The COVID pandemic has changed how we work forever. Today’s HR teams are at the forefront of that change, trying to solve problems, overcome challenges, and manage expectations. Like so many other professionals, they are leaning on AI and data-driven technology for assistance.
The ongoing digital transformation of HR is unstoppable, but it’s not new.
Back In 2016, pre-COVID, 54% of organizations in the US have started integrating data analytics into their HR departments. Statistically speaking, their main fields of application were sourcing, recruitment, selection, retention, talent management, performance, and turnover prediction. If you’re looking to make your HR department work more efficiently, you should check out this list of best people search and implement one of them in your business.
In HR, the future has already started.
AI-based sourcing, screening, and verification
According to a survey conducted by Leadership IQ, an employee engagement firm based in the US, AI-driven sourcing platforms show a surprising improvement in talent retention – an excellent 23%. In comparison to that, traditional sourcing boasts a 46% fail rate in the first 18 months.
Artificial intelligence is of great help regarding candidate screening, too.
One of the biggest challenges for HR during the pandemic has been online candidate assessment. Many tech-savvy organizations are now relying on AI-related tech such as NLP, liveness detection, machine learning, and facial recognition to catch and discourage cheating and impersonation.
The same technology is employed for candidate verification, especially in organizations where remote and hybrid work models are still omnipresent. AI and data harvesting are helping remote HR teams verify the identity, addresses, reputation, and criminal records of candidates.
All that and more is crucial for developing a reliable data-driven recruiting strategy.
Recruiting strategies in a data-driven world
One of the common expectations from AI concerning the recruitment process is to remove bias from hiring and improve efficiency and insight in candidate assessment. However, AI can’t do much on its own. Even in its most sophisticated form, AI depends on data – and it needs a lot of it.
Data-driven hiring has emerged as the umbrella term for the best recruitment practices that envelop data-based and AI-related technology. By putting data analytics at the heart of the hiring process, HR teams can make smarter, more insightful decisions with organization-wide benefits.
Data helps improve hiring by a country mile simply by pointing out top talent.
That way, any data-driven recruiting strategy can boost efficiency and reduce hiring costs.
However, data-driven hiring remains a considerable challenge even for tech-oriented companies. According to Experian, 4 out of 10 businesses are struggling to cope with the volume and complexity of data. For the time being, until we have the proper infrastructure, external data analytics is a smart idea. If your business is established in Canadian provinces, you can deploy Canadian HR software to streamline the employee onboarding.
AI for sentiment analysis and turnover prediction
Most forward-thinking businesses employ some kind of employee monitoring system. They typically help determine productivity bottlenecks and create better workflow management practices, but you can also use them for sentiment analysis, where AI tracks and analyzes how employees behave.
In that sense, AI can be more observant than overworked HR professionals.
However, sentiment analysis is more often focused on text. Employee feedback offers an excellent sample for analysis – by reading the sentiment between the words, AI can determine employee satisfaction rates and predict turnover with greater accuracy. This kind of insight can be decisive.
While an effective data-driven recruiting strategy improves the quality of hires, AI and sentiment analysis facilitate and improve employee retention. To HR professionals, they offer a unique opportunity to solve problems as they emerge. Real-time crisis management has a significant impact on retention.
Enhanced candidate and employee experience
It’s obvious that digital transformation is a precursor for successful HR.
Successful HR fosters satisfied employees, distinguished for their productivity and loyalty. In today’s climate, this would not be possible without automation. Technology relieves HR of bureaucracy and repetitive tasks, thus allowing them to invest their energy in creative problem-solving.
In larger organizations, chatbots can handle all HR-related FAQs, for instance.
That way, HR professionals can commit to employee satisfaction and retention by doing what they do best – helping their organizations tailor stellar employee experiences. Satisfaction goes beyond daily workflows and problem resolution; it requires a healthy and motivating environment.
The same applies to candidate experiences. With automation tools and AI handling prospective hires early in the process, HR professionals can apply their skills to evaluating, hiring, and onboarding top talent. Technology comes in handy here, too – for instance, in onboarding remote workers.
Conclusion
Popularly called people analytics, all technology-based practices that use data for candidate verification, assessment, and in-depth sentiment analysis still require skilled HR teams. Adopting cutting-edge technologies is no longer an insurmountable challenge for modern-day human resources.
A bigger task is finding the balance between technology and people.
Until then, HR will continue to provide backbone support to strong industry leaders.
