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Enterprises are increasingly leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) in human resources (HR) to drive innovation and efficiency. We’ve seen generative AI (GenAI) pop up in online retail, healthcare, and media. However, GenAI isn’t just used by marketing departments for writing email campaigns or by customer service for fielding inquiries. Nearly every business unit in an organization can leverage GenAI to enhance its capabilities and streamline its work – using AI in HR is even common practice these days.
Three of the most common ways organizations are using generative AI in HR are covered below.
While some HR tasks require nuance and a delicate, relational touch, many other tasks are repetitive and mechanical. These tasks are performed over and over again, applied to multiple employees or at regular intervals, and require significant time and effort.
Traditionally, scheduling interviews involves a lot of back-and-forth communication. Whether HR needs to meet directly with a current employee or coordinate interviews with prospective candidates, scheduling is time-consuming and error prone. Mechanical work such as this isn’t complex, but it’s cumbersome. This is a perfect opportunity for GenAI to step in.
AI in human resources can automate this process by coordinating schedules, sending calendar invites, and ensuring that all participants are informed and prepared. GenAI can understand replies in natural language, such as “I’m on PTO through the first week of next month, but then I have open time slots on weekday mornings.” When the ability to understand natural language is coupled with task automation, you have a GenAI assistant that dramatically frees up your HR staff to focus on more strategic tasks.
Sending follow-up emails is a fundamental part of many HR processes, such as scheduling interviews with candidates or following up on performance reviews. These emails are crucial for maintaining communication and engagement with stakeholders. For instance, in the context of recruitment, timely and personalized follow-up emails can significantly impact a candidate's experience and decision-making process.
However, manually crafting and sending these emails can be time-consuming and repetitive, especially when dealing with large volumes of correspondence. GenAI can streamline this process by automatically generating and sending follow-up emails based on predefined templates, communication history, and specific instructions. This ensures consistent and timely communication, while freeing up HR professionals to focus on more strategic tasks.
Keeping employee records up to date is essential for accurate payroll, benefits administration, and compliance. However, it’s a mechanical process that is labor-intensive and often fraught with errors. A simple typo of a bank routing number or an insurance policy number can cause paperwork headaches, leading to lost time and potentially even pay for employees.
GenAI can streamline this process by automatically updating employee records based on changes in employment status, personal information, and other relevant data. This reduces the risk of errors and ensures that employee records are always current.
For most companies, the recruitment process is complex as businesses of every size are often inundated with hundreds, if not thousands, of applications per role. Often, what is already a lengthy process is further hindered by inefficiencies and inconsistencies. GenAI offers solutions to streamline various stages of recruitment to make the overall flow more efficient.
Job postings must be clear and consistent, aligned with the company’s standards. However, achieving this level of quality in writing can be incredibly challenging, and many HR teams have a skills gap in this area. GenAI can fill this gap.
To recruit effectively and attract the right talent, an organization must:
GenAI can analyze job positions to generate accurate job requirements and descriptions. In addition, it can review and refine the job description for ethics, gender, and other considerations. By crafting initial drafts of these job listings, GenAI can help your HR team get 80% of the task done in a matter of minutes by crafting a draft of the job description, then humans would continue the work and refine the job description based on feedback from HR and the hiring manager.
When your HR team wants to maintain candidate engagement and ensure a smooth recruitment process, effective communication is vital. However, with traditional methods, this communication either lacks the necessary personalization, or HR professionals spend considerable time and effort crafting and sending individual emails. This leads to delays and inconsistencies.
GenAI can radically transform this communication process by automating and personalizing communications. GenAI can send personalized emails at different stages in the recruitment process, such as application receipt confirmations, interview invitations, and follow-up messages. The GenAI assistant customizes these communications automatically based on the candidate's profile and application stage. The result is a vastly enhanced candidate experience and a stronger connection.
Hiring managers often need quick access to various HR-related resources during the recruitment process. These might include company policies, salary guidelines, and benefits explanations. Traditionally, obtaining this information involves sifting through multiple documents or tracking down others in the department who hold those documents. This resource hunting burden can delay decision-making and hinder the overall efficiency of the recruitment process.
GenAI can help hiring managers to retrieve the information they need in seconds. By integrating with an organization's existing HR database and systems, GenAI can instantly pull up relevant resources based on specific queries from hiring managers. This immediate access not only speeds up the recruitment process but also ensures that hiring decisions are informed and aligned with company policies and standards.
New hires' first impression of an organization is incredibly important, and it goes a long way toward long-term retention. In any organization, high turnover and attrition erode the productivity and efficiency of its HR department, as well as throughout the company. Therefore, effective onboarding of new hires is crucial. This is another area where GenAI can help.
Traditional onboarding of new hires often involves generic presentations and materials that may not address the specific needs of each new hire. New hires are inundated with slide decks, PDF files, and webinars. Some resources are outdated, while others don’t even apply to the employee’s situation.
GenAI can create personalized onboarding experiences by tailoring content and support based on the new hire’s role and background. This helps new employees feel more valued and better prepared for their roles, enhancing their overall experience.
HR teams spend considerable time providing guidance and answering questions for new hires. This can be overwhelming and frustrating, especially as many questions are commonly asked and recurring. GenAI-powered virtual mentors can assist new hires by answering questions, providing information, and guiding them through company procedures.
Supporting new employees with a knowledgeable, helpful, and always-available GenAI assistant will greatly improve their ability to integrate into the organization smoothly. This will increase employee satisfaction while also reducing the workload on HR teams.
GenAI applications and smart assistants are profoundly impacting the operational efficiency of modern enterprises. This is true in most business units of an organization, including HR. By leveraging GenAI in these areas, organizations can tremendously improve new hire retention, employee satisfaction, and overall HR productivity.
If your organization is on the journey toward modernizing its recruitment operations, Outshift by Cisco has the expertise and resources to guide you. Outshift is a leader in shaping industry discussions around trustworthy and responsible AI. It can help your organization assess its readiness to forge ahead in adopting GenAI and smart assistants.
To learn more about Outshift, check out the following resources:
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