AI has landed!
WHEREVER you turn, you cannot escape the fact that Artificial Intelligence (AI) has landed and is already starting to have an impact on organisations.
Peter Cheese, Chief Executive at CIPD stated:
“AI is accelerating fast and now is the time for organisations to learn, experiment and innovate, to understand both the potential benefits to people, job, and business outcomes, but also to understand the risks.”
It is important to think about the impact that AI may have on the wellbeing of your workforce.
The impact of COVID-19 and the current cost of living crisis has impacted employees, and there may now be added concern that the introduction of AI will result in employee redundancies.
Understandably employees will have concerns, it is widely accepted that change can either be viewed as positive or negative by employees. It’s like the well-known phrase, is the glass half empty or half full?! How we all react is different, especially when it comes to technology, some will embrace it whereas others become fearful of getting into trouble or avoiding it altogether.
Recent publicity and headlines have warned about the potential for cheating, destruction of jobs and even human extinction. Therefore, it has never been such an important time to think about how your organisation will react to the introduction of AI as this will be crucial for employee engagement.
So how do we ensure that AI becomes a useful tool in the workplace rather than something to be feared by employees?
Some top tips would be:
· Have the conversation, involve your people, and make them part of the journey
· Check employees understanding of AI in the organisation. Make sure that they are aware that AI is a tool to aid judgement not to replace human intelligence or decision making!
· Advertise where AI will be used to benefit the organisation
· Be clear about the implementation of AI in the organisation – what it will and will not be used for
· Increase awareness and encourage experimentation and trails with AI
· Encourage curiosity and shared learning on AI, encourage forums to promote active discussion and myth busting
· Keep up to date with AI developments and how this may impact your organisation
· Explain the positive impacts such as focusing on added value functions, efficiency and productivity against the risks that it presents (ethical and safe usage)
How is your organisation reacting to AI?
Ask yourself, can your processes become leaner, smarter and faster in areas such as attraction, selection, induction, and onboarding? Have you started to think about the wider implementation around training, policies, reward, performance management and wellbeing. Can ‘Chatboxes’ be used as a first step rather than having a one-to-one conversation or will this take away the personal touch? If so, how can this be addressed?
It could be that you find out how AI is being used by HR professionals in ways ranging from hiring processes to eliminating mundane tasks that allow for better time management.
Most organisations rely on their policies and procedures to provide a foundation for individuals to refer to. Therefore, creating an AI policy is essential to ensure that employees:
• Understand the organisations usage and why you may require AI
• Know can AI be used in roles/departments within the organisation
• Stay compliant with obligations and requirements
• Know how AI can benefit your organisation
Remember….knowledge is power, so providing an outline to employees which provides an understanding and set the boundaries from the outset about how to manage possible risks around data privacy and security would be helpful for employees.
If your organisation needs help with creating an AI policy or engaging employees with AI, Ena-HR and Training can support you, contact us at www.ena-hr.co.uk
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