“The wave of analytics to help understand, manage and engage talent efficiently was a boon to the HR profession. HR analytics provided a different perspective to the leadership team to design strategies that helped people to feel valued in the organization. As a science, it has unearthed the true value of the talent employed and provided them with avenues to express themselves.” 

It also established a linkage between HR practices and business outcomes. This Data-driven decision-making used advanced level statistical and econometric techniques to identify how human capital inputs affect the performance of the organization. Let us take the instance of Google. Google’s HR department used performance ratings in conjunction with employee feedback and then compared it with productivity metrics to assess the impact of leadership styles on employee engagement and productivity. It has also used analytics to understand the leading indicators of a positive work environment. 

Moving closer to AI

Today we have moved a step further into Artificial Intelligence (AI) empowered analytics. It is not a thing of the future for the field of HR. Corporations have started to use AI, to understand and manage aspirations and career dreams of employees. However, a data-driven culture that uses information as a second language is a pre-requisite to the use of AI.

Many organizations have leveraged AI through their Human Resource Information Systems (HRIS). Today’s HRIS-based chatbots, for example, can automatically reply to employees’ benefits questions with answers tailored to the workforce. In the case of succession planning, for example, AI helps to rate people across numerous dimensions to determine who might be ready for promotions, in six months, a year or more. It can also suggest candidates to fill the succession pipelines. 

The quality of Data determines the quality of the information and pointers generated. Internal transactional Data from the company alone is not enough for meaningful results to be generated. Inputs from social media profiles should be used alongside this for AI empowered analytics.

Ventures of AI further than TM

AI has ventured in the vendor’s video recording platforms too. An emotion recognition based software Affectiva, helps gauge a candidate’s emotional intelligence and truthfulness during video interviews, by analyzing facial expressions, word choice, speech rate and vocal tones. 

Other emerging tools of AI have become more robust than mere Analytics to remove transactional tasks from recruiter’s plates, liberating them from cumbersome initial screening procedures to focus on interviewing and closing job offers. 

To get a step further, companies like Knack have enriched the talent management process through a combination of game design, computer graphics, behavioral science, computational neuroscience, software engineering, and artificial intelligence. 

The company uses games to identify skills and talents in their applicants. They are using it to broadly improve business-hiring processes by aiding both employers and employees to identify talent. The gaming generation today can now game their way to success, thanks to AI-powered tools. Alongside is the magic of virtual reality. Virtual reality technologies are credited with an immersive effect. Immersion of a virtual reality system implies that the user is surrounded by the virtual reality so that the barriers between the virtual world and the real are removed. This leads to greater attention and focusing. Immersion is a “psychological state”, in which the user is immersed in the virtual environment providing an active, engaged involvement in the learning process. These days’ organizations are experimenting with both face-to-face and virtual platforms for active and self-directed learning. 

Online social and virtual platforms help in the creation of a learning community. This community of learners, in turn, collaborate with each other, supporting peer learning in a meaningful way. Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and social media are driving learning in new ways in the current age. Also called as the third renaissance age, learners want a deep, rather than surface learning. 

As these cognitively engaged learners are creatively contributing to knowledge development, corporates face a daunting task to engage this talent. The space of work and learning has become seductive and rich. The learner has united like the Avengers against the evil of monotony and we know who the winner is! So watch out, you are tagged to learn!