Picture this: Your HR team wastes countless hours every week doing such tedious things as handling payroll, filing resumes, or keeping compliance papers up to date. These administrative chores are not only time wasters but also bar your team from carrying out more delightful tasks such as boosting employees’ satisfaction or devising plans for workforce management. How about a world that involves AI in such tasks and helps reduce those hours by as much as 40%?
And in terms of technological advancement, there is a possibility that this will be realized, and it will be active in our lives. Human Resource Management (HRM) might not be the same ever again as AI (Artificial Intelligence) will be applied – instead, it will revolve around automation and ease of processes for not only employees but the HR departments as well.
But what is AI and why is it important in HR? AI, in simple words, is a form of technology that imitates human brain functions in a robot. So, for example in HR, it means using AI-powered tools to perform tasks like sifting through resumes, managing payroll, and onboarding new employees to the company. This blog post discusses how AI can change the management of administrative tasks in HR, what problems it solves, and how businesses will most effectively use AI in their operations.
The Evolving Role of HR Technology
So, let’s reminisce for a second about… Well, how things used to be before the introduction of technology.
- The Manual Era: Back in the olden days (before technology), the processes involved when dealing with employees were overwhelming. One annoying task workers had to deal with was putting together paper bundles required for hiring an employee. This meant hiring paperwork, payroll, and attendance were only available in physical format making things even worse. Also, these processes were prone to human errors and took a lot of time to complete.
- The Digital Shift: Next in the era came the Human Resource Management Systems which changed how HR previously carried out its tasks. Now that HR has started implementing HRMS, hiring, attendance tracking, and managing payroll and employee records have become effortless and flexible, but it was still dependent on mass manual effort.
- The AI Revolution: Enter Artificial Intelligence. Now, with the help of AI, resumes can be evaluated and filtered within seconds, uncovering potential employees based on specific requirements.
There’s no denying that AI has rapidly shifted the way organizations work in the present day. According to statistics, 17% of all HR leaders tend to utilize AI as part of their plan. AI isn’t meant to only streamline processes, but it allows HR teams to put their focus on new activities that matter to the firm, like building and strengthening existing employee relations and accelerating company success.
Why do Administrative HR Tasks Need Automation?
Administrative tasks may be the core function of HR processes, but admit it: They are, quite frankly, boring, repetitive, and oftentimes subject to mess-ups. This is why automation is not an option anymore for contemporary HR teams but rather a requirement:
Time-Consuming Processes
How many hours of payroll processing is spent on data input or verifying documents? In terms of HR payroll for a mid-sized firm with hundreds of employees, they probably need an HR team to process wages for everyone which would take one full day. That time has been cut down to 30 minutes by AI.
Even checking resumes or taking care of legal documents also cuts down the number of hours in a day. But with AI applications, looking through resumes or confirming compliance and going through multiple data sets can take a matter of seconds. That enables HR teams to spend their efforts on strategic goals.
Human Errors
If mistakes happen in HR processes they may have dire consequences. For instance, an organization can face penalties due to inconsistency in tax calculations or missing compliance deadlines. One report by the American Payroll Association stated that roughly 15-20% of compliance failures are caused as a result of errors made during manual payroll processes.
AI reduces the dangers mentioned above as far as accuracy is concerned. It does not matter whether it is about tax calculation, compliance update tracking, or benefits management, AI systems work much better than people ever will with incomparable accuracy.
Scalability Issues
After a certain size, HR is unable to scale its processes. It is helpful to know that AI solutions are there to help with at least peak hiring seasons. Let us consider the case of hiring 200 employees in a peak season. Such activities without automation can leave even the neatest of organized HR departments in a mess. AI on the other hand manages such high-volume activities with ease, be it collecting documents, assigning documents, training employees, or tracking compliance.
Employee Experience
With inefficient HR processes, employees can feel inconvenienced and disgruntled. Such practices include late payroll, slow processes that exclude the onboarding process, and many more which make an employee experience rancid. Thankfully AI has ensured that all HR services are much quicker and efficient, creating a much better experience for new joiners from day 1.
How AI is Transforming Administrative HR Tasks
Let’s take a closer look at exactly how AI is transforming the HR landscape by automating important office activities:
Recruitment and Candidate Screening
Recruiting the best person for a vacancy is one of the more essential roles of HR but is also one of the roles that take the most time.
- Resume Screening: AI software sifts through CVs looking for candidates that meet an employer’s bottom lines. The software looks for specific qualifications, certain skills, and experience to cut down on the screening time by as much as 75%.
- Chatbots: AI chatbots respond to questions from candidates, schedule interviews, and even assess the candidates in the initial stage. It prevents waste of time and offers a great opportunity to enhance the candidate experience.
Onboarding Automation
Equally important is the automated onboarding process. A well-executed onboarding formalizes an employee’s relationship with the organization. AI handles the onboarding process as follows:
- Document Handling: ID verification, contract signing, and other document collection are automated, thereby simplifying the process.
- Personalized Onboarding: AI customizes and schedules training modules appropriate for each new employee according to their role in the organization.
For example: AI was leveraged by a Fortune 500 company to automate onboarding and this allowed the company to economize in time by more than 30 hours per new employee hired, thus enabling a wider scope for the HR department to concentrate more on the engagement strategies with the employees.
Payroll and Benefits Administration
Payroll inaccuracies lead to big losses and tarnished reputations. AI changes the perspective of Payroll and benefits management by:
- Error-Free Payroll: Eliminating the requirement of calculating tax and other compliance considering the point of view of having 100% accuracy. According to AI payroll tool vendors, the error rate falls by 85% after the implementation of AI payroll tools.
- Benefits Automation: Making benefits enrollments and eligibility management easy for the employees: providing a more seamless experience.
Compliance Management
Managing compliance with the various labor laws and requirements is a difficult and continuous task. AI tools:
- Conduct automated audits to determine areas of non-compliance.
- Automatically follow up with workers to remind them of new policies and report risks.
- Provide notifications, e.g. HR compliance deadlines and subsequent HR compliance requirements deadlines.
Employee Self-Service Portals
HR services are provided via online self-service portals which are powered by AI:
- Real-Time Assistance: AI chat helps employees with leave applications, personal information, policies, and other self-service operations.
For instance: Companies that embraced AI-based self-service portals were in a better position with increases in their employee satisfaction levels by 20% as employees did not have to wait for simple queries to be answered by human HR anymore.
The use of AI in HR processes is changing how organizations acquire, manage, and retain the workforce. As the hiring process gets optimized as well as employee engagement, AI Tools are allowing human resources to make better and faster decisions with less bias.
The Benefits of AI in HR Administration
Enhancing AI in HR brings along a host of merits, ranging from operational efficiency to increasing the overall employee experience:
Improved Efficiency
Many tasks can be automated, eliminating the need for idle time. Tasks that used to take hours are now only taking a mere few minutes. Examples of such tasks include document verification and payroll processing.
Cost Optimization
Decreasing the amount of errors directly leads to a decline in automation penalties. Not only do HR teams save on expenses, but they also become more productive as they don’t need to hire new employees for simple tasks anymore.
Better Decision-Making
AI analytics allow HR professionals to develop better, more strategic plans based on the data and metrics analyzed. Such practices are already in use, as HR specialists make use of predictive analytics concerning attrition rates.
Enhanced Employee Experience
Many processes including onboarding and payroll can now be consummated within the shadow of AI tools. This greatly improves the overall experience of employees, quickening transitions into the workplace.
Scalability
AI solutions are seamless in providing bandwidth to businesses that require seasonal hiring.
AI lessens the time it takes to complete a task by doing repetitive work for all instances. Activities like paying the employees or checking some paperwork which at one point took quite possibly the entire day can be done in minutes as well.
Best Practices for Implementing AI in HR
If you want to integrate AI into HR, make sure to adhere to best practices.
- Identify Bottleneck: Understand which HR activities need AI the most and where it would be feasible to implement, for example, payroll and recruitment.
- Start Small and Scale Gradually: Start automating with easily understandable HR functions like FAQs then move gradually to AI functions that are more complex like predictive analytics.
- Train HR Teams: Make your HR professionals ready to use AI tools. The education has to focus more on how insights generated by AI should be understood and applied in practice.
- Monitor and Optimize: Establish KPIs to evaluate the functioning of AI tools to alter algorithms based on AI performance and business environment changes.
Examples of AI Tools Revolutionizing HR
The introduction of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Human Resources (HR) is transforming the way businesses attract, develop, and retain talent. AI tools not only enhance the recruitment processes but also assist HR teams in making decisions that are faster, more efficient, and less biased.
The Front-Runners in AI-Based HR Tools
- Let’s take the example of HireVue – this platform is revolutionizing recruitment by incorporating artificial intelligence to assess video interviews. With the use of this technology, the platform evaluates a candidate’s verbal and physical behavior during the interview. Through this method, hiring managers can reduce the time taken to identify a candidate while also eliminating bias.
- Likewise, HiredScore’s AI tool is helping break barriers with its talent intelligence software. From job advertisements to CVs, Hiredscore’s AI tool will find the right candidates for open roles while ensuring that diversity is encouraged within the workplace of a company.
- Workday is another company that has effectively deployed Artificial Intelligence in its HR tools. Workday has intelligent agents which have automated the drafting of job descriptions, candidate sourcing as well as scheduling of interviews. This, therefore, allows HR teams to put their emphasis on only strategic goals.
Companies Adopting Artificial Intelligence
Predominant companies of the world are already making use of these AI-powered solutions to transform their core HR processes:
- Johnson And Johnson (J&J) utilizes AI for “skills inference” to locate the competencies possessed by the current employees and assist in making more informed hire and talent decisions. This approach has allowed J&J to build career pathways for their employees based on their unrealized potential.
- DHL follows the same route, utilizing AI to match the skills employees have to the requirements of available positions. They apply this information to assist in obtaining further qualifications, along with hiring.
- Bank of America, AI is not only utilized for hiring and training but, excitingly, for training—strategically. Employees embark on fully immersive daily experiences and take part in training exercises that arm them with the skills to take their role without risking failure on the service level.
Overcoming Challenges in AI Adoption
Like everything else, AI adoption too comes with its own set of challenges, here is how AI overcomes them:
- Employee Resistance to AI: Employees may be fearful of AI taking over their employment. It should be made clear to them that AI’s function is not to take over human functions but to enhance their roles by handling the rote work.
- Integration Complexities: Work closely with the IT teams and specialists to ensure that the users are AI tools in conjunction with a seamless transition for the other systems. Auzmor’s API-based integration, for example, makes this easier.
- High Initial Costs: The costs associated with the implementation of AI will appear to be a cost in the short term however considering the returns in the long term it tends to be more favorable. For instance, automating payroll saved one organization $100K on processing fees.
Future Trends of AI in HR
There is still a potential expansion of AI computer technologies and models in the human resource management division. A few of these trends are:
Predictive Analytics for Workforce Planning
Artificial intelligence will provide relevant predictive knowledge to HR managers concerning turnover, compression of skills, and future recruitment requirements. For instance, investing in forecasting recruitment requirements based on both past and current business data will allow HR to work on a more informed basis. This would ensure the sustainability of workforce strength in the strategic plans of the organization.
Hyper-Personalization of Employee Experiences
AI will make adjustments to employee experience in terms of benefits, professional growth, and various training programs. Employees will be provided with assistance that is relevant to their positions and goals. This leads to more engagement, satisfaction, and retention of employees.
Sentiment Analysis for Employee Engagement
AI-based software will be used to check feedback and determine what the employees feel at the time and their general morale towards the organization. Because HR can track symptoms and foresee such trends and problems, they will be able to counteract them. Thus, a better work atmosphere is developed, and employees are more engaged at work.
AI-Driven Sustainability in HR
Paper and resource-saving strategies can be implemented by HR departments through the use of AI such as paperless documentation. The ways to achieve the desired cost and resource savings during the hiring processes and other operating processes will help to cut carbon emissions. This will narrow HR practices down to the mainstream trends of embracing sustainability.
Conclusion
AI is changing HR but also making it easier for professionals working in HR. It is because AI takes care of all the administrative work which gives HR personnel a chance to concentrate on key focus areas, improve efficiency, and ensure an outstanding experience for employees.
Would you like to change how you run your HR operations? Search for Auzmor and learn how you can better your operations with the help of AI.
