When we look back, 2023 may end up being known as “The Year of AI.” This was the year when AI exploded in terms of awareness and access to the technology, and the explosion raised as many questions as it did possibilities.
There seem to be at least three kinds of reactions to AI in the workplace.
- Panic! An awful lot of people worry that their jobs will be eliminated, or worse, that nobody took War Games, Stanley Kubrick’s 2001, or the Terminator franchise seriously, and we’re all doomed!
- Excitement! Tell us you don’t have at least one person on your staff who shows you a cool new thing they figured out in ChatGPT every day.
- Rebellion! This comes in all forms, whether it’s outright hostility or more of a “let’s wait and see” approach where AI keeps getting punted down the list of priorities.
No matter what the reaction is, if you’re in leadership (Especially in HR!), this can’t be avoided anymore. It’s no longer a choice to say, “Well, we’ll figure this out later,” or “That’s not really a priority for our industry.”
Every business has to adapt to AI. There’s nowhere left to hide!
AI is being integrated into all major business software platforms. Even if it’s not a core pursuit of your process or workflow, you may have noticed nearly every productivity tool you’re using is proudly touting new AI features or previewing their imminent arrival.
Even in Microsoft Office, the workhorse of so many business teams, the new AI Copilot tool is already rolling out at the enterprise level as we write this article. This isn’t like the love him or hate him “Clippy the Helpful Paper Clip” from the Office software of old. Today’s AI tools won’t easily be dismissed and will soundly disrupt how your team uses the most basic of tools.
So, you’re going to have to help your team figure out how to use AI.
And not surprisingly, the adoption of the technology brings up big, complicated questions for HR.
We’ll help you capture the biggest questions and a process for addressing them below.
Solving the HR puzzle around AI is worth it. The software can do amazing things for your business.
Here are just a few possibilities created by AI for business teams.
- Content Generation – This is probably the best known AI application so far. ChatGPT and its competitors speed up the creation of nearly any document related to business and serve as a powerful assistant to any task at hand.
- Recruiting and Hiring – New AI tools drastically cut down the time it takes to source and review resumes and even conduct preliminary interviews. They can also be used to generate time-consuming job descriptions.
- Productivity Monitoring and Management – AI has the ability to gain insights on employee performance that management could normally never see. These insights can be used to coach teams to unprecedented levels of productivity and success.
However, every new application of AI in the workplace raises BIG questions for HR.
Let’s look back at those capabilities listed above and consider the HR implications.
Content Generation
- How do you ensure the use of AI doesn’t dull the critical thinking skills of your team?
- What happens when one team member takes a document authored by another team member and uses AI to change its language, tone, or content? What are the implications?
- How do you safeguard HR standards in how your company communicates internally or externally?
Recruiting and Hiring
- How do you prevent unintentional bias created by the search terms used by your team?
- What if your use of AI in the recruitment process is limiting your ability to champion diversity or worse, creating discriminatory practices?
- How will you address many applicants’ distrust of AI? Using chatbots and AI-assisted screening processes could actually chase away excellent candidates.
Productivity Monitoring and Management
- What is the dividing line between monitoring productivity and protecting privacy?
- How granular of a view should managers be allowed to have? How much is too much?
- How do you account for different personality types, work styles, or even disabilities?
These are the HR questions that must be answered when adopting new AI technologies.
If you’re going to harness the advantages of AI while avoiding the potential downfalls, these are the critical conversations your team needs to have.
- How should this AI tool affect our HR policies?
- How does AI change the way we should structure our team?
- Who on our team needs access to this technology?
- How will we provide training for those team members?
Pay close attention to those last two questions.
If your business isn’t intentional about creating access to certain AI tools, you risk a free-for-all situation where some employees use their budget to access certain tools while others are unaware or feel unauthorized to do so.
There are great risks of inequity and unfair working conditions evolving in the workplace around AI, and included in this consideration is access to training. How do you make it possible for all who need these tools to use them?
It’s worth noting that employees are tracking this issue as well. Access to AI productivity tools has quickly become a concern in recruitment and retention. Potential candidates might view your workplace as unsupportive in regards to certain tools. Likewise, current employees might re-evaluate their place on your team in light of issues around access and equal opportunity.
Make sure you have a process in place for addressing AI’s impact on the workplace.
As we all know too well, important initiatives don’t get done without a plan. As much as we’re all scrambling to understand the implications of AI for the way we work, teams also need to catch up to the implications for HR.
Here are the essentials.
- Figure out who owns the process. Who is the best person or team to adapt your current HR practices to AI? Keep in mind, this is a task that will cross nearly every major area and department of your business.
- Revisit your policies. Don’t do this work in a vacuum. Be sure to solicit feedback and insight from team members and management.
- Communicate the changes. This might be the hardest part, but change only comes from clearly communicated, easy-to-understand and follow directions.
Consider seeking expert guidance in adapting to AI use in the workplace.
In all transparency, Xenium’s team of HR experts are working to catch up to the implications of AI just like you are.
Right now, it’s the wild west, and we’re all out there trying to tame the wild without losing what makes it powerful.
The difference at Xenium is that we have a team of more than 80 HR, payroll, and benefits experts having conversations with hundreds of small businesses every day. In times like these, we become a focal point for the conversations, discoveries, and best practices involved.
It’s a similar situation to the recent pandemic. COVID was a giant asteroid that hit the business world with epoch-changing ferocity. Our team jumped in with business leaders to keep pace with the constantly changing regulations and expectations as the crisis unfolded.
AI is a similar paradigm shift, and it takes collaboration and partnership to navigate it.
Xenium partners with businesses nationwide to relieve the endless challenges and demands of HR and create opportunities for building innovative, positive workplace cultures. Learn more about our custom HR support services at XeniumHR.com.