I am often asked what has been the most challenging area for me as an HR professional. In the past, my response was, “Understanding the right balance between empathy and process”. However, in recent years, it has changed to “Balance between ‘Touch’ & ‘Tech’”.

When I embarked upon my career a decade-and-a-half ago, the Business Partner HR role had just come in as the newest trend and Human Resources became a key player in business decisions. We were building processes, analytics and perfecting the path of creating and maintaining the culture of the organization. With fast growing numbers at the workplace in the Tech industry, the HR team mostly grew organically. Soon, we realized that technology would need to play an important role for us to be more efficient. Over the past ten years, we have witnessed a rise in HR Tech. However, the past three years specifically have brought to us the AI, ML revolution (might be the 4thtechnology revolution for all we know) which is radically changing the HR space. At this moment, it would be fair to say that we are standing at the fulcrum of this revolution.

The New Reality with AI – Amalgamating High Tech with High Touch

The objective of a growing organization to introduce AI in their HR processes should be quite simple; leveraging AI technology to enhance the HR teach space in a way that brings in an intellect factor. Not long ago, we had introduced HR Tech for various transactions, which were similar or repetitive for building efficient processes, giving HR professionals the time to focus on creative and innovative value-adds. The latter served to further enhance employee experience resulting in better business decisions and fostering a high performing culture without completely eliminating the “human” element in Human Resources.

Attracting the Right Talent, the Right Way

There is no doubt that technology reduces the human effort to screen, shortlist and find the best match for a role through both past and current applicant history in a lesser time-frame. Intelligent chatbots can replace first-level screening to collect basic information and convey feedback post interviews. However, this might be more suitable for bulk hires with common skills in the market. For niche or leadership roles with complex skills-set, the traditional head-hunting and personalized approach might work better.

Your hiring process is also an opportunity to convey your Employer Brand to a potential candidate. Whether they are selected or not, their experience during the hiring process will determine if they re-apply for a role or recommend someone in future. Hence, the personal touch wherever possible will bring in the required balance.

Welcoming & Helping New Joiners Adapt to your Culture

Along with the HR Service desk, chatbots can support HR by creating a consistent and smooth on-boarding experience for new hires across geographies allowing Business HRs to focus on making personalized connections over transactional tasks. For instance, while FAQs can be handled by a chatbot, the Business HR can organize a ‘Bridge Connect’ that addresses questions around culture and values, and can be more engaging and fun-filled for all new hires that join in a particular month.

Furthermore, technology could be employed to help new hires better adapt to company culture and the role. They can be empowered to take charge of their initial 90 days with the help of a  AI trained virtual assistant that gives them periodic friendly nudges as required. Imagine this: “Hey Shrijata, I see that you have been assigned project XYZ. Would you like me to set up an introductory meet with the team?” 

Encouraging guided Self-Learning through AI

AI can help employees take charge of their own self development by conducting a skills-gap analysis, chalking out personalized learning paths and recommending curated content that not only helps them grow in their role but also align with business needs. For instance, the Annual Appraisal might be around the corner, and there could be several First Time Managers who might be clueless how to go about it. The platform can direct them in advance to available content on the LMS or on the web to help them conduct these discussions the right way. Take another situation. Let’s say there is an upcoming IJP, and a particular employee has two-three skills to help them qualify for the application. AI could help bridge this gap.

The traditional TNA process is time consuming through multiple focus groups, analyzing responses and then coming up with recommended modules which can all be replaced with conversational AI. This does not suggest that we do away with the traditional Instructor Led training altogether. However, it is important that we adapt to newer and perhaps more efficient ways of doing things to meet the expectations of the new generation learners. Instead of manually creating training batches, using AI to bring people with diverse skills and experiences would result in a more impactful training program

As a positive deviation from the traditional one-size-fits-all approach, employees will feel the difference in an experience that accounts for their personal goals, needs, and well-being. Organizations too will find investing in employee growth and satisfaction easier and more effective. 

Making Employee Engagement Inclusive & Personalized through AI

One of the key challenges that Business HRs face is driving participation or adoption for initiatives launched, whether it is monthly employee engagement activities, transition to a newly launched platform or participating in a survey. This is because we make it transactional and push people into doing it with countless reminders without addressing the “What’s In It For Me” aspect. 

Through AI, a database of employee’s preferences, likes-dislikes, hobbies, family background, interests can be created based on which decisions can be made on the events to be rolled-out, or benefits to be introduced. You no longer need to wonder what will be the acceptance of a newly launched policy or participation to a fun activity because AI would have already predicted that for you. In a Tinder-type scenario, AI can help you find the best mentor, learning buddy or even an office bestie through a perfect match not restricted to your specific location.

Employee Engagement is also about making employees feel included and valued. Let’s assume that you have a upcoming Series A funding or that you are planning to take your twenty-five year old company, public. The Management has decided on a project team based on their knowledge of who they feel is best suited. However, you may have a new hire, just half the experience as others who has worked in a start-up and has experience in creating pitches for investors. AI would have recommended the right team which would otherwise be out of scope. Similarly important business decisions should not be restricted to board-room discussions. AI can help you evaluate sentiment analysis and pick suggestions to problems that are closest to  finding an appropriate solution.

Chatbots have already taken over long surveys. They capture real-time employee feedback, providing early warning signs, enabling better predictions of adverse future scenarios. However, nothing may entirely replace a phone call or a face-to-face interaction with a human being, asking the employee how they are doing and feeling. We should not forget that a large part of our job as HRs is to understand human emotion, behavior and treat it with empathy.

In conclusion, while I am super excited to see how artificial intelligence is changing the future of HR, I am certain that human connections and sensitivity are here to stay. Creating empathy in bots is still a long way off!