More than half the talent acquisition leaders lament, ‘the hardest part of recruitment is identifying the right candidates from a large applicant pool.’ Several thousand resumes are typically received against job openings in major organizations, and yet, only 10% of these resumes are relevant. Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools come as a huge respite to such a scenario since they enable a transition from the traditional approach of screening huge volumes of resumes, and, bring about the desired outcome in real quick time.  

Apart from talent acquisition, AI has also been integrated with processes such as onboarding, performance reviews, etc. A fundamental but critical impact of such a process reengineering is generating more time available for the human aspect - the very essence of HR. With AI, administrative tasks can be streamlined and automated, creating greater bandwidth for HR managers to focus on critical aspects that require human connect, such as mentoring and motivating employees.

Recruitment and Onboarding

Automation of hiring process offers an extremely powerful though understated advantage, i.e. no unconscious human biases to interfere with the process of shortlisting candidates. Short-listing relevant candidates are merely the so-termed scratching the surface in the hiring process. There are other processes such as building relationships with candidates, scheduling calls, interviews, etc. Automating these and other routines, tedious tasks can undoubtedly expedite the process.

AI can potentially impact the process of onboarding new employees as well. For instance, imagine a new employee arriving at work, and, finding all new hire information in an app or on his laptop, viz. details such as reporting authority, team members, and, tasks assigned for the first week, etc. Mechanized systems that generate automated answers to a new employee's queries can increase the comfort level of the employee and thus help in relationship building, besides hastening the process.

Mechanizing repetitive tasks

Physical presence is one of the biggest challenges confronting HR managers.  Use of AI can substantially help in resolving such issues and create time to be used in more value-adding tasks. Some other benefits include saving on costs, improving the quality of the processes and services, and, an overall increase in productivity. The most fundamental benefit is that HR managers can devote their time and energy to strategic issues that require greater interpersonal approach.

Electronic employee help desks can be used to answer frequent queries of employees on policies, basic do's and don'ts, inquiries, clarifications on leaves and appraisals, etc. E.g. at Sun Life Financial, we are working on an HR bot that shall respond to the users' queries without any interaction with the HR manager. Self-service employee kiosks can also be effectively used to facilitate HR processes since these are the kind of changes that make for meaningful experiences and relationships between HR and the candidates or employees.  

What does the future hold?

While AI has influenced our lives for decades, its disruptive emergence in HR can be traced back to just a few years.  With the progress made so far, AI is sure to become a formidable force in the HR domain and is bound to transform the way HR works.  A recent survey conducted by IBM among HR executives further cemented this belief i.e. the power of AI and cognitive computing in revolutionizing and redefining the key dimensions of HR.