Next week (hurray) I’m heading out to the HR Technology Conference & Exposition – one of my favorite annual events. I love the sessions, the demos, the Pitchfest, the Start-Up Pavilion, the Happy Hours, the “let’s catch up over lunch” meetings, and the parties. So many parties.
My favorite sort of content? I love hearing case studies from HR teams who have implemented work tech that has created efficiencies, enhanced productivity, provided insight to leaders to enhance decision making, and improved the employee (and HR!) experience.
This year, of course, there will be lots of chatter about AI as every other session appears to have “AI” in the title. Not that we haven’t been subjected to these conversations for a number of years. But in 2023, thanks to the ubiquitous use of generative AI tools by both HS students writing term papers and Mawmaw putting together posts for her “Sweet Southern Cookin” substack, the floodgates have opened.
I enjoy it. I do. But the reality is that for WAY more HR teams than not, worrying about AI when updating their work technology is pretty much bringing up the final spot (if at all) on their “wish list.” When embarking on a journey of optimizing their HR technology (and all the related processes and workflows), the sexy vision of implementing a conversational chat bot (that’s been fed lots of data and prompt engineered) is, for the majority of HR practitioners, a pipe dream.
Mid-sized HR teams (or solo HR practitioners!) need and want their HR technology and platforms to effectively manage some pretty basic things….and the vendors and pundits more often than not SEVERLEY underestimate what those things are!
What is still going on in LOTS of HR Departments?
- Completion of forms (often by hand) that then must be printed, signed, and FAXED (yes; faxed) back to the requesting party (often government, job placement agencies/entities, or health care providers). Remember during the early days of the pandemic how every HR person we knew had to make sure a designated person could still go to the office to pick up the mail and check the fax machine? This is why.
- Employees reporting hours worked via email, SMS, or phone call to a landline (sitting on the desk of Pam in Payroll). These are often non-exempt employees who are working in the field and reporting throughout the day to multiple job sites. They don’t have company-provided cell phones or tablets or laptops and, quite often, don’t even have a company e-mail. Geo Tagging? Sure; if they can log in (see next bullet point…)
- Lots of time helping non-tech savvy applicants, new hires and employees navigate digital portals because:
- They don’t have a personal email address so they either make one up or use their cousin’s email address to complete their “Onboarding” and then, of course, don’t receive any of the system-generated emails.
- They don’t have smart phones so the happy clappy exhortation from Sally Sue in HR to just “download the app – it’s so easy (!!!)” is useless.
- Even if they DO have both a personal email address and a smart phone, they cannot remember passwords or have lost access and therefore end up creating NEW email addresses for each new system (HRIS; medical carrier; EAP; 3rd party LOA Administrator) with which they are forced to register as they live their “employee experience.”
- Logging into, downloading, reviewing, processing changes, updating, and approving payment in MULTIPLE platforms for MULTIPLE entities (each benefit carrier – medical, dental, vision, 401k, Life/AD&D, etc. worker’s comp, etc.) on a monthly (at a minimum) basis. Hours and hours of HR administrative time working with carriers and brokers and platforms large and small.
So yeah – there’s cool AI stuff for HR. Micro-learning for employees with content created thanks to AI? Nifty. Talent intelligence products for hiring, development, internal mobility? Awesome. Customized and JIT employee communication 24/7 via a chatbot? Spectacular.
But I’m willing to bet that when we’re gathering for the #HRTechConf in 2033, Sally Sue in HR at SMB, Inc. will still be battling with the basics to keep the proverbial trains running on time.
And dreaming of the days when the robots really WILL take over and release her from the drudgery.
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