challenges, it is time to take a closer look at the practical use of AI technology, some real success stories and up-to-date statistics. Since numbers can often tell a story far better than words, let’s begin with the statistics.

According to Gartner, 17% of businesses already use AI technology for improving the work of HR departments, and another 30% are projected to join them in the next 2 years. And those companies that have already partially adopted AI technology are planning to double the number of used solutions by 2022.

Is AI really so effective when it comes to HR management? Yes, and here is why companies keep adopting this technology:

62% expect to improve data-driven decision making;
57% want to make employee experience better;
56% turn to AI to automate manual tasks;
51% hope to cut operational costs.

Speaking about notable business giants that use AI for HR management, it is worth mentioning names like Amazon, Google, IBM. For example, Amazon uses a so-called decision-making center powered by AI to manage employees’ requests and leaves.

Google has a software that records interactions between employees and HR managers and models them. So the system can automatically answer known/previously processed questions, or redirect an employee to the HR manager if it cannot generate an answer. The system can learn with time and become a smart digital helper capable of stepping in for HR managers and when it comes to answering certain questions if they have that information stored in their “memory”.

And as for IBM, this company went even further! IBM uses AI to explore the background of job applicants. Their solution analyzes applicant social network profiles, checks whether they might have violence or anger issues, analyzes facial expressions and sentences used by applicants in their posts, etc. Then the system analyzes the obtained data and concludes whether a person is a potential fit for the position he or she is being considered for.

As you can see, the practical use of AI can be diverse. Everything depends on the challenges and processes that you strive to improve in your HR department. We have collected several use cases to exemplify how you can use AI to your advantage and reap benefits. But first, let’s take a look at talent lifecycle, which AI helps to improve every step of the way:

Image source: IBM report

Smart digital forms

What happens when a candidate is applying for a job? The first thing that a candidate faces is a need to fill out several digital forms and re-enter data from his/her resume like employment history. Taking into account that companies also often make candidates also write things like cover letters, provide references, answers to questionnaires and on top of that make new hires fill out several other tax and administrative digital forms, you can only imagine how tiring, tedious and even stressful this process can prove to be.

But if you introduce AI, all of that will change and the candidate experience will ultimately be much better. AI powered solutions can help transfer candidate data from their CVs into your database, auto filling the application and making the process faster and more precise the better the AI. Such solutions recognize relevant information and then automatically place it in the right places. So the repetitive data entry and possibility of human errors are minimized and you get all necessary data added right to your employee profile/database.

Handle employee queries

We’ve already mentioned one great example of an AI system used by Google that deals with employee queries. We cannot emphasize enough how crucial it is to listen to employee complaints or requests and address them on time. And AI can become your major helper in this task.

What’s also great about such AI solutions is that it can do things like collect the data during the whole employee lifecycle, see the real progress, common requests and form a more personalized approach to your team members, their engagement and rewards.

Engage employees with AI-backed chatbots

What is the best way to improve the working environment and make employees feel appreciated? We’d say – personalized conversation. Of course, for big companies and their HR managers it can be hard to pay equal amounts of attention to each employee and hear their voice and opinion. However, if you have an AI-backed chatbot, it becomes possible.

Employees can communicate with the necessary departments via chatbots. These smart solutions can collect and analyze requests or statements and then address them or convey the information to the managers in the form of feedback. So all matters can be resolved timely and every employee will feel heard.

Improve learning and development

Through adopting AI, it is possible for companies not only to improve employee learning but also make employee integration and preparation for the new job roles better and easier. AI systems can make learning more personalized, adapted to a certain job role, and productively addressing the knowledge gaps of each separate employee. Also, such smart systems can assign projects or certain tasks to each employee from a department based on that employee’s skill set, experience and knowledge.

With AI solutions it is also easier to track real productivity indexes and according to them create personalized development plans. This helps to improve employees’ proficiency and motivate them to grow and improve professionally.

Power up your analytics

AI contributes greatly to the analytics and data-driven decision making process. HR managers can make more informed decisions and prevent various work related issues thanks to real-time analytics. For example, it is possible to find out how changes in common work processes and schedules (like change of schedule or shifts for certain employees) will influence monthly performance indexes of a separate employee or a whole department.

All in all, AI has a positive impact on the HR industry and helps to transform it and make it more person-oriented than ever before. To explore the real influence of AI, check out this very informative video:

The market of ready-made HR solutions

After we’ve discussed the practical use of AI in human services, you may be wondering what solutions there are on the market. Are there any worthy of your attention? Or maybe you’d like to take a look at some great examples to get inspired and build your own AI system for HR managers.

To help you out and inspire you, we have explored the market and found a couple of really great tools full of useful options wrapped in a user friendly design. So let’s discuss them right away.

Leena AI

The motto of this smart solution is “Transform your employee experience with AI”, and that is exactly what Leena offers and delivers. Basically, it is a conversational AI system that gets integrated into HRIMS to collect and analyze information to address employee queries.

At first sight, you may call Leena a chatbot, but when you dig deeper you’ll find that it also offers real-time insights into employee engagement and generates holistic reports. It uses natural language processing, has cloud infrastructure, and is very secure. So this makes Leena a very good example of an AI helper that every HR manager could make use of.

HiredScore

HiredScore is a must-have tool if your goal is to make hiring effective and transform the way you retain your employees. This AI solution can be integrated with your existing HR tools to get a full picture of your HR management and to coordinate all processes.

HiredScore offers tools for smart analytics and observation of employees’ performance, feedback generating for HR managers, smart recommending of employees and suggestion of suitable new candidates for existing and newly created job positions. HiredScore provides valuable insights to HR managers based on real data and indexes that helps target all the issues on the go and initiate necessary activities to engage and train employees.

Altamira can help you power up your company with AI solutions

Chances are that your company already uses a certain HR software that helps your managers optimize their work. But the question is whether those solutions are enough? Are you benefitting from their usage to the fullest? It may be great to stick with old but gold solutions and approaches, but modernization is what brings additional value and empowers businesses.

When it comes to HR solutions, Altamira can help you make them better, smarter and more functional. And it is possible to do this thanks to AI implementation. We do not say that you need to develop a new AI solution for HR management from scratch. But we suggest you consider an update of your current solutions.

Altamira team can help you spice up your HR tools and extend their functionality with options powered by AI. We can implement smart digital forms, integrate AI-backed chatbots, various smart learning programs for employees, advanced analytics, and many more.

We have 10+ years of experience and a team of 100+ specialists able to help you with:

Business research to select the best AI-powered feature set and tech stack to improve your particular solutions.
Code review and software modernization.
New design or redesign of your solution to create an up-to-date look and intuitive UX.
Assistance with seamless integration of updated HR solutions into your working environment.

Altamira can also become your reliable dedicated development partner and cooperate with your in-house team and CTO to integrate the latest technologies and share our expertise.

FAQ

What other technologies can optimize HR processes?

Besides AI, we would also like to point out machine learning as another extremely useful technology for the HR industry. It is hard to underestimate the role of machine learning in HR management since ML-powered solutions can serve as a filter to help qualify job applicants faster, create advanced candidate rankings, improve employee management and encourage professional development. Performance management can also become more advanced as ML provides data-driven insights on each employee’s performance level. By using that information your company can integrate new practices to improve employee experience and engagement and boost their overall productivity.

What are the must-have tools for HR managers?

The first and most important solution we would name is HRIMS – Human Resource Information and Management System. This digital helper can help HR managers increase performance, keep all information about employees in one safe place, plan employee engagement activities, improve administration, monitor workforce trends, and make decision-making more strategic. There are also such tools as job boards, HR management software, and performance review solutions that can come in handy.

What HR solutions to choose – ready-made or custom-developed?

Based on our experience, we can say that unfortunately there is no ready-made all-in-one solution that most companies look for. However, there are great HR apps on the market that small companies can make use of. As to the medium-sized and large businesses, for them, the main challenge with ready-made solutions is that in most cases they either lack some crucial options, scalability or are not fully adaptable to the company processes. And there is nothing that can be done about it.
In the case of custom-developed HR tools, they are tailored to fit your business needs and requirements. And while you will likely keep paying for the ready-made solution recurring subscription fees each month, you invest in custom development of a solution upfront only once and get highly scalable and flexible software at your disposal.

To wrap it up

The world does not stay still and it is very important for businesses to keep pace with all the innovations. In 2021, artificial intelligence and human resource management go hand in hand, and companies should not ignore that. It is possible to eliminate numerous HR issues and automate routine operations thanks to custom solutions powered by AI.

Onboarding, employee engagement, performance tracking, integration of personal development plans – all these processes need technologies able to make the tasks less tedious, more bearable, and effectively solved by HR managers. It is all about employee care these days. So by taking some responsibilities off of your HR managers and delegating routine tasks to digital helpers, you can inspire motivation within your employee base and encourage great productivity. And that’s exactly when they are the most valuable for your business – when they are happy, satisfied, and productive at work.