HR leaders are the rockstars of business – and AI is the backing band

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HR professionals understand that the world of work is constantly changing. They need to lead the way – and AI can help them be at the forefront, said Jannie Malan at the 2024 HR Indaba.

HR teams now have to do it all: manage a hybrid workforce, develop talent, engage employees, and personalise services and experiences while they’re at it. However, technology like AI is a powerful tool to help teams and leaders alike to focus on what matters, so they can be the rockstars they are.

“HR professionals are the rockstars of business – they just need a good backing band, and that’s where AI comes in,” said Jannie Malan, South Africa solution consulting lead for Workday. His session, held at the Sandton Convention Centre as part of a packed-to-the-rafters 2024 HR Indaba, entitled Ever-changing workforces: Move your people, forever forward, highlighted that HR’s complexity is constantly ramping up – and AI is perfect for handling that.

“AI has four power chords: it uses data that gives organisational insight, it helps you create connected moments that matter through personalisation, it fosters a skills-driven organisation, and it helps you become more efficient so you can be a true strategic partner,” he explained.
According to Jannie, Workday’s human capital management (HCM) platform, with its AI-infused capabilities, is helping empower HR professionals, or as he puts it, helping them “become better rockstars”. For example, with Workday Illuminate, users can interact with the Workday system by simply having a conversation with an AI-based bot, which will, in turn, continuously surface responses to queries. A user can then, if they require, ask the bot to put this information into a presentation and share it with the relevant stakeholders. All this takes a fraction of the time compared to a similar manual process.

Workday’s AI enables automation, such as creating policy documents that are summarised, personalised and translated. Or it can craft job descriptions and automatically extrapolate key requirements, then embed them into the HR process itself. The technology can also help create career growth plans.

HR and business leaders often struggle with not having enough time to spend with direct reports, but AI can do it for you by generating a profile of an individual so you can have a more informed discussion with them. Independent generative AI also has the capability to create pre-screening questions, schedule interviews with candidates, and perform outreach to passive leads to build a talent pool (it can even recommend the top candidates for new roles, if you want).

However, Jannie emphasised that intent is everything when it comes to AI. “As HR leaders, we must always ask ourselves: are we amplifying human potential? At the end of the day, a human still needs to make a decision. We can use technology like AI to positively impact society, and we must always consider who will benefit from it, as well as transparency and fairness, and what private data is being used,” he noted.

Jannie added that while there is plenty of hype and uncertainty around AI at the moment, it will be imperative for organisations and HR leaders to understand and harness this technology going forward.
“In the ’80s there was the synthesiser – people said that there was no way it would make good music, but it did and continues to do so. It’s a bit like AI – it’s not going anywhere and it’s here to stay. Organisations need to use this potent technology to stay competitive and leapfrog the competition – there is pressure to adopt it, but many organisations are exploring and even embracing it,” he concluded.

 

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