HR leaders considering AI solutions need to focus on personalization and human connections, using AI to automate transactional tasks and to improve employee experiences. This was one of the themes to emerge from a customer panel at this week's Workday Rising EMEA, which considered how to use AI to drive business value.
Covering a range of issues, the panel discussed whether to build or buy AI solutions, continuous learning in leadership, and integrating natural language and generative AI into personalized support and scalable training.
So how are companies already using AI for their HR operations? At snack food giant Mondelez International, AI is used to streamline and improve experiences for employees on a daily basis, says Volker Schrank, VP Global Employee Experience & HR Technology, who spoke to diginomica last year about the company's plans to use AI in employee self-service. He goes on:
It's very clear that AI isn't new, but the pace has changed significantly. With gen AI suddenly we can have solutions where you did not have solutions before. So we look at how we can bring greater efficiency and better experience for our employees. What are the challenges that are the most critical, and how can we get HR work as simplified and documented as possible? This is where AI and gen AI is really helping us, bringing new opportunities.
It's a similar theme at technology giant Siemens, where Tanya Schroeder, Global Head of People & Operations Digitalisation, explains that AI is used to improve people's experience, efficiency, and presentation. If they haven't already, HR leaders need to get started now, she believes:
I think the majority of companies are still early in the journey. And it will probably be a struggle to gain the business effectiveness outcomes for many projects. We started our Workday journey, and are replacing all the different systems that we have across our company into a one stop shop, where employees can find answers.
Pierre Ramery, VP IT Business Solutions at water management systems maker Aliaxis, believes education is essential to ensure that AI's potential can be realized. The Belgian company provides water pipes and fittings all over the world. It has 15,000 employees of 110 nationalities working in over 100 countries globally and speaking more than 65 different languages. He says:
We have to educate employees about what AI can, and what it cannot do. It seems obvious but some really have no clue. It seems like a very basic investment as I anticipate AI being more and more disruptive. We need to try to focus on quantifiable business outcomes from implementing AI-based systems.
Schrank believes that to really drive business value organizations need to think about how AI can lead to potential transformations in HR itself. He comments:
All the hype that we hear, all the product announcements, that's 20% of your success. Whereas 80% is from when you think about AI and HR... Find out what needs to change in your company? How does the organization structure need to change? Your job changes significantly with the help of an AI agent, and that does something to people. That does something to structure, and the organization.
Panel moderator Athena Karp, founder and general manager, HiredScore, which was acquired by Workday earlier this year, points out the scale of the potential means that there could be a business cost in waiting to get started:
After we did an AI brainstorm I realized we never talked about the cost of waiting and not getting started on our AI journey. What would be the top line and the bottom line impact of that to our firm, and the disadvantages to our workforce? I think as we start shifting the workforce to the HR for AI, you actually unlock a whole new amount of work, capabilities, and strategy that was not possible in the manual. pre-AI phase.
However the panel agreed there is a big difference in the ambitions for and implementation of AI. Schroeder comments:
I feel that there's a lot of expectations, but it takes a while to actually process. Don't throw the AI at the problem. I think you really need to think about how AI fits in the process, and how it compliments it.
Ramery agrees that companies should not be using AI for AI's sake:
You need to see what the pain points are. Maybe we use AI, maybe we don't. We have to educate people, everybody in the corporation. So we provide support, video and webinars, for everyone from basic job awareness to experts
Training throughout the company is key, as Schrank explains:
AI is very deep in my training, because my team, these are the guys that need to make it happen, make it work, understand it. We coupled that with very strong design so that my team can really focus on the issues and concerns and challenges of the end user.
Deciding future strategy on build-versus-buy, and on the business goal also brought a consensus, with all the panelists agreeing that HR is in a unique position. Karp says:
There are CIOs, and IT teams that think with AI, anyone can build it. But in HR, there's compliance, there's safety, there's ethics, there's global and local languages and regulations. You need to look at the business problem. If you want 25% plus recruiter efficiency, well recruiting is a regulated industry. In some you need an agent that's built for 150 countries, globally, localized, that understands that nuance.
Schrank advises:
Define your future vision. Don't be nervous that you only have the steps for the next year because the speed of innovation, not only in AI and gen AI, but in technology in general is so fast. You need to set out and be clear about where you want to go, and then understand where and how to use AI.
Siemens' Schroeder agrees on the importance of a clear vision. She adds:
It really is about strategy. I find out how we can support our people, and we really look at how we can enable this technology, but also enable our strategy. So that is having options, and choosing new tools that you really look at. Now we can support our people, and we really look at how we can enable them with this technology in the future.
In conclusion, Schrank offers two tangible business wins, and says it is important to look at the big picture. The first is being able to make self-service more accessible to infrequent users:
Being able to request from your HR department whatever you need in your own language, at the time that you want, and getting the answer instantly is a game changer. In our company, more than 50% of employees are frontline, they don't sit in an office. They don't have all the time in the world to figure out what their benefits are, and their health insurance? They are either in the factory and have five minutes in between shifts, or they are on the road. We can give them the AI enabled solution in their own words. That sounds simple, but this is what we struggled with for many years.
The second is learning at scale. He goes on:
