Introduction

Due to rapid changes in the functioning of the HR department, organizations have identified the need to streamline processes and automate various routine tasks in order to save time and concentrate more on human centric activities. The human resource manager is responsible for various activities like looking for candidates, screening them, scheduling and conducting interviews, etc. Therefore usually the HR department is swamped with a lot of administrative and paperwork, this is where different HR automation tools come in.

Automation of HR activities requires the use of software to digitize various HR processes. These tools use different advanced technologies like artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML) and natural language processing (NLP) to enhance efficiency and increase employee satisfaction. According to a study by IBM Institute for Business Value, 40% of the workforce are expected to reskill themselves because of the implementation of AI and automation. HR departments are setting an example, by implementing these automation tools and navigating the economy and labour market into the future of work. There is an increasing demand for jobs in the market with a scarcity of good quality candidates. These automation tools powered by AI and other technological advancements, can not only help in identifying the right talent but also help in nurturing and upskilling them. This article aims to explore the benefits of using HR automation, the different functions it can affect and the different challenges that exist in implementing them.

Benefits of HR Automation with AI

According to studies, more than 76% of the HR leaders expect their organizations to start implementing AI in their HR processes, otherwise they fear the organization can lose their competitive edge. On top of this the same report states, 92% of them plan to implement AI in at least one area by early 2025. Even though some are of the opinion that AI tools can replace humans, on the contrary it is more likely that organizations using AI would replace those that don't use it. Some of the benefits of using AI powered HR automation tools are:

• Streamlined Recruitment and Reduced Time-to-Hire: HR automation tools can use the power of AI to make the recruitment process more efficient by automating repetitive and mundane tasks like resume screening and interview scheduling. According to a study by Gartner, 38% of HR leaders have already implemented AI in the recruitment process to make it more streamlined. By implementing these HR automation tools organizations can fasten up the process of recruiting new candidates and reduce the time to hire, which is going to be beneficial for them in this competitive job market.

• Enhanced Accuracy in Candidate Evaluation: By using AI powered HR automation tools for recruitment, organizations can provide transparent assessments for the candidates, and take data driven decisions. Employees can be judged objectively on the basis of their skills removing any personal biases. These tools also are neutral evaluators, where the decision is dependent on the objective data and not any subjective opinions.

• Improved Decision-Making using Predictive Analytics: Since AI HR automation tools are equipped with different algorithms they can be used to identify different patterns within the data. These tools can go through different performance metrics, or historical data of the candidates, and identify the most promising employee in the workforce. Using other key performance indicators like employee engagement, etc they can also predict employee turnover, i.e. those employees who are more likely to discontinue their jobs.

• Better Employee Satisfaction with Personalized Experiences: These tools can also help organizations in providing its employees a personalized experience. For example, most of the time, an applicant has to wait for a long time before they can hear anything from the organization. HR automation tools can make sure they provide personalized updates to the candidates about the status of their application. They can also be used to create personalized onboarding experiences. According to a study more than two-third of the organizations are actively using AI in their onboarding process. HR chatbots are also an excellent example of how AI is helping employees to get answers to their unique problems.

Benefits of HR Automation with AI

While using AI in HR automation has a lot of advantages it has its own sets of challenges. The HR department is more than excited to implement AI in order to automate different routine tasks, however when it comes to tasks that involve handling sensitive data, or conducting over all performance evaluations, or monitoring employee activity, they are still not very comfortable. Some of the common disadvantages of using AI in HR automation are as follows:

• Data Security: When it comes to using sensitive information, organizations are hesitant to use AI. The HR department uses a lot of personal and financial information for their employees, therefore they need to be careful about how they will manage their data, and how they ensure its security and privacy. According to a report by SAP, there is a lack of any governance model when it comes to AI, more than 67% of the respondent companies said they did not have an AI governance model in place. It is important for businesses to design, develop and deploy AI in an ethical and responsible manner.

• Initial Resistance from Employees and HR Teams: As the use of these tools increases there is going to be an initial resistance from the employees. This can be because of various reasons, one of the reasons could be because of the fear of losing their job. This fear can create resistance among them as they are considering them to be threats to their job. Apart from this there are concerns about the AI being biased, since these are trained on data, if the data in itself is biased the AI tools can also reflect the same. In order to avoid this, responsibly managed AI tools need to have built-in bias checks which would identify and remove any existing biases.

• Risks of over-reliance: There is also a risk of over using these tools, in order to carry out different HR functions can make the result robotic in nature, devoid of the human touch. This makes the employees less engaged as they might feel they are conversing with a robot and not an actual person. The idea of using AI is to make these interactions as personalized as possible, so that the employees feel they are being heard. Especially in matters where compassion is required, having an AI bot can reduce it to mere numbers and data.

AI-Powered Automation in Key HR Functions

These AI-powered automation tools can be used in different areas of human resource management. HR automation use cases can be found in a wide range of HR functions, particularly the use of Generative AI has seen significant increase in the last few years. According to a BCG report, the use of Gen AI can increase productivity of the human resource department by up to 30%. Below mentioned are some of the ways in which these AI-powered automation tools can be used, they are as follows:

• Recruitment and Talent Acquisition: One of the most important parts of any HR department is to attract and hire the right talent. The recruitment process has various stages starting off with sourcing candidates, screening their resumes, conducting interviews and finally selecting them. Effective recruitment strategy can help in deciding the long term success of the organization. AI powered HR automation tools can help organizations in all these stages to ensure a smooth recruitment process.

  Starting with candidate sourcing, tools like Zeko Hunt can scan through job portals, social media platforms, and other online sources to identify potential candidates. These tools are also capable of analyzing these candidates as per the requirements of the organization and understand which one of them better fits the role.

• Screening and Interviews: Once the candidates start applying for the jobs it becomes a hectic process to go through all the resumes. These AI tools have certain algorithms that are capable of processing thousands of these resumes within minutes and then they can also be used to rank them on the basis of different points like education, skills they possess, etc. Tools like Zeko Screen can be used to filter out the candidates so that the HR professionals can focus on the more promising candidates, thereby reducing the chances of any human error or bias.

These tools can also be used to schedule interviews with the potential candidates, while updating the candidates about the same with personalized messages. Zeko Interview is a popular tool that is used by HR professionals to conduct interviews using their AI virtual agent, Avya, who is capable of asking dynamic questions to the candidates on the basis of their resumes. It also analyses their answer on the basis of relevancy, context, technical expertise, fluency, and more.

• Employee Onboarding: The onboarding of an employee is very crucial as it sets the tone about the organization in the mind of new hires. AI driven HR automation tools have ensured that the onboarding process becomes smooth and hassle free for the HR department. These tools take care of the tedious documentation process, by collecting all the necessary documents and signatures from the new hires in an online manner. They also help in creating personalized online training for them which they can complete at their own pace. There are also various HR chatbots which are available 24/7 in order to answer various queries that the new hires might have. In all these ways HR automation tools ensure a seamless transition for the new hires.

• Performance Management: AI tools are also used in the area of performance management as they are capable of tracking various key performance indicators and help the management to take decisions on the basis of these metrics. This allows HR managers to stay up-to-date on what is happening, and collect insights into how employees are performing. On the basis of the data collected they can also identify any issues or gaps that need to be addressed.

  For example, a tool like Zeko Screen uses AI to screen through a large number of candidate resumes and select the ones that are most suitable. The HR manager simply needs to tell Zeko Screen the qualities or skills they are looking for in a candidate and on the basis of that it will simply filter out the ones that lack those skills, this makes the entire process transparent and data driven.

• Learning and Development: HR automation tools have also found their importance in the learning and development department of organizations. The organizations can improve the learning efficiency of the employees by offering personalized learning paths and recommendations. According to a study by Deloitte, personalized learning can increase employee engagement by 10%. These personalized learning paths ensure that the employees receive the knowledge that is most relevant to their jobs.

Future trends in HR Automation

When it comes to the future of HR automation tools, they can increase their effectiveness by using predictive analytics, enhanced AI capabilities, and the adoption of immersive technologies, like AR and VR. Using predictive analytics these tools are assisting organizations to plan their workforce, anticipate staffing requirements, forecast employee turnover and more importantly help them in making strategies to handle these situations. Enhanced AI capabilities are ensuring diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, by actively reducing any forms of biases in the recruitment process, so that organizations can create an inclusive workforce. Finally, coming to the adoption of immersive technologies like Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR), companies can revolutionize the training and development process. These technologies provide realistic simulations which can help the employees to apply their knowledge in a more practical manner.

Conclusion

The transformative potential of AI-powered HR automation is undeniable. They are not only making the HR processes efficient by automating repetitive work but also enhancing decision-making and creating personalized experiences for the employees. These tools are creating more efficient workforces, and by using these tools organizations can ensure that they remain competitive and future ready. According to a 2020 Everest Group research paper, the use of intelligent automation can give the organization an ROI of up to 200% or more.This goes to highlight the power of these HR automation tools and how it is something that every employer needs to implement to make their organization ready for the future of work.