AI’s Relationship with HR Core Functions: It’s Complicated

Imagine responding to a job announcement, receiving a response, having your CV reviewed and screened, being investigated, and filling out a personalized questionnaire without ever speaking to a human being.

Or, as an HR professional, letting AI take care of all the minutiae of researching your candidates before hiring, skipping through the orientation, and allowing a chatbot to field all your new employee questions. You can have AI notify you of performance issues and trends in employee sentiment, and even let it make recommendations for termination.  

All of this and more is now possible with the advent of artificial intelligence in human resource management. But just how deeply will it affect an industry so heavily influenced and dependent on human rationale?

Sorry, but our hands are tied

Employees are concerned about the far-reaching scope of AI as it pertains to HR processes, and rightfully so.

Take, for example, the case of Ibrahim Diallo, who found out the hard way that AI could and would result in his unfair termination. His first clue was the deactivation of his keycard at his office building in Los Angeles, California, and this soon spiraled into miriad system access denials and his termination due to a series of irreversible steps taken by the company’s automated system. It took him three weeks to find out that his previous manager had failed to renew his contract in the system, and that after that point, the system took over. Throughout the process, Ibrahim’s superiors were unable to intervene as the process continued to make mistakes.

AI goes through a learning-execution process in which it analyzes past data and responses and then applies historic decision-making processes to new cases that enter the system. If left unchecked, without the capability for human intervention, it can eliminate the all-important power of human rationale to deal with a company’s most complex resource.

We will no longer be needing your services

On the flip side, HR professionals are worried it will make HR functions redundant and remove the human element from the equation, believing that the technology could make positions obsolete. Companies could run the risk of making decisions based on faulty artificial conclusions instead of years of hands-on experience dealing with people.

AI is fed by past data, and if that data is not relevant to current processes it could result in company stagnation and the continuance of negative business policies and attitudes. But it is this ability to gather data, analyze it and ultimately learn from past human responses that makes it a promising addition to HR processes, and one that is being incorporated into almost all HR vendor software on the market.

Core functions of HR

Human resource departments carry out a wide range of activities, often organized into five main areas. Each position within the department is a collection of tasks to serve different corporate needs.

Staffing. This includes recruitment and selection, salary, benefits and contract negotiation, and termination. It also encompasses the world of ethical hiring practices, analysis of the labor market supply and demand, and using technology and data in the screening process.

Development. Also known as training and development, development of staff within an organization relates to providing continuous education and opportunities for growth for existing human resources. From training new hires for their new role to recognizing strengths and educating for advancement, it is the curation of the existing workforce.

Compensation. Analysis of compensation schemes and industry benchmarks, benefit plans, pay scales and growth, and legal requirements related to salary and benefits make up the realm of compensation.

Health and Safety. Ensuring employee safety and compliance with legal requirements at all times. It involves constant analysis of the latest regulations and changes in workplace safety, implementing new safety measures if laws change, training employees and coordinating compliance with unions.

Employee and Labor relations. This area covers all types of employee claims and disputes within an organization, including sexual harassment and abuse, issues between employees and issues with superiors. It also involves representing the organization in union negotiations.

No end of HR in sight

Given the goal of human resource development to achieve optimal performance through the development of both the organization and the individuals it employs, and the complexities of matching company and individual needs, it’s easy to understand the inclination towards automating key functions through the use of artificial intelligence. Some even claim that it will transform HR completely.

But HR in and of itself is not going anywhere. In the 19th century, the advent of industry and the machine-era revolutionised labour but didn’t ultimately replace the need for it, despite predictions to the contrary. Fast forward to the 21st century and technology and the internet haven’t replaced HR jobs, and nor will AI. History shows that each industrial and technological revolution gives rise to a general concern that jobs will be lost, but the fear is unfounded. AI will revolutionize the world of HR and business in general, but can be effectively managed to work in tandem with human skills.

What AI is Not

Contrary to the popular image of automation with no human interaction required (or robots, even) AI as we know it today still requires human supervision. It is not an advanced technological replacement for human rationale and reasoning; ie it. cannot dependably carry out the same functions as a qualified human resource professional.

Artificially-generated interview questions will still need to be reviewed for accuracy, and candidates will still need to be interviewed by a human to gauge levels of engagement, motivation and good character. Chatbots will need to have humans to escalate issues to, and termination decisions clearly need to be approved by management before the employee is notified. Simply put, we must still have the last word.

AI in HR

Artificial intelligence is capable of collecting and analyzing big data, reducing the amount of time it normally takes humans to input and evaluate such data. It also has huge potential to complete simple, low-value, repetitive tasks.

Without the capacity for bias, it virtually eliminates the innate judgment passed upon potential hires. Research shows that first impressions influence an interviewee’s chance of being hired to such an extent that they may be discarded within the first 1-15 minutes. Physical appearance, such as skin color, weight and tattoos, and aspects like the strength of their handshake can quickly make or break our perception of a person’s ability to contribute to the success of the organization. Artificial intelligence holds the promise of evaluating candidates based on amassed data instead of subjective observations.

AI is already used in processes like recruitment, helping collect information and design interview questions that leave no room for bias. But it can also help consolidate and analyze the mountains of data normally gathered by HR professionals to determine the quality of a new hire (including online and social media presence, references, past work and education), and perhaps most importantly, do this simultaneously for multiple candidates.

It can go on to provide information on new hires and their performance as it relates to their potential for growth (or stagnation), and answer new hire questions. It can help personalize training programs to make them more appealing and effective. AI can reduce human error in process-engineered tasks like payroll, which requires the utmost level of accuracy. It can even increase levels of insight within the corporate structure to help create a more empathetic company culture, by measuring and analyzing levels of stress and trends in how individuals feel about their jobs.

The list of capabilities goes on and on.

Humans vs. Machines or Humans strengthened by Machines

The key to understanding the benefits of AI and contributing to a positive adaptation experience is to see it as not only a time-saver but a boost to current operations.

A significant burden can be shifted to AI, allowing HR personnel to do what they do best
instead of getting bogged down by cumbersome manual processes. Shifting this burden over to a system with such a high capacity for data analysis can allow humans more time to improve practices and processes; all those things we always meant to do but never had the time for.

Now could be the time to implement a post-hiring evaluation to gain feedback on the recruitment process; to more closely monitor performance and detect issues before they are reported; or to spend more time forecasting for future needs instead of playing catch up when a new recruit is already desperately needed.

The technology can also be exploited to carry out new campaigns like innovative evaluation systems, 360° reviews and deeper analysis of the local labor market supply and demand. It allows core HR functions to shift to a more forward-thinking and productive frame of mind.  

If we consider that AI is currently taking the HR industry by storm, we can conclude  that the  storm comes not only in the new capabilities offered by artificial intelligence but in considering its limitations versus human intelligence and how it can be integrated effectively over time. 
Bio
Declan Moloney works for recruitment consultancy Nova in the Cayman Islands. Since graduating with a BA in English and Creative Writing, Declan has gained eight years’ experience in recruitment marketing, working at leading graduate job boards, advertising, and recruitment agencies in the UK. During this time, he has delivered numerous multi-channel campaigns specializing in digital media and websites.