Emerging Tech in HR: AI's Role in Promoting Diversity & Inclusion
AI tools in HR and a spotlight on Paragraphica
From the inception of Chronicles of Change, I have focussed on people as the pivotal element determining the success or failure of any digital transformation venture. Today, we explore the transformative effects of emergent technologies on Human Resources and how organizations can harness this unprecedented opportunity. While many highlight AI's potential negative impacts, I see numerous reasons for optimism, particularly when considering the prospect of a well-trained model facilitating a more meritocratic and thus diverse candidate pool, truly shaping an organisation for the better and achieving a long-term, unfair competitive advantage. Let's see how.
Featured Insight: AI Reshaping HR Processes
HR departments across the board are positioned to reap the rewards of emergent technologies, particularly generative AI. This technology can comprehensively understand a company's role requirements, as well as what active and passive candidates have to offer, significantly aiding HR business partners and line managers. By minimizing time spent on bureaucratic tasks, they can concentrate on what truly matters: the employee experience.
Talent Acquisition
One area where AI's positive impact is undeniably evident is talent acquisition. Busy managers, while crafting job descriptions, often overlook key details, resulting in irrelevant applications and missed opportunities to hire top talent. Here, AI can step in and bridge the gap. AI-powered technologies like Recruitee can generate compelling and precise job descriptions that align with the employer's brand, drastically reducing the time to market for roles.
Taking a step further, these technologies can help in the screening of applications, going beyond the conventional keyword-based approach of most Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS). Manatal, for example, uses an advanced recommendation engine to assign real-time scores to candidates, enhancing their profiles with publicly available social media data, and providing a comprehensive briefing pack to hiring managers.
AI can also assist in proactive outreach to passive candidates. AI-enabled technology, like Fetcher, can comb the web to identify the best candidates whose skills match the job description and align with the company's ethos. This presents an invaluable opportunity for SMEs and large corporations alike, aiming to cut talent acquisition costs without compromising on quality.
In the push for genuine diversity and inclusion, AI is a game-changer, removing many pitfalls of conscious and unconscious bias in the recruitment process. Indeed, HR professionals and line managers continue to play a pivotal role, but AI can present them with a truly diverse pool of qualified candidates, allowing for merit-based decisions.
Performance Management
Performance management, a fundamental process within any organization, is often rushed due to everyday demands. AI's efficient summarization of feedback and self-evaluations allows for a streamlined process, enabling managers and employees to focus on learning opportunities and setting clear, achievable goals.
AI's capabilities extend further by providing a synthesized first draft of performance reviews by drawing on varied sources of feedback. This innovation allows managers to focus on more nuanced aspects of performance management, like employee development and growth.
Employees can also leverage AI for professional development, benchmarking their strengths and weaknesses against successful peers, and visualizing potential career paths. Effy is an example of AI application in this space, offering ready-to-use templates and real-time reports to simplify the review process.
A Word of Caution
While AI integration in HR processes brings many benefits, it is crucial to remain cognizant of the associated risks, particularly unintentional bias propagation. If the data used to train AI carries historical biases, the AI system could unintentionally perpetuate them. Ensuring AI applications are developed with diverse, unbiased data and audited regularly for fairness is vital.
Also, avoid excessive reliance on AI at the cost of human interaction. While AI can enhance efficiency, it can't replicate essential human traits like empathy and intuition. As with any innovation, a cautious approach, starting with specific use cases, is the best way to manage expectations and ensure a robust change management plan. This approach allows time for testing, learning, and gradually implementing new technologies without risking too much at once.
Spotlight on: Paragraphica
This week I wanted to share something at the intersection of technology and art. Have you ever wondered what a place would look like if you could see it through the eyes of artificial intelligence? If so, you might be interested in Paragraphica (created by Bjørn Karmann), a context-to-image camera that uses location data and artificial intelligence to visualize a "photo" of a specific place and moment. The camera exists both as a physical prototype and a virtual camera that you can try online. By collecting data from its location using open APIs, Paragraphica composes a paragraph detailing the current place and moment. Then, using a text-to-image AI, the camera converts the paragraph into a "photo". The resulting "photo" is not just a snapshot, but a complex and nuanced reflection of the location you are at, and perhaps how the AI model "sees" that place.
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