Bringing HR Into The Future With AI

Ciarán Daly

August 14, 2018

4 Min Read

By Yelena Kasianova

Consider the most important components of a successful business. Outstanding employees probably rank quite highly on that list.

Now, think back to the last time you had to interview a candidate. Perhaps it was between important calls, or when you were rushing home for dinner. Can you confidently say that you truly gave the same amount of attention to each person you evaluated for the job? What do you remember about them?

Paul D’Arcy, SVP of Indeed, the largest jobsite in US, recently presented a video on ‘How Unconscious Bias Can Impact the Hiring Process’, stating that “’gaze tracking’ technology shows employees spend an average of 6 seconds reviewing a resume”. According to him, removing Name, Address, Gender, Age, and even Schooling from a resume is gaining a lot of awareness and assisting in fighting favouritism. Once-overlooked candidates are getting second chances, and businesses are benefiting from their fresh perspectives.

But what about taking this a step further and incorporating conversational AI into the hiring process? Recruiting and interviewing a candidate might sound daunting; handing it over to a 1stgeneration chatbot with all its failures and frustrations seems positively ludicrous. However, recent innovations in natural language technology offers huge advantages when it comes to incorporating AI into HR - with implications for all employees, both future and current.

Recruitment

Regarding recruitment, a 2nd generation chatbot can easily screen an employee, automating common questionsand processing the response.

Where previous innovations underwhelmed, new advances allow for breakthrough capabilities like further clarification of the question i.e. disambiguation or proactive dialogue. The entire procedure can be executed 24/7, allowing the candidate to engage whenever is easiest for them, and scaled to manage the 250 resumes an average job posting receives.

As for addressing the anonymity of candidates, recently added capabilities that address the issue of GDPR and other data privacy legislation definitely has you covered.

Onboarding

The best part of conversational AI is that its ability to optimize the hiring process goes beyond recruitment.

For onboarding, a self-serve chatbot would free up the HR department from repetitive tasks and allow them to focus on more complex issues.

The same goes for training. Instead of simply listening, a Conversational AI Assistant can be built out to answer questions, creating a more interactive experience for the newly hired.

Internal FAQs

Lastly, when it comes to internal affairs, questions such as company policies and benefit enrolment may be directed through a 2nd generation chatbot instead of an email to HR. Of course, unlike IT, HR has an immense number of legal boundaries. However, human and machine can work together to assist and direct employees to the correct information tab on the internal website. As an added perk, things like annual self-assessments or reviews could also be carried out through an AI assistant.

Working with one of the largest telecoms in US, we proved that setup of a rule in just 1 spoken request is equated to 44 clicks in the respective client's graphical user interface. This translates quite nicely into turning certain outdated and ineffective review processes into an engaging and conversation discussion with a human-like AI interface, that can take the data and even analyse it.

Yes, HR is a touchy subject, but it’s time to welcome it into the future. Addressing bias and task repetition will save both time and money for a future-oriented business. Furthermore, the incorporation of conversational AI can augment HR and bring about fundamental change in businesses - freeing up the HR team to focus on culture and employee happiness thus leading to high-skilled worker retention.

Photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash

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Yelena is the Marketing Specialist at Artificial Solutions, where she leads all North American marketing efforts. She is passionate about new technologies and innovations, having previously worked with a vast array of startups at Plug and Play Tech Center, a global accelerator and venture fund.  Yelena has a BS in Business Administration from Chapman University.

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