Will machines rule the HR world?

Short answer - Absolutely and it is inevitable.

Longer answer - Absolutely and it is a good thing. Let's be frank. Number of millennials employed in the workforce have already surpassed the baby boomers' and gen-xers'; We are the largest share of the workforce. And guess what? We live and breath technology for most (if not all) of our lives. We even have The International Federation of Robots (yes, that is a real organization, not a Star Wars coalition). And we expect the same technology to be in our workplaces.

Technology will allow the human resources departments to be more human.

What actually is going to happen is technology will allow the human resources department to be more human by automating away a lot of their grunt work. Talent management including employee engagement, HR operations, learning and development and productivity will take on an entirely new garb and redefining the core concepts.

Future HR departments are not humans vs. machines. It's humans + machines. 

OK - I admit. I'm a bit of a geek and I like robots. I wish I could make a robot to do my daily works, so I can go and do other stuff. But pretty soon, some HR managers will share their office with Harri. So our future HR departments is not humans vs. machines. It's humans + machines.

Technology will make us more transparent, more collaborative, less biased and more informed.

But unfortunately, most (not all) HR departments are still in 1970s style. It's time to modernize the HR departments.

Technology provides unmatched transparency.

In the age of oversharing, workforce transparency is not just a buzzword. Whether we like it or not, we are taking a page from the Yelp and Trip Advisors. Transparency is expected to be there. It goes beyond leaders and employees coming together to openly discuss expectations and criteria for advancement opportunities. With so many intuitive platforms emerging, companies have the right tools to create a more engaged, transparent culture. Below is just two ways technology can help facilitate workplace transparency in meaningful ways:

• Salary and Bonus Transparency: Among many, Buffer, an application used for social media management, famously shares employees’ salaries, pricing models, revenue information, and fundraising processes with the company and even the public. This way, employees are motivated to perform better if they are in the higher earning category or if they want to reach the status of other higher earners. Many of us have already used Glassdoor to look up salaries for different positions.
• Real-time Performance Tracking and Recognition: Performance tracking and recognition tools afford the opportunity for instant feedback and recognition — both of which are driving forces behind engagement and productivity. Platforms such as Globoforce, O.C Tanner, Kudos and Terry Berry allow peer-to-peer real-time feedback. Such tools are not for feedback purposes. It keeps employees engaged and informed on how they’re impacting large-scale goals, which improves satisfaction and motivation.

Employers also win. Real-time metrics guide management in how they can allocate tasks properly to maintain productivity and prevent work overload. So let technology help you unburden your staff when they start to struggle.

Technology allows us to be more collaborative.

Millennials live in the world of Skype and Google Hangouts. We also live in the world of Snapchat events and Facebook events. So, we expect similar collaborative tools when we are at work.

Not only collaborative technology makes it easier to hire, but it makes it easier to retain the millennials. With large-scale operations, collaboration can be incredibly difficult. With talent management technology that provides quick access to projects, anybody involved can evaluate, assess, and contribute to ongoing tasks in an instant. Furthermore, it opens communication and facilitates effective teamwork through transparency, especially in the social feature found in leading talent management platforms.

Among many, Favro, an agile based, collaborative and workflow management app is one such tool that HR and recruitment teams can use to facilitate better onboarding processes. Managers can use this as a platform for training new hires and communicating with them on a daily basis as they progress. Goals can be set and tracked. Work can be shared across the teams. A collaborative tool provides a sense of being part of something bigger and thus increases the likelihood that new hires will feel like they matter to the organization.

Technology is unbiased (or less-biased).

Although your instincts are important, we need to be aware of the many cognitive biases that exist and how to overcome them. A cognitive bias is essentially the tendency to make decisions in an illogical way. This is a phenomenon that many psychologists have uncovered, as it is far too easy for our emotions and preferences to creep into our decision-making process.

It can be challenging for people to spot cognitive biases on their own, because they usually come from subconscious thinking. An AI agent can look at both the formal and informal reports on an employee’s performance to determine what the actual problem is and then recommend mitigating corrective action that could range from a job change, to training, to removing a manager from management. If AI can do a better job of employee selection, then reasons for failure attributed to bad skills or a bad personality match, will be addressed up front. The analysis can then focus more on management, support, or changes in the employee's life during their job history.

Technology put the information at our fingertips.

As millennials, we are the largest workforce segment. Technology is integrated within our everyday life. We are used to quickly doing a search and finding the answers. How many of us do you think actually read our employee manual (which probably has the answer to most of our questions)? In most cases, we run to the appropriate HR manager and ask the questions we care about. In some cases, if the question is not of importance, we might just skip it.

Soon, your routine HR questions will be answered by non-humans. Tala and Harri are leading the way. Harri (which stands for "Human Advisory Resource – Robotic Interface") was specifically developed for the payroll departments. Harri has a friendly face, where you can ask questions from it. Tala is a chatbot where you can type your questions and answers are presented. Such tools will also make the new talents more engaged.

Technology can diversify the workforce.

With the rise of the social media, most millennials lived in a diversified world. Most of us have friends from different places around the world. We are more than comfortable to be in a diversified workforce.

Some organizations are taking this a step further. Microsoft and EY are even aiming at finding individuals who are neurodiverse. Diverse teams are more profitable and deliver higher levels of customer satisfaction. It is important not to over-generalize but there are particular roles where there are unquestionable strengths that people who have a different way of processing information will bring to bear in the workplace.

So, what's next? And what's stopping us to move forward?

HR departments spend a lot of time doing these low-level, monotonous tasks and not really being as strategic and engaged as they would like to be. What you’ll find is that more of the work that does not involve collaborating with or interacting with other humans is the kind of work that will be automated away.

There are some roadblocks. New research has shown that, over 50% of organizations plan to use artificial intelligence. But about 42% of companies lack the skills necessary to implement and support AI and machine learning tools. Almost as many respondents said all the implementation and support work would be done in-house when the time comes, and that their company is working to address AI and machine learning in the corporate security plans.

So yes - as AI and robots penetrate the last fortress of the organizations, most traditional jobs will be lost. But new ones will be created.

Will there be jobs lost?

 Research from Forrester predicts that 16% of jobs in the US will be lost over the next 10 years as a direct result of AI and related technologies. Equally, it has been predicted that 14 million jobs will be created during the same period in order to train, accommodate and compliment the burgeoning AI and machine learning industries.

Businesses will require their employees to reskill and keep pace with the changing demands that technology brings. More widely, employees will need to focus on learning skills that cannot be done easily by computers, such as creativity, large frame pattern recognition, and complex communication. Businesses and the workforce need to evolve with AI, embrace change and constantly look for new opportunities where they can add value.

So, the future of HR departments is humans + machines.

Further Reading and References

• MIT Technology Review: Asia’s AI agenda - How Asia is speeding up global artificial intelligence adoption
• Forrester: The Future Of White-Collar Work: Sharing Your Cubicle With Robots
• CIO: AI expanding in the enterprise (whether or not you know it)

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