HR, Meet AI
HR, as we know it,
will become obsolete. The transformation will be spurred by technology,
millennials and gig economy taking over the workplace
Is human resources (HR) in
trouble? Will technology replace people in HR? Will artificial intelligence
(AI), machine learning and automation change how it functions — from hiring to
managing people? At a time when a Tesla Roadster is hurtling through space, it
is difficult to predict the effect of technology. But there are indications
that workplace will fast-forward to a future where HR will cease to be what it
is.
The transformation of HR is at a
nascent stage now. But organisations will soon be forced to adapt and those who
do not will lose favour with potential employees. More than a dozen of India’s
top HR practitioners that ET Magazine spoke to say technology
is making inroads but HR is not obsolete yet.
Michael Bazigos, MD & global
leader for talent and organisational analytics, Accenture Strategy, says:
“There is a need for HR to change faster than it did in the past. Many HR
leaders are cognizant of this. With technology and big data coming into play,
the whole focus is on using experience-based moments that matter for employees,
rather than having a very functional, policy-driven view.”
Here are a few indications of how
HR is changing.
Employees in their 40s perceive HR
as just a department they have to deal with at the time of joining or leaving
an organisation. It lays out processes for performance appraisal, leave
policies, internal job openings and celebrations at workplace. There isn’t a
constant engagement; the connect is more transactional. Over the past few
years, this part of transactional HR has been disrupted.
At Mphasis, a Bengaluru-based IT
services company, an app called Ask Dexter is key to managing its 22,000-plus
employees. The internal, cloud-based chatbot, developed two years back, is
doing many HR functions: it resolves employee queries related to leave and
company policies. It fields technical support queries and provides simple ways
of employee appreciation across all levels of corporate hierarchy. That’s not
all. It specialises in giving an overview of openings, and jobs that will be
created in the future along with the preferred skills for each.
According to Elango R, president,
HP Business Unit, Mphasis, this has resulted in an enhanced user experience and
improved productivity at the employees’ end.
A dynamic chatbot is one of the
basic changes happening in how companies practise HR. This is set to
accelerate.
Dear AI,
I Am Looking for Opportunities...
HR consultancy PeopleStrong
explains it in numbers. Almost 80% of help desk, 55-60% of traditional
recruiter’s job and almost 20% of HR compliance work has been impacted due to
automation. Almost 50% of HR compliance work will be automated if the
government continues with its focus on digital agenda, says cofounder Pankaj
Bansal.
Not many HR practitioners admit to
this, but technology is fast replacing humans in several areas, including
hiring. Many see this as an opportunity for HR to reinvent itself as a function
critical to business, a role it is ideally perceived to play, but has not been
known to very often.
Explains Chandrasekhar Sripada,
professor, organisational behaviour and strategic human capital, Indian School
of Business (ISB): “All HR functions have two aspects: transactional and
transformational. The ‘transformational’ parts of HR will definitely survive;
while we find a new slave in robots to do the transactional work — albeit more
intelligently.”
Take recruitment. AI can help in
parsing and screening CVs far better than humans. Similarly, all parts of HR —
compensation and benefits, performance management, talent identification,
leadership development, employee relations — now include machine learning and
automation.
A host of new-age companies are
using AI in hiring and creating successful business models out of this. A three
year-old startup, Belong.co,
shows how. It uses AI to cherry-pick potential candidates for companies. Called
outbound hiring, this helps in hiring passive candidates.
Its cofounder Rishabh Kaul cites
the example of IT services companies that are taking on new projects. “Their
usual talent pool is not useful for such businesses. Plus, they are trying to
stop losing talent to startups. It’s a big opportunity for us.” Belong.co helps
in hiring for mid-to-senior levels. Belong.co claims it regularly hires for
posts with annual pay packages of ₹1 crore-plus
and has clients across sectors, especially those getting disrupted. The highest
salary, including ESOPs, has been to the north of $1 million (₹ 6.5 crore), says Kaul.
He says technology plays a
critical role in finding the right talent in early stages. Once the person is
excited about the role, companies can have their HR come in to negotiate.
“Technology is an aid, which can be personalised by companies to hire. It
hasn’t replaced the people part completely,” he says. At least not yet. Belong.co has over 100 companies
scouting for talent on its platform.
It is among a bunch of firms
changing traditional recruitment practices. Experts say that companies are
bound to use these advanced methods to hire, and startups such as Belong.co will work in tandem
with talent acquisition departments at companies. This will result in leaner
hiring departments that are focused more on cultural fit, values and other
softer yet critical aspects of talent.
The back-end at search firms is
automated and highly tech-driven, according to Navnit Singh, India chairman of
leading global search firm Korn/Ferry International. “There is a lot of
disruption in the hiring market. The mass scale of hiring is driven by
artificial intelligence up until middle level,” he says.
Beyond that, automation has begun
to impact CEO hiring as well, which is otherwise driven by one-on-one
interaction.
HR Goes
Bespoke
Something extraordinary happened
when Yale University opened registrations for its course in happiness in
January. In a matter of days, it became the most popular course with nearly
one-fourth of Yale graduate students enrolled for it, the New York
Times reported. The course teaches students meditation and gratitude,
and how to be happy. An unexpected choice for 20-somethings? Perhaps not.
How to be happy could be one of
the top priorities for the younger generation that will soon enter the
workforce. Ever since the millennials joined the workforce, organisations have
been forced to change the way they function. Companies are taking cues from
millennials on how to manage them, and are adjusting to expect the unexpected.
Millennials live in the here and the now, and need instant feedback and
gratification, says SV Nathan, chief talent officer, Deloitte.
New roles like tech detox managers
will soon become a reality (See Next Frontier). Plus, technology is
enabling practices that were not possible earlier. For instance, tailor-made
HR. With data and analytics, HR will have the ability to be granular, at the
level of individual employee, says Richard Lobo, executive vice-president and
HR head, Infosys. This could be the key to managing millennials.
At Infosys, many decisions,
including on compensation, benefits, training and career movements, are being
tailored for individual employees. The growing focus on technology means HR
will shift its focus to areas like career counselling and creating and
sustaining reskilling programmes, Lobo adds.
While daily, repetitive work will
be taken over by machines, HR will have to evolve more than ever, towards an
advisory function that maximises individual potential rather than bind them to
performance frameworks and guidelines, says Anuranjita Kumar, MD-HR,
International Hubs, Royal Bank of Scotland. Future workforce will need their
own HR or career relationship managers akin to financial advisors, Kumar says
(See Personalised HR).
In this next phase, called the
“second machine age”, many of the current HR roles need to be reinvented, says
Sripada. One potential role is “workforce planner” who will plan the hiring and
deployment of robots. The future HR manager will also learn to deal with free
agents and gig workers as more and more skilled people will seek employment
models founded on autonomy and flexibility.
“Millennials want self-service.
They want everything on an app. It’s not making HR defunct but transform. The
terminology is changing from HR personnel to employee experience officers,”
says Bazigos.
Evaluating in
Real Time
In the last five years, many
companies moved from annual performance appraisals to half-yearly or even
quarterly assessment. At Cisco, which gave up bell curvebased appraisals in
2015, assessment happens on a weekly basis. Every Friday, a prompt goes out to
managers to have a conversation with their reportees on how their week went by.
Not so long back, Cisco had an annual performance appraisal cycle. In the last
three years, the company has moved to weekly appraisals. “Instead of having a
marathon in the form of an annual appraisal cycle, we have divided this into 52
weeks, 52 sprints,” says Christian Barrios, director, human resource, Cisco
India & SAARC.
While a younger generation has
pushed organisations like Cisco to move to shorter cycles of appraisal,
technology is making it easier for organisations to adapt. “A lot changes in
our business in six months. The best time to manage performance is right now.
When an employee knows what her team leader thinks about her work, it minimises
surprises,” says Barrios.
For its part, Deloitte has moved
to periodic performance snapshots (assessment for a certain project or for a
quarter), and relies on “weekly check-ins”. Says Nathan: “With the millennials
as a majority, many of whom want feedback and coaching in the moment,
appraisals will no longer be an annual event. It will be continuous assessment,
and ‘touch points’ with managers, a way of seeking feedback.”
In the new system, an individual’s
performance data will be available to him or her at all times, says Bansal of
PeopleStrong. As gig economy becomes a norm, people will not be driven by promotion
but by fair compensation and choice of work.
Will HR function become defunct?
“It is not the function that is under threat but people performing repetitive
and structured tasks who, unless they reskill, are under threat, says Hari TN,
HR head, BigBasket. Nathan points out that HR will need fewer people in certain
areas. “The number will come down in operations and routine matters. The number
of HR professionals in all other areas will add greater value since they will
not be bogged down by operational matters. The quality of jobs will increase.”
Some like Abhijit Bhaduri, former
chief learning officer at Wipro, are optimistic. “People want feedback that
helps them improve. Machines can provide real-time data. But a terrific manager
can be an inspiration who can motivate people to realise their potential.
Machines cannot do that.”
According to NS Rajan, group CHRO
of IDFC Bank, HR’s role is defined by the maturity of the company. “It’s a
fallacy that human resources management is the responsibility of the HR
department. It has to be driven by business leaders, and anything that HR does
has to reflect the business needs.”
Future HR practitioners will need
to unlearn and learn. They need to embrace new technologies, and not fear them.
They need to take advantage of tech disruption to save time and energy for
newer and better purposes. The HR function could then be re-imagined to rise
above what mere machines can do.
Saumya
Bhattacharya
ETM 11MAR18
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