At Genesis10, an HR staffing firm in New York City with over 1,000 employees, AI has taken hold. From automated resume prescreening and predictive analytics about potential candidate success to algorithmic candidate matching and ranking, artificial intelligence is being deployed effectively at minimal cost. Perhaps the most productive usage has been the AI-driven chatbots on the firm’s website, which gather candidate information, conduct preliminary prescreenings and filter out applicants without recruiter involvement.
“This not only streamlines and expedites the hiring process, but also enhances the overall candidate experience,” said Harley Lippman, Genesis10’s CEO and founder.
The AI market is growing at a rate of approximately 40 percent each year and is expected to be worth $1 trillion in the U.S. alone by 2028, according to Statista. Last year, a Pew Research Center report found that about one-fifth of all workers had jobs that are being exposed to AI, and that employees with a bachelor’s degree or higher who work in computer-based roles are much more likely to be exposed to this emerging technology.
HR is certainly not immune to AI’s workplace growth. According to Gartner, 76 percent of HR leaders believe that if their company does not start using AI solutions in the next 12 to 24 months, it will not be as successful as companies that do. Overall, HR professionals feel hopeful about AI, and many are already using it to complete everyday tasks and maximize productivity, Gartner reported.
“We feel optimistic about the potential applications of AI in predictive analytics, innovative employee engagement tools and continuous task automation,” said Gaby Hermes, director of operations at KNB Communications in Stamford, Conn. “The future of HR and team management will be shaped by these developments, which will encourage a more strategic and data-driven approach.”
Ellen Kuntzmann, director of talent acquisition at Integrity Staffing Solutions in Newark, Del., is confident that AI can be used for certain tasks. But at the end of the day, she thinks a human touch is still required for some duties.
“We view AI as an invaluable tool, rather than a substitute for human interaction in recruitment,” she said. “By automating administrative tasks, our HR team can focus on impactful interactions, resulting in improved efficiency and diversity in our hiring practices.”
Lippman, Hermes, Kuntzmann and others shared how they’re utilizing AI within HR at their organizations, as well as advice on how you can do the same.
A Big Help with Hiring
At Integrity Staffing Solutions, AI assists with writing job descriptions, but the rest of the hiring process is left to recruiters.
“We’re committed to leveraging technology to enhance our HR practices while maintaining the human touch,” Kuntzmann said. “AI plays a pivotal role in streamlining tasks like generating job descriptions, but it’s essential to have human expertise to tailor these to our unique company branding and culture.”
Ariana Moon, senior director of talent planning and acquisition at New York City-based Greenhouse Software, uses AI to transcribe and summarize live interviews, eliminating the need for note-taking.
AI “mitigates the delays caused by incomplete interview data,” she said. “We have already seen optimistic measures around the amount of time saved not only from note-taking, but also from preventing situations where follow-up interviews are needed due to insufficient documentation of interviewer feedback.”
Moon said that rather than replacing HR jobs, automation and AI “empower HR to improve their functions, most commonly by streamlining repetitive or manual workflows or surfacing information in more efficient ways. These advantages allow employees to spend more time on strategic work that drives better recruiting and talent decisions.”
Improving the Employee Experience
Once new employees join Denver-based Strive Health, the organization leverages AI to enhance workers’ experience on the job.
“We implemented a ticketing system to improve employee experience and track trends,” said Elise Jason, vice president of people at Strive Health, which has 700 employees. “We plan to leverage that information to automate answers to frequently asked questions so that our team has the time to be more hands-on with the unique situations that require more direct partnership with employees. We see the potential for AI to be a virtual partner across our workstreams and stack of people systems that leverage automated workflows to facilitate new hire communications, scheduling and tasks.”
In Jason’s view, people teams have more access to data than ever. Her team can use AI to analyze that data quickly to discover trends—such as who is engaging in what benefit and the impact that benefits are having on employee health and health insurance claims—and then decide what to do with that data.
“We can even see if there are any themes related to performance or productivity based on who is engaging in certain well-being activities,” she said. “Surveying employees and putting responses into action has always been something we aim to do at Strive, and AI and automation help us to improve upon the efficiency and regularity of these practices already in place by doing some of the legwork analysis for us.”
Handling Financial Tasks
Employers are also using AI more often in the tasks of paying employees and tracking company finances. At KNB Communications, AI identifies anomalies in financial transactions, which helps prevent financial losses, and assists in running payroll.
“Typical tasks, such as payroll processing, can be automated to free up time for valuable tasks that reinforce our targets,” Hermes said. “AI facilitates strategic decision-making by providing us with data-driven insights.”
At Genesis10, Lippman said AI is helping leaders make better-informed business decisions and having a tremendous impact on the company’s bottom line.
“Emerging AI capabilities can provide predictive analytics on which employees may be at most risk of leaving, empowering HR to take a proactive approach towards retention,” he said. “Moreover, AI’s predictive analytics capabilities can help identify trends and project skill gaps, enabling HR leaders to conduct more precise and effective workforce planning. This multifaceted approach positions AI as a transformative force in elevating HR leadership capabilities and fostering a more agile, data-driven organizational culture.”
Planning for the Future
By and large, the sentiment among HR leaders is more focused on hope than worry. By having AI take on additional data-driven tasks, HR can focus on interpersonal relations and look at the bigger picture to drive efficiency, productivity and profitability.
“HR leaders have the opportunity to reduce the fear around AI replacing jobs by creating a culture where digital curiosity is celebrated and by offering training to upskill their workers on how to lean in and leverage evolving technologies,” Jason said. “At the end of the day, HR teams that find ways to incorporate [AI] into their workflows and find that balance between automation and the human touch will add the most value to their employees and customers.”
Kylie Ora Lobell is a freelance writer based in Los Angeles.
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