Workforce management has never been easier. Unfortunately, in recent years, with the advent of hybrid digital work models and the gig economy, things have become more complicated. Adding to these challenges, employee turnover is on the rise as more people continue to leave their jobs in search of higher pay, benefits and flexibility.
To address these challenges and enable smarter workforce management, organizations today are turning to artificial intelligence (AI). This is because the benefits that artificial intelligence can bring to the modern enterprise are enormous, justifying the investment. In fact, thanks to recent advances in AI technology, AI is now not only reducing the amount of manual labor but also actively hiring the modern workforce.
The role of artificial intelligence in modern workforce management
Over the past two years, organizations around the world have recognized the growing business need for digital technologies. Modern workers are no longer satisfied with the status quo. They are increasingly supporting accelerated digital transformation initiatives that enable them to work remotely and improve and empower employees.
The Gartner CIO and Technology Executive Survey 2022 also found that 48% of CEOs have already implemented artificial intelligence and machine learning (ML) solutions or plan to do so in the next 12 months.
Artificial intelligence plays an essential role in achieving these results. One of the major benefits of integrating AI into HR tools is that it helps automate a wide range of tasks and activities such as scheduling, budgeting, compliance, payroll, project and personnel development, and more.
AI also allows organizations to use employee data for a variety of purposes, from analysis to reporting and predicting future needs. A good example is using AI to match existing employee skills to potential ongoing projects.
Artificial intelligence plays an important role in employee engagement, especially when working remotely. Organizations can also use AI-powered data analytics to create customized hiring and training plans, provide real-time feedback, and support other HR processes.
Here are some of the ways AI is helping organizations overcome today's HR challenges.
1. Accurately determine resource needs
In any organization, managers and leaders rarely have the time to focus on creating accurate employee schedules, which creates many challenges. This leads to over- or under-assignment of tasks and activities, resulting in problems such as burnout, lost work time, or delays in completing tasks that can easily be avoided with careful planning.
Overcoming these challenges requires strategic planning that considers the manpower requirements for each task or activity. It's also important to evaluate the impact of unplanned time off on your schedule. It gets easier with an AI-powered workforce management solution.
These solutions can accurately analyze current resource needs and consider future needs to create truly flexible schedules. As a result, managers can create schedules that optimize resource allocation and usage, enabling employees to get work done faster and reduce stress.
2. Improve the use of skills
Employees often have different skills. To make the most of their employees' talents, managers need to ensure that their skills are used to best effect. However, traditional resource management methods often fail to properly leverage employee skills and time to get the job done.
Here, AI-powered predictive analytics solutions can enable managers to determine the most efficient allocation of resources across tasks and activities based on skills and time requirements. Combined with a professional services automation tool, managers can easily avoid situations such as miscalculating resource requirements based on guesswork and intuitive decisions.
3. Optimization of resource costs
It is vital for any organization to keep costs to a minimum in order to maximize the profitability of any project. Unfortunately, resources and time are the two most important cost components of any project. Therefore, managers must find a good balance between the availability of resources for the project and the length of time required for its completion. This requires a deep understanding of contracts, skills, availability and other factors.
A professional AI-powered service automation solution makes it easy to match resources to demand, meeting all the necessary cost and time criteria. As a result, managers can quickly assign the right resources at the right cost to projects to get work done on time and on budget. This ensures timely deliveries and saves the organization time and effort that would otherwise be wasted.
4. Increased labor productivity
Labor productivity is an important indicator for any organization, as it is directly related to project implementation and revenue. Organizations must therefore do everything possible to increase the overall level of productivity of their workforce. Employees with more flexible schedules and work assigned according to their preferences tend to be more productive.
AI-powered HR solutions can play a significant role in improving productivity. These solutions can prevent sudden schedule changes and account for skills and experience in assigning resources to tasks. All of these opportunities have a positive impact on employee morale and productivity levels, benefiting the organization in the long run.
5. Reduce employee turnover
Organizations can combine flexible planning with strategic workforce planning using AI-powered HR solutions. This allows employees to work as efficiently as possible, as well as according to their preferences. For example, managers can ensure that their employees work the shifts they need, ensure that each employee has enough free time, and so on.
This way, employees can change shifts or take time off as needed without compromising the organization's ability to complete its projects. Additionally, optimizing working hours with artificial intelligence provides more flexibility, allowing employees to be more engaged and satisfied with their work. As a result, they are less likely to leave the organization in search of a new job, resulting in lower employee turnover.
6. Conduct proper performance evaluation
AI can be very useful in various aspects of HR management beyond just employee scheduling. Because these solutions are powerful enough to analyze large amounts of data, they can be very useful for evaluating performance. These solutions provide accurate insights into employee performance, enabling managers to objectively evaluate their workforce.
As you know, bias is a major concern when it comes to evaluating employee performance, which makes AI-powered solutions the best option. A major benefit of using AI to evaluate performance is that these decisions can reduce subjectivity and eliminate bias. AI-powered solutions use real, rich data to provide insights into performance. Furthermore, since the entire process is powered by artificial intelligence, the review process is completely transparent and objective, leaving no room for personal biases from managers and executives.
Correct assessments are important. Employees want their evaluations to be based solely on their performance. When your efforts are objectively evaluated, employee morale improves significantly, leading to higher levels of engagement and satisfaction. Managers also benefit from a fair evaluation, which gives them a clearer picture of employee behavior and motivation.
7. Better payroll processing
Payroll is a very complex process. It's not just about completing and submitting programs on time. Several calculations are required and the accuracy of these calculations is critical. Any errors in payroll calculations can lead to employee dissatisfaction and even put your organization at risk of costly litigation.
With the help of AI, organizations can automate payroll calculations and ensure they are completely accurate. These solutions can use time and payroll data to quickly provide the payroll team with the correct payout data. Plus, by eliminating manual work, payroll can be processed faster, resulting in employees getting paid on time.
8. Ensure salary match
Salary matching is absolutely essential for any organization. Failure to comply with all applicable laws and regulations may result in liability of the organization for severe fines and litigation. At the same time, it creates a bad impression of the organization among its employees and customers, which can harm its business.
However, wage laws can be challenging for an unprepared organization. Laws exist at both the state and federal levels, and the organization is responsible for determining which of these laws apply to its particular business.
AI can do the hard work on behalf of the organization. AI-powered solutions can easily apply these laws to payroll and ensure that the necessary tax rates and other elements are calculated. This greatly simplifies payroll calculations.
9. Optimize the benefits of procurement operations
The recruitment process is one of the most important areas of HR management that can be improved by implementing AI-based solutions. It is known that hiring for any job takes a lot of effort and time. With AI-powered solutions, recruiters can reduce the time and effort required to quickly find suitable candidates.
These solutions are designed to quickly sort through multiple resumes and select the most suitable candidates based on specific criteria such as location, skills, and experience. Advanced AI-powered technologies, such as natural language processing, help improve accuracy. This leads to fewer errors in the hiring process, which means fewer problems for the HR team.
According to the IBM Global AI Adoption Index 2022, 35% of companies surveyed said they already use AI in their business. Additionally, 42% of companies are currently investigating the possibility of applying artificial intelligence to their business. The same report states that 30% of professionals worldwide are already using AI-powered automation tools to save time.
closure
All these statistics highlight the growing importance of AI-based tools in modern HR management. Using AI to strategically manage your workforce can increase overall efficiency and keep organizations on track.
Featured Image Rights: Photography by Kampus Production; pixels. Thank you!
How AI is helping overcome HR challenges first appeared on ReadWrite.