How AI Could Be Used to Improve Talent Acquisition and Management

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I do a series of weekly podcasts for the Word Talent Economy Forum mostly focused on AI. One of them this month was on how to Improve Talent Acquisition and Management. It’s an area in which I think generative AI, particularly conversational AI, could make a huge difference in HR, which was originally created as a hedge against unionization as a better alternative. Instead, it evolved into a forced compliance function. HR isn’t working and likely will never be staffed sufficiently to do so. This is one of the reasons why there is a resurgence in unions. If the company won’t or can’t protect employees, then unionization, while expensive and counter-strategic to the company’s future growth, is the only remaining alternative because no employee wants to feel powerless.

The Problem

Employees are often mis-hired, mistreated and abused. Short of expensive litigation, which can also make the employee unemployable, in most companies, employees have little convenient or safe recourse. If you complain about the problem, management may conclude that the problem is you, making the very act of complaining problematic.

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But it isn’t just managing talent that is the problem, it is acquiring that talent, as well, because recruiters tend to be understaffed and undertrained. This can result in far greater distractions and loading on both employees and management who are also generally undertrained when it comes to selecting a new team player. Given the increasing number of layoffs, there is a question of whether managers and employees even have the time to do a good job of selection.

AI is part of the problem as its implementation is resulting in redundant jobs, people who are struggling with this new tool and getting little help or training, and a shortage of AI skills. So, companies are trying to manage through these AI deployments, but they lack the skills, time and training to either help the employees who are working in these AI infused environment or find new employees that are qualified, willing, and well trained enough to do one of these new AI-adjacent jobs.

Given AI is part of the cause for these problems, it is only reasonable we look to AI for the solution.

Employee Acquisition

The conversational nature of generative AI allows this tool to perform jobs that otherwise would typically require humans. Call centers find AI to be very performant. In IBM’s Watson’s early trials for the insurance industry, it was found that Watson, now watson x, was able to outperform human sales reps with higher close rates. It was also found that the AI was so good, some of the male prospects flirted with it, not realizing it wasn’t a real woman.

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The first phase of selecting any employee is to determine the validity of their credentials, the availability of the employee, their willingness and understanding of the job request, and whether they’d be a fit with the company’s goals and culture. I have a degree in Manpower Management (now called Manpower Planning), and learning how to do this is part of that course of study but few today learn these skills.

AI can engage potential employees and score their responses then, given a preset threshold, weed out the people that don’t match up to the company’s needs, and select the top two or three candidates for further consideration. AI isn’t inherently biased against any sex, religion or race, making it agnostic when it comes to typical problems surrounding discriminatory practices that still plague a number of companies and industries which can result in avoidable litigation.

By using AI, you end up with just a few candidates that need to be personally interviewed. Once the system matures and people are comfortable with the results, you may even find that you only need to interview the top candidate which should further reduce the possibility, assuming the AI training set is unbiased, of a discriminatory challenge.

Employee Management

We are experiencing a number of problems with management having to do with hybrid work largely because most managers are still not adequately trained or comfortable with remote workers. In addition, there are problems with Gen Z workers who went through the pandemic not being emotionally able to manage working without substantial hand holding, and few companies have the extra human resource bandwidth to do that hand holding.

Here the use of an AI digital assistant that is tied to the worker, and where the information captured by the assistant belonged to the worker (so they are comfortable sharing their concerns, work process, questions, and state of mind with the assistant).

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This AI assistant would not only do what the emerging class of digital assistants do in terms of handling logistics like room reservations, travel and business appointments, but, in addition, provide the information and support the employee needs to be successful as well as have the ability to flag when an employee is abused, overworked, under supported, or otherwise in distress so that help can be provided in a timely way, and, if the employee is being abused, corrective action can be taken promptly before the employee is lost and the company is embarrassed by litigation that reflects poorly on the brand(s) and the company itself.

The reason I think this digital assistant should be considered the employee’s property is because they are then more likely to trust it. As we have seen with employee surveys in the past, if employees don’t trust how the data will be handled, they’ll lie on the survey so they don’t get into trouble, making the survey process pointless. If the employee doesn’t trust it, the AI digital assistant would be equally worthless. It must be designed to allow the employee control over what is shared. If the related training off the AI is seen as valuable, then the employee should be compensated for it so they see the value of putting in the extra effort to evolve the AI digital assistant.

Wrapping Up:

Employee Recruitment and Management has been increasingly problematic given how HR is currently focused in most companies and how little trust employees now have for the function. Managers can’t fill this gap because few are formally trained in employee management practices and those that are still haven’t been adequately trained to manage remote workers, nor has whatever training they did get been updated for changes in potential employee issues, particularly with Gen Z employees.

If it is properly trained, AI can fill this gap and make for better employee acquisition and training, but it also needs to be focused on and trained to do this job. I think the concept of the personal AI digital assistant that was under the employee’s control would also be particularly helpful to Gen Z employees who are burning out rapidly right now to the detriment of both them and the hiring companies.

In the end, while the deployment of AI will increasingly put pressure on staffing, this tool could also be ideal to reduce that pressure again while making for better (as in higher quality) teams and company staffing. It’s just a matter of applying it properly.

About the author: As President and Principal Analyst of the Enderle Group, Rob Enderle provides regional and global companies with guidance in how to create credible dialogue with the market, target customer needs, create new business opportunities, anticipate technology changes, select vendors and products, and practice zero dollar marketing. For over 20 years Rob has worked for and with companies like Microsoft, HP, IBM, Dell, Toshiba, Gateway, Sony, USAA, Texas Instruments, AMD, Intel, Credit Suisse First Boston, ROLM, and Siemens.