Where in HR is Safe?

With economic constraints and AI automation growing by the day, where is the safest place to be in HR? What remains uniquely human, judgement dense and insight-focused?

Let’s see…

While most people hate recorded interviews with a bot, AI is quickly being applied in recruiting by both recruiters and candidates. Vendors-aplenty come knocking with solutions to reduce the administrative side of the hiring process, leading to outsourcing Talent Acquisition and laying off skilled professionals. 

Once a person is hired, they need to be developed. Learning and Development functions continue to struggle to demonstrate positive ROI with the same rigor as non-HR functions. While strides have been made and more data is collected than ever, L&D hasn’t consistently moved away from “feel good” and attendance metrics. Until L&D can articulate their worth through the business’ vocabulary and existing metrics, they remain vulnerable, especially during tough economic times.

Then, a person must be engaged and retained. Technology’s ever-advancing ability to analyze trends and interpret data leads to some human vulnerability, but the sheer amount of data, its cleanliness and contextual application still requires a human being – at the very least, “in the loop.” Similar to TA and L&D, engagement tools promising AI nudges, real-time coaching or pre-drafted kudos put an artificial smile on bot-generated code. The same holds true for performance management and succession planning.

Employees also have to be paid. Automation remains lack luster in this area, and the last thing a company wants to do is mis-pay their staff. Step from Payroll into Total Rewards, and the importance and efficiency gains of analytics and competitor benchmarking with AI surface.

The day-to-day support offered by HR Service Centers tout self-service conversational bots to reduce the number of tickets humans must field.

Employee relations remains sensitive and confidential, but technology might promise fairness and speed.

After considering so many specialties, what about HRBPs? With so much automation around them, more can be asked of fewer people. Another less than safe position!

So, what is an HR professional to do? We struggled as a function to gain a seat at the table. Many still find our metrics soft. Some see us as the function that hires, pays and fires. The hall monitor, party planner and cost sucking, necessary evil.

If organizations were to try to take humans out of HR, then they are taking key talent out of the business. Yes, strong managers can serve the role of talent attractor, developer and performance coach – and they should! However, to enable an employee base to perform at their best and have a fighting chance on the increasingly competitive war for talent, a central strategy is needed.

Insulating one’s career used to be a question of becoming a specialist or generalist. Then, “T-shaped” careers became trendy. Certainly, depth and breadth both matter. However, what will matter more in the years to come is keeping tech-first businesses human-first organizations. People want to talk with people. Context, judgement, innovative problem solving and emotional intelligence are human. AI can try but it doesn’t have a beating heart like humans do.

Technological advances stand to touch nearly every facet of HR. Nowhere is “safe,” or even comfortably insulated for long. Where should one pursue an HR career then?

Are we all bound to become the outsourced HR consultant or software vendor with the next HR power-play? No. Do we all need to cling to the emotional heavyweight areas of the field – restructures, layoffs and ER? No. A bit more positively - Will AI finally free us to work exclusively on the strategic initiatives we dream of? Sorta…

Security in HR can be found in possessing the:

• Agility to think beyond the constraints of the present

• Craft a tech-supported future

• Listen and sense the needs of people and the business beyond what data-points tell you     

• Ability to strategically consult, mixing industry trends, business realities and targeted insights

As technology waves its shiny magic wand and economic pressures promote efficiencies, we must do what machines can’t and what people require – human interaction and ingenuity.

To the Point

HR must identify the work only it can do, applying technology where appropriate and scaling automation to preserve time for strategic, employee-facing work. That will keep humans in Human Resources. Then, organizations’ competitive advantage can remain what AI cannot do – enable humans to invent the future!

Image sources: Copilot & ChatGPT, prompted by the author