AI in HR practice: hands on advice from a people director 

McKinsey research suggests that deploying generative AI in HR functions can boost productivity by up to 30%. This efficiency gain primarily stems from AI’s ability to automate repetitive tasks, allowing HR teams to pivot their focus towards strategic roles. As Annabel Joseph, director of people at employee experience software firm Applaud says: “That's something we have been fighting for in HR for a long time without compromising the quality of our service delivery.”

In this HR Leaders interview Joseph talks about how AI assistants are reducing HR caseloads by about 50%, illustrating its capacity to manage and refine vast amounts of unstructured data and previous policy versions, enabling the crafting of precise content instantly. Yet, depsite the clear advantages, adoption rates among HR professionals remain low, with only 10% leveraging these technologies, according to research from Applaud. 

This slow uptake is attributed to various concerns, including data privacy and accuracy as well as job losses. "The fear is mainly around the data input into the available AI tools and the concern about data breaches on platforms such as ChatGPT as well as the accuracy of the responses from the AI assistants, which then makes HR professionals feel more comfortable to sticking to what they know," Joseph notes, highlighting the primary barriers to AI adoption in the field.

However, she argues that these tools are designed to augment human capabilities rather than replace them, suggesting that education and proper policy development are key to overcoming these hurdles. Sharing her approach to easing AI integration concerns at Applaud she says: " We certainly don't have a ban on third party AI tools, and we've created a policy to provide guidelines for employees. I'm making sure that all our data is up to date and accurate because I'm conscious that, once we press the button, this is what the employees will have access to without us and HR gatekeeping the information.”

Work Talk from The People Space · Exploring, Educating and Implementing AI in Human Resources

To encourage a smooth transition to AI-enabled HR processes, Joseph offered a three-step approach for HR leaders:

1. Conduct in-depth research: Engage directly with AI tools and technologies to understand their practical applications and limitations.
2. Implement AI gradually: Start with non-sensitive tasks such as grammar checking or data analysis to build familiarity and trust in AI capabilities.
3. Develop a robust policy: Actively establish guidelines that address the use, ethics and security of AI tools within the organisation.

Watch the video to discover how Joseph approached crafting an AI policy, what she is considering as she implements an AI assistant and the personal challenges she faced when beginning her AI journey. 

About Annabel Joseph

Annabel Joseph is the director of people at Applaud. She is a member of the senior leadership team and contributes to shaping the company's direction. Joseph’s professional journey, marked by diverse sectors and international experience, has led to her role in HR technology, a true passion of hers given the relatable field. She is CIPD level 7 qualified and holds a bachelor law degree.

Transcript

Why AI Is Becoming Essential In HR

McKinsey reports generative AI and AI deployments are bringing efficiency and new insights into HR functions, which are estimated to enhance HR productivity by up to 30%. And I can see why they say this because the efficiency games for HR in the shape of removing the repetitive tasks that HR teams find themselves occupied allows for us to shift our focus from administrative work to helping lead company-wide strategic transformation. And that's something we have been fighting for in HR for a long time without compromising the quality of our service delivery. 

Where AI Delivers Immediate Value For HR Teams

So with the use of AI assistants they're being used to reduce caseloads by about 50% because you are now able to use unrefined content and previous versions of policies, for example, regardless of which platform they're stored in to craft perfectly written content for your employees at the click of a finger. Alongside this with the AI chat assistants employees can self-service the answers to their questions without waiting for HR to calculate or pull the relevant data to give the answers that they require. 

The generative AI assistants are capable of much more than our traditional language models. I think people think of AI and chatbots with customer services. You know, when you're trying to contact a utility company, for example, and you're met with a rigid response, which doesn't really, it's not really helpful when you want to go through to an agent. Whereas the generative AI is actually giving you the answer because it's learning itself. So the more and more data they have access to be able to give you a more intuitive response. 

So the capability of AI will definitely help our decision making and it will provide valuable insights and predictive analysis on the go that will help businesses perform. And therefore it's no wonder that Gartner report that 76% of HR leaders believe that their company does not start using AI solutions in the next 12 to 24 months, it will not be as successful as companies that do. So this leads us to see that there's lots of opportunities for us in HR with respect to covering our blind spots and understanding what employees want and what supports they need with the use of real-time analytics. Our research has found that only one in 10 professionals are leveraging AI. But I think we're actually seeing a lot more exploration of AI from HR leaders of late, which is fantastic.

What Is Holding HR Back From AI Adoption

But speaking to a lot of my peers who work in HR, I've come to understand that the fear is mainly around the data input into the available AI tools and the concern about data breaches on platforms such as ChapGPT. There's also a concern in respect to the accuracy of the responses from the AI assistants, which then make them feel more comfortable to sticking to what they know. Another concern presents themselves in the fear that tech will replace jobs in HR, which naturally causes a threat response to most individuals when in actual fact AI tools are designed to enhance human capabilities rather than replace them. 

So having said that, you know, there are those internal barriers from HR professionals, but I think there's also with the slow adoption of the AI tools from organisations, a lot of companies are either just saying we're not adopting AI tools completely or staying quiet about it. And it's leaving HR professionals wondering, you know, what is the usefulness of AI for them? 

So I think that we can help HR feel more comfortable with AI by stepping away from the scaremongering about how AI will replace our jobs and actually do the research and try it out for themselves. I found that hugely beneficial for me personally, and I was able to step outside and do the research and develop my own opinion rather than adopting other people's opinions. So my suggestion would be to check out some trials. Applaud obviously have one as well, and that will give you a taste or a feel of how an integrated tool could benefit your organisation. 

But another option is to make use of the third party tools such as ChatGPT and start with something simple like checking for spelling or grammatical errors on a template that isn't data sensitive, just to get a feel and get yourself to feel more comfortable with it. 

I've also found it was useful to look at case studies and taking the success stories as well as delving into the challenges that organisations have faced implementing AI, because I know that last year when I heard that IBM had reduced its time to fill a vacancy from 30 days to 10 days, that piqued my interest. Equally, sitting on webinars and hearing some of the questions that were asked gave me cause to do more research, which I did. 

I also think that HR professionals need to be supported externally by AI vendors to have responses to address concerns around data breaches. And that is where a lot of the concerns appear to lie. 

And  I know there's been a lot of blanket bans happening from organisations. I've heard it with  more popular organisations, but also among my peers. But those who really want to use it will use their personal devices to access the AI tools to help them with efficiencies and not be left behind. So it could be useful for companies to do some research and look at how they can get integrated AI tools so that they can have more control about where the data is going.

What An AI-Savvy HR Leader Looks Like

An AI savvy leader would look like understanding the AI tools. So I'm not saying that we need to turn into engineers, but we do need to get under the hood of HR and be curious and have a general good understanding of AI and understand how it works, how it will impact employees, how it will impact us in HR so that we can be role models and champion it. It will also help with our policy development when we come to putting in a fair use and guidance on how to use the AI tool. 

Also, when you're introducing any new process, any new practice, you do need to think about your change management skills and think about how each individual goes through the change curve. And you may need to address resistance and you may need to leverage from the people who are all for it and are bought into AI already because you will want to be able to manage that and also be able to lean on those who are for AI and those who are naysayers. Because it's going to require a lot of adapting and agility, and you're typically going to be the champion in this change, the ability to be able to adapt and adjust in an ever-changing environment and the speed at which AI is being implemented will be hugely beneficial as well. So honing in on those skills will definitely help. 

And lastly, developing a greater understanding of the legal and ethical issues, particularly around the data use and protection, understanding the potential bias that can be introduced when using AI systems will serve as a good basis to be able to provide that to staff for safe use.

How Applaud Is Using AI In HR Practice

At Applaud, we encourage the safe use of AI tools. We certainly don't have a ban on third party AI tools. And we've created a policy to provide guidelines for employees. Our internal HR portal is powered by AI and puts everything an employee needs in their journey in one place. The AI systems that are built into our employee experience platform seems to be the perfect balance between how we respond to concerns about a data breach while wanting to provide our employees with access to cutting edge technology because we have control about where the data is going. 

At the moment, I'm in the process of implementing the AI assistant into our employee portal to connect to our knowledge base so that it reads all the content and provides a tailored response to employee queries such as policy entitlements or annual leave balances. 

But as I said before, the AI system is only as good as the data that it has in there. So at the moment I'm making sure that all our data is up to date and accurate because I'm conscious that once we press the button, that this is what the employees will have access to without us and HR gatekeeping the information. 

I'm also using the knowledge base at the moment to draft policies that feed into our knowledge hub so that our employees can receive information tailored to their circumstances and their role. I'm finding it really great because with the use of AI, it identifies gaps in our existing content database, such as government-directed policy change entitlements, and it allows me to automatically update them.

Overcoming the personal challenges of AI implementation

So some of the biggest challenges I faced when starting my own AI journey is that there feels like there's an expectancy for me and HR to know all about AI and in turn have all the answers on how we can ensure safe use. But actually, you do need to take some time away from the day job and learn it because the use of AI at all will become part of your day job and you can't be left behind. So we need to become true AI champions. 

So at first there was some nervousness for me also about what I put into the third party AI tools and the accuracy of what I was getting out. So when I used it, I never blindly relied on the information. I always did my own research. And if I wasn't sure of the accuracy of the response, I would do some research and make sure I wasn't doing a complete copy and paste. 

For the internal implementation of the AI chat assistant at first I was met with responses of the data not being available and I realised that's purely down to the data that I put in. So I've done a lot of work now to go back to the library, the policy library, and make sure the data is updated so that when a user is using the AI assistant that is able to respond with the accurate information and data. 

To develop the policy, I worked with my colleagues in different departments to understand how they used AI at the moment. I also worked with our project team who are implementing the AI assistants to understand what barriers they faced or where they are finding it useful. So that when I was crafting a policy, I wasn't just taking a policy from CIPD or from the internet and putting it into our company. I was actually concerned with how we are using it and also making sure there were provisions around copyright infringement and data protection.

First Practical Steps For HR Leaders Starting With AI

So my top three pieces of advice for HR leaders looking to start their own AI journey is to absolutely do your own research and testing. Be curious and look for the use cases yourself. Don't rely on the information that's being provided. 

My second piece of advice would be to use some AI tools for your own workload. Use it on something that is not data sensitive or use it  to check spelling and grammar. Just get comfortable with the AI tool and get comfortable with the third party tools that are out there.

My third piece of advice would be to write a policy, get ahead of it because AI is going to come a thick and fast and you don't want to be left behind.