Fun aside, what evidence is there that AI boosts HR team performance?

Thanks to highly accessible and user-friendly apps like ChatGPT, Dall-E, and Microsoft’s Co-Pilot, AI has come down from the esoteric clouds and is now becoming an everyday application that we can all make use of.

We are gradually realising that AI is much more than just smart chat-bots, it’s an efficiency and productivity game-changer for the people profession.

AI is starting to be incorporated into cutting-edge, off-the-shelf HR software applications to automate or augment HR workflows. Surveys tell us that the top 5 functions where HR teams are using AI are:

• Employee records management (78%)
• Payroll processing and benefits administration (77%)
• Recruitment and hiring (73%)
• Performance management (72%)
• Onboarding (69%).

It is no surprise to see research from People Management showing that HR teams are leveraging HR in their work. However, there has not been a wholesale take-up of AI, with just 17% using AI for HR tasks. Of those polled, 21% were using it for something else, while 33% didn’t use it but wanted to. This shows a broadly positive attitude toward AI within our HR community, despite its modest uptake.

We expect HR uptake to increase over time and to accelerate once HR and its stakeholders begin to see the productivity gains being enjoyed by the wider community, several of which we have outlined here.

AI-powered gamification has been shown to boost candidate screening efficiency

While it’s not easy to find companies who want to share their performance secrets with the competition, we uncovered an interesting Ernst and Young report which detailed how an unnamed global FMCG was using AI algorithms to enhance the hiring process. Specifically, they used AI to launch a digital recruitment programme that employed gamification to screen applicants. This enabled them to evaluate a higher number of candidates across various criteria such as aptitude, appetite for risk, ability to manage uncertainty, ingenuity, learning agility, and their result-driven nature. The algorithms enabled the FMCG to save time and cost when assessing candidates while at the same time introducing an element of fun to the selection process and eliminating unconscious bias.

Ernst and Young highlighted another case study of a life insurance company based out of India that deployed a predictive hiring algorithm using 20 to 30 variables relating to staff attrition data. This led to a reduction in staff attrition of 18% and a 15% increase in new hire productivity.

AI can streamline the employee disciplinary process

AI is not confined to recruitment, and we are seeing evidence of its use in the performance management process.

Deloitte uses its AI-powered document review accelerator, allowing their organisation to interrogate large volumes of structured and unstructured data relating to Employee Conduct investigations, more quickly and accurately.

As we all know, such disciplinary investigations can generate a lot of data and viewpoints, and any tool that can streamline this should be very welcome in the HR department.

AI proved better at identifying job skills than humans!

Unilever has outlined on its website that they are using AI to assess the skills of employees for both now and in the future, and to reduce the time and cost of its long-term reskilling and upskilling planning.

They discovered that their technology was better at identifying skills than people were; when humans self-report they identified 11 skills per role but when AI does it jumps to 34 skills.

It enhanced their career development processes and revealed a previously unknown fact to them: people could be reskilled for new roles in different functional areas in just 6 months.

AI-powered augmented writing tools are taking the pain out of performance appraisals

Companies are now using AI to streamline their performance appraisal processes.

Most HR managers will spend significant amounts of time supporting managers with writing performance reviews, giving feedback, and personal development planning. Many HR teams are deploying bias-free AI-powered augmented writing tools, similar to some of the assistance offered by our unique AI HR assistant Ami, to help managers do their performance evaluation documentation.

Such tools have been shown to reduce stress and admin overhead for HR and people managers and to increase the quantity and quality of feedback. These tools can be often seamlessly integrated into existing performance management software, providing instant benefits and ensuring rapid user uptake.

The evidence supporting AI’s positive impact on HR team performance is substantial. From enhancing recruitment processes and improving employee management to streamlining disciplinary actions and optimizing skill assessments, AI is a valuable tool for today’s HR teams.