The more intelligent machines become, the more likely they’ll find their way into white-collar roles. For HR, this presents a leadership opportunity.
Experts predict that within the next 10 years, automation technology, artificial intelligence and machine learning will pervade nearly every industry, at every organisational level. Some fear displacement. Others insist that these technologies, rather than replacing white-collar workers, could relieve them of repetitive, manual tasks and free them to focus on the bigger picture. The human resources role is ripe for this kind of transformation. It is also uniquely positioned to lead the transition to workforce automation.
The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) named “accelerated automated HR” to its list of “9 HR Tech Trends for 2017.” Carolyn Broderick, senior HR information systems analyst for SHRM, takes a proactive view: “I believe HR has a role for planning in the future. Jobs will have to be redesigned. Certain jobs are going to be enriched if mundane tasks are going to be automated,” she said. “HR has to consider how humans and machines will work together.”
Jason Hite, Founder & Chief People Strategist at HR consultancy Daoine Centric, says there will be opportunities to automate many transactional tasks within HR. “There are a number of companies that have already integrated with Amazon Echo. As a manager, you can ask it, ‘How many people are on leave today?’ There’s no need to call HR about that anymore.” Trade publication Workforce cites the broader prediction that HR automation “will push HR in new directions, drastically transforming the department’s role within organizations”.
The thinking goes that HR talent will be put to better use focusing on activities that add value to the organization and improve the employee experience. A benefits expert, for example, can let a chat-bot field routine questions and instead turn to analysing the effectiveness of the company’s benefits packages. “The creative part of benefits will need to be handled by humans”, Broderick said. “‘What’s the message?’ ‘How do we tailor it and change it?’ and ‘How will people react?’ There should probably always be some kind of human touchpoint in HR communications. Every company is different, every culture is different. I don’t really see that being taken over by a computer.”
Finally, managing the organisational change brought about by automation is an area where HR can take the lead. Communication and training strategies will be vital to making the transition successfully. “Change management is going to be huge”, said Hite. “It’s going to force HR to look at the end user. I really think the break point will be when HR starts to understand how these advances will improve the lives of their stakeholders. If it only complicates the end user’s life even a little bit, that’ll be an issue.”
