Artificial Intelligence and Human Resources are parallel to each other just like Matter is to Antimatter, isn’t it? AI involves numbers, computerized thinking etc and is not Human; while the HR certainly is. So, how can they both even come together?
This question has been a matter of discussion in various lectures, talks, events etc. that I have attended. Many of us feel that AI would certainly take over the Human world because of their extraordinary growth and adapting potential – this notion for a lot of us comes from the movies like Terminator that show a powerful AI, SkyNet which turns out to be catastrophic. But firstly before this fancy, we have a fear of losing our jobs. Certainly, the computer automation has been replacing the humans at places like assembly lines. Even McDonald’s had announced last year that it’ll replace a lot of its cashiers with the AI operated kiosks – So stay ready to hear a Siri-like voice that’ll recommend to have fries with your favorite burger.
This is happening all because of the fact that AI is efficient because of higher accuracy, faster speed and the best thing – it doesn’t needs any break or leave. But, the point to be noted is that the unemployment rate in the developed, industrialized countries is very low. The unions and organized labors have been warning us of getting pressed against the wall if the AI and automation keeps on increasing; but that doesn’t seems to be the case. The unemployment rate has almost stayed level even though the population has grown considerably.
So, how is this happening?
Because of change in Economy
Those who once kept themselves busy at the repetitive task have now been reduced to a great extent because their has been a change in the economy of the industrialized countries. Now machines are doing the highly repetitive tasks with a greater efficiency while the humans are now living a better, healthy life while having the par employment levels with the change.
This shift has occurred because now people have moved towards other tasks which machine can’t do. People are now spending more time to enhance their skills to be more productive thus enhancing this world and taking it the next level. The creation of the efficient and smarter machines has opened up newer horizons for people to work and concentrate upon – like in HR -where the smart AI has made it possible for us to use our Neurons in better and bigger things.
AI is already being used by many companies to make better hiring programs, placing them at the right posts rather than making people redundant.
Use of AI is helping HR to shift people into a much better position where they fit – this is helping both the Employer and Employee – employee is going to have a better career growth and the employer would have more productive employee who’ll help in churning out more profits.
Benefits for HR
Benefits are to a very great extent – It has highly reduced both the TPH(Time per Hire) and CPH(Cost per Hire). The traditional approach involved posting a job and then going through all the resumes to have the right shortlists after a lengthy process. Imagine, the situation for the large companies that faced the problem at a much bigger scale and increased the recruitment costs.
But the stated problem is reduced a lot by the advanced ATS(Applicant Tracking Software), which brings a smile on the face of HRs as the workload is reduced to a greater extent and more efficient hiring occurs. This is how AI gets glorified. HR departments can bring in their required customization into the systems and get the best employees whenever a job opening is available, as well as the sorting of the top performers along with the data of their career paths. This enhances the outcomes of better hiring.
The AI-ChatBots can make a connection even before a person applies for a job. They can easily answer the queries put forth in any aspect of the company. This can remove any sort of doubt that a person has even before he applies for a company – later the company too doesn’t loses certain employees all because of the fact that they were unaware about certain constraints in the company. Data from AI-ChatBots can help employers a lot to keep track of the potential applicants and even showcases a good image of the company for a potential applicant too.
AI supported recruitment reduces the case of discriminatory hiring to a lot of extent. The humans generally tend to have some form of known or unknown bias when they hire. That is completely a human nature. While AI is completely unemotional entity that removes any possibility of stereotyping. AI supported interviews can help in judging a person’s behavior, stress, body movements etc and can help in improved decision making for HR. This obviously streamlines the HR process.
AI can analyze the employee data to quickly sort the employees who are being underutilized and their skills are being wasted in a company. This certainly helps HR to bring in some position changes for certain employees thus improving the overall quality of productivity in the organization.
AI can really help in on-boarding and training. Learning modules for new and continuing training are now not only a good idea, but they exist and are effective. Employees can now learn at their own level and timetable with efficient tracking of their progress.
So, AI isn’t there to scare you. It is there to give you a beautiful relationship of mutual support and guidance that takes care of everyone in and out of the organization. Believe in the fact of – CHANGE IS THE ONLY CONSTANT and right now AI is that Change.
