Ever feel like your HR department is lost in a jungle of software solutions? You’re not alone. In today’s dynamic business landscape, navigating the maze of HR technology can feel like an overwhelming task. But don’t fret! With a strategic mindset and expert guidance, organizations can turn this challenge into an opportunity for growth.

Let’s start by demystifying the problem. HR software sprawl – the proliferation of disparate software solutions within HR departments – is a common headache for organizations worldwide. From recruitment tools to performance management platforms, the array of options can be overwhelming. Recent studies reveal that organizations are managing anywhere from 15 to 50 different HR technologies, highlighting the magnitude of the challenge.

But what does this mean for businesses? Beyond the logistical nightmare of managing multiple systems, HR software sprawl carries significant costs and risks. Fragmented data, duplicated efforts, and underutilized software licenses are just the tip of the iceberg. Shockingly, research shows that a staggering 83% of HR leaders regret recent tech buying decisions, underscoring the urgency for a strategic overhaul.

Fortunately, there’s a solution. Organizations can tame the HR tech beast by adopting a strategic approach to tech investment. This entails streamlining technology stacks, meticulously evaluating vendor solutions, and aligning tech investments with organizational goals. But it doesn’t stop there – another crucial aspect is streamlining HR business practices.

This involves reevaluating processes, automating repetitive tasks, and empowering employees with self-service tools. AI-powered solutions like Rippling, Copilot, and Harriet can revolutionize HR operations by speeding up processes, providing new insights, and uncovering trends. By leveraging AI and corresponding tools, organizations can unlock unprecedented efficiency and effectiveness in HR management.

Amidst the tech revolution, it’s also crucial to recognize the value of the employee data your organization collects. People data is vital to understanding employee performance, engagement, and satisfaction. And by harnessing the power of people’s data, organizations can make data-driven decisions that drive business success and foster a culture of continuous improvement.

Equally important is that this data – much of it personally identifiable information (PII) – is securely stored and processed in accordance with local data protection legislation. Here network security specialists like ditno can help manage the potential security risks presented by systems using multiple applications and databases.

At OrgShakers, we’re passionate about empowering organizations to thrive in the digital era. Our wealth of experience and collaborative ethos empower HR leaders to make informed decisions and drive meaningful change. Whether it’s optimizing tech stacks, vetting vendor solutions, streamlining HR business practices, or leveraging AI and people data, we’re here to guide you every step of the way.

So, whilst the HR software sprawl may seem like an insurmountable challenge, it’s also an opportunity for innovation and growth. With a strategic mindset, the right partners, and cutting-edge technology, organizations can navigate the complexities of HR technology and emerge stronger than ever. With OrgShakers by your side, you can simplify HR, realign your practices, and embrace the future of HR technology with confidence.

To discuss this topic in further detail, please get in touch with me at sayid@orgshakers.com

Do you remember the metaverse?

In the latter half of 2022, the hype surrounding the metaverse had reached an all-time high. Employers and HR professionals were preparing to usher in this digital working world, and had begun to examine what considerations would have to be taken into account when working with an avatar of oneself.

However, as quickly as the metaverse came around, it seems to have faded. Disney and Microsoft are both closing their metaverse departments, and Tinder announced that it was abandoning its plans for virtual world dating.

This may be in part due to the fact that the concept of the metaverse started gaining traction in a time where we had only just emerged from global lockdown. With the pandemic making employers realise that remote working was a necessity, it was no wonder that Meta wanted to capitalize on this realisation by soft launching the metaverse on the back of it. After all, it was teed up to be the next step in the evolution of working from home.

But now, the world has started to fall back into old habits. We are seeing return to office mandates in all corners of the working world, and the hybrid model seems to be the ideal balance for most employers and employees.

This is all without mentioning the fact that AI has seemingly dethroned the metaverse as the latest technological craze, with 93% of employers expecting to use generative AI in the workplace in the next five years.

But why has AI stuck whilst the metaverse has waned?

The most obvious answer is that generative AI is relatively easy to use, and readily accessible for all. Leading voices in AI like ChatGPT have made it so that the creation of original(ish) content is at your fingertips, and it doesn’t cost anything. As long as employers are taking the time to invest in the learning and development of their staff around optimizing the use of generative AI, then they will be able to use it to optimize productivity by having AI absorb the more monotonous, admin-based tasks.

AI continues to make strides in the corporate world – at the end of last year, we were introduced to Harriet, an AI virtual assistant tailored to help HR professionals – but this does not mean that we have seen the end of the metaverse. After all, generative AI has been around for quite some time, and after years of development, has finally gained the capabilities needed for it to be used on such a large scale.

So maybe what we are seeing is not the metaverse fading away, but rather taking an educated step back whilst AI settles cozily into our everyday working lives. At this moment in time, there isn’t a clear need for virtual working worlds, but as we continue to digitalise, we may well see the metaverse come back into fashion in a few years’ time.

Until then, if you would like to discuss the training services we offer around the integration of generative AI into your workplace, please get in touch with us.

The evolution of AI and technology is more than just a trend – it is now driving a fundamental shift in the business landscape. Organizations aiming to stay competitive must embrace this transformation – starting with their People.

To begin with, organizations need to be redesigning their structures and processes – and working with someone who has expertise in this field is crucial for smooth and successful implementation.

This is where OrgShakers come in. We can help employers build a foundation to adapt and thrive in a tech-driven future by combining our expertise in leadership optimization, people strategy, and human capital risk management.

Focusing on strategic HR management in this way will see humans align harmoniously with the technology to unlock the full potential of this new opportunity. Our approach encompasses everything from talent acquisition to leadership development and is designed to foster a culture of innovation and adaptability.

And fostering this culture is not just about adopting new tools; it’s about strategic cultural and organizational transformation. This requires an approach which ensures that changes in structure and strategy are deeply rooted in the organization’s culture and values so to ignite a ripple effect that touches every corner of the company.

Embedding AI and new technologies requires a focus on learning and development opportunities surrounding this, as this training will mitigate any feelings of doubt or change fatigue that employees may be feeling when getting to grips with these new additions.

In 2024, staying ahead means embracing the evolution of AI and technology, with a focus on people and processes. Partnering with us offers organizations the expertise and support to navigate this transformative journey. By aligning HR strategies with technological advancements, companies can foster a resilient, innovative, and competitive workforce ready to excel in our hi-tech future.

If you would like to discuss our services in relation to AI and technology in more detail, please get in touch with me at sayid@orgshakers.com  

Have you met Harriet?

Co-founders Cecily Motley and David Buxton have recently created ‘Harriet’, an AI tool that is designed to automate human resources processes. It has been specifically created to be smoothly integrated into a company’s Slack channels so to provide certain HR-related services.

AI assistants are not necessarily new – especially if Siri, Alexa, and Cortana have something to say about it. But what sets Harriet apart from these helpers is that it is able to scan users’ data – as well as the organizations policies and best practices recommendations – to answer HR-related questions and complete admin-based tasks. For example, she can pull up a specific payslip or book time off on behalf of an employee.

What is even more interesting is that all messages to Harriet from employees are kept anonymous, and the tool does not store any employee data for training. If Harriet deems that it cannot sufficiently deal with a situation, it will loop in a human HR worker (if granted permission by the employee).

Virtual assistants are continuing to increase in popularity, especially in the working world. With generative AI becoming more and more common in the workplace, and many employers eager to incorporate it into their business practices, it is no surprise to see tools like Harriet begin to make their way into HR’s territory. And considering it is very likely that the next generation of workers (Generation Alpha) will expect to have a virtual assistant, ‘Harriet’ may be the beginning of the era of AI helpers.

However, before companies can unlock all the potential of an AI assistant, they first have to ensure that they are offering appropriate learning and development opportunities to their teams around AI so that its use can be effectively optimized.

Whilst it can seem relatively straightforward to interact with a chatbot and with generative AI tools such as ChatGPT, knowing how to create content that evades potential biases will help to generate the strongest materials.

If you would like to discuss how we can help with developing your company’s knowledge surrounding generative AI and virtual assistants, please get in touch with us.

The integration of biometric data in the workplace is not just a futuristic concept; it’s a present reality reshaping HR practices.

Employers are increasingly turning to biometrics for accurate attendance tracking and security, with technologies like facial recognition and fingerprint scanning becoming commonplace. This evolution promises unparalleled efficiency and precision in employee management, but raises critical questions about privacy and data security.

Consider the example of TechForward Inc., a leading tech company that implemented facial recognition for attendance. This move streamlined their attendance process, reducing manual errors and administrative work. Employees quickly adapted to this change, appreciating the added efficiency in their daily routines. TechForward’s experience highlights biometric technology’s potential to enhance operational efficiency.

However, the journey wasn’t without its challenges. Initially, there was apprehension among employees about privacy and data misuse. To address this, TechForward adopted a transparent approach, conducting informational sessions that explained the technology, its usage, and robust data security measures. They ensured compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation and other privacy regulations and made employee consent a cornerstone of their policy. This approach not only alleviated concerns but also fostered a culture of trust.

Another inspiring case is HealthCare Plus, a hospital that introduced fingerprint scanning to access its pharmaceutical department. This move significantly enhanced security, ensuring only authorized personnel could access sensitive areas and medications. It provided an additional layer of safety, which is crucial in healthcare settings.

Yet, the path to implementing biometrics has its ethical quandaries. A study by the HR Tech Council revealed that 78% of employees favoured efficiency and security, and 65% expressed privacy concerns. Balancing technology and ethics is, therefore, paramount. The key lies in creating a dialogue around these technologies, involving employees in the conversation, and continuously evolving policies to protect their rights.

As we forge into the future, it’s clear that biometrics will play a pivotal role in HR. However, this technological leap must be underpinned by a commitment to transparency, security, and respect for employee privacy. By navigating this path thoughtfully, HR can harness biometric technology’s power to create a workplace that’s efficient and secure but also respectful and empowering.

If you would like to discuss this topic in more detail, please get in touch with me at sayid@orgshakers.com

After discussing the world of HR consulting with Sarah Hamilton-Gill on her podcast, Leap Into HR Consulting, we moved onto looking at the four fundamental shifts that I predict we will be seeing in the near future that HR professionals need to be preparing themselves for.

The first shift was the Workforce Cliff, and the second is the relationship between humans and technology.

There has been a lot of scaremongering in the media about the effects that AI integration will have on jobs – the most notable statistic being that 300 million jobs are predicted to be lost in American and European markets, according to a report from Goldman Sachs.

However, if you dig a little deeper into this report, you discover that the authors predict that just 7% of current US employment will be fully substituted by AI, with 30% being unaffected, and 68% being complimented by its introduction.

If we take a stroll back through history, there have been many instances where workplace automation has actually resulted in either the creation of new roles or the technology becoming ‘co-workers’ with us.

A great example of technology as ‘co-workers’ is the introduction of the ATM (automated teller machines) in the US in the late 1960s. While the initial objective was to replace bank tellers and reduce the real estate needed for bank branches, the graph below highlights how, in fact, the opposite happened:

As the number of ATMs increased, so did the number of branches being opened, and the number of bank tellers. The key to this relationship being successful was employees understanding how to work with this new technology in order to deliver greater efficiency and better customer service (e.g.: the ATMs handled the basic transactions freeing up the bank tellers to deliver higher-value customer services).

As organizations introduce AI into the workplace, HR will play a pivotal role supporting these new co-worker relationships. As Melissa Swift describes in her book Work Here Now, HR will be ‘couples counsellors’ for humans and technology, coaching employees on how to successfully interact with newly integrated tech in order to optimize its (and their) abilities.

As AI has the potential to become a disruptive force within organizations – changing their structures, workflows, and processes – HR will be responsible for ensuring these changes are implemented in a way which maintains employee morale and productivity, and which secures a pipeline of future talent through enhancing a company’s reputation.

By acting as a pillar of this newly found co-existence with expanding technology, HR professionals will demonstrate how AI tools can help employees become their best selves. This will happen through nudging them to learn new behaviors, correct old habits, enhance key skills, and free up their time for more meaningful work as it can perform the more admin-based tasks.

As we continue to watch AI integration in the workplace take shape, it is important for HR to get ahead of this curve and be proactive when it comes to managing the impacts of this new technological age. If you would like to discuss how OrgShakers can help you do this, please get in touch with me at david@orgshakers.com

David Fairhurst is the Founder of OrgShakers. He is widely considered to be one of the world’s leading HR practitioners and is a respected thought leader, business communicator, and government advisor.

Learning and development (L&D) opportunities are a vital ingredient for employers when it comes to attracting and retaining top talent. Research from the IMC confirms this, with 92% of job candidates using L&D opportunities as a deciding factor when considering job offers, as well as 52% of employees citing that they left a role due to a lack of personal and professional development opportunities.

One skillset that many workers are keen to learn is generative AI skills, with more than 50% of employees stating they were eager to acquire those skills, according to Randstad’s Workmonitor Pulse. However, only one in ten workers were offered any AI training in the last year.

Pair this with Access Partnership’s survey which found that an overwhelming 93% of employers expect to use generative AI in the workplace in five years, and what you begin to see is that employees want to learn to master AI, employers want to implement AI…but there is a significant lack of L&D training opportunities around AI.

In the past year, we have seen generative AI platforms like ChatGPT take the working world by storm – but the narrative surrounding its uses in the workplace have been inconsistent. While some view this technological change as something that will replace certain jobs altogether, others view it as a tool to be collaborated with [AS1] to improve and perfect the human skills that are paired with it.

In order to start getting the most out of AI and offering L&D opportunities that allow for this skill development, employers need to first get a good and clear understanding of what generative AI can do for their specific business and in what areas it should begin to be implemented. While this could be a very effective time-saving tool – freeing up time for employees to focus on more meaningful work – it doesn’t necessarily have to be used just for the sake of using it. Identifying its strengths and weaknesses will allow organizations to create a clear roadmap for navigating generative AI, unlocking its full potential.

But a key part of this journey is offering the appropriate training to employees on how to use these new tools. It can be daunting to attempt to use generative AI without having a proper understanding of it; if employers are able to provide the essential training, suddenly all the myths surrounding AI will begin fading away, along with that initial fear of misusing it. As an example, take a look at this infographic on how best to communicate your requests to ChatGPT in order to get your desired results:

As the tools at our disposal continue to expand, it is important for companies to keep in stride with this burgeoning toolkit and offer L&D opportunities that allow for the development of these new skills that are quickly becoming essential ones.

And it is of the utmost importance that these opportunities are made available to all workers; unconscious bias around age can perpetuate the idea that older workers are less tech-savvy and so will be given less opportunities to grow their technological skillset, but as proven by our recent article, this isn’t the case!

This holiday season, one of the best gifts you can give your team is the gift of nourishing their hunger for opportunities to learn and develop! Those employers who do will have the strongest talent as they venture into the year ahead. If you would like to discuss how we can help provide training and workshops around generative AI in your workplace, please get in touch with me at andy@orgshakers.com

For this month’s reading recommendation, we picked up a copy of Thorsten Heilig and Ilhan Scheer’s new book, Decision Intelligence: Transform Your Team and Organization with AI-Driven Decision-Making.

Thorsten is the Co-Founder and CEO of Paretos, a company with access to cutting-edge AI technologies that use Decision Intelligence to equip organizations to independently tackle complex challenges and gain a significant competitive advantage without needing any prior knowledge on data science.

Co-author Ilhan is a Managing Director at Accenture, a global professional services company with leading capabilities in digital, cloud, and security.

Together, they have authored a book which offers a practical and comprehensible guide for professionals who are navigating the decision-making landscape. Thorsten and Ilhan expertly explore the intersection of behavioral science, data science, and technological innovation and present the latest technologies and methodologies that are shaping these dynamic fields, highlighting how they can play vital roles when making business decisions.

As AI continues to become increasingly popular as a business tool, this book perfectly captures just how instrumental data and AI are in making informed future decisions by harmonizing human and business considerations across its five key points of coverage:

• An exploration into the inner workings of AI models, and how to optimize these to tackle business challenges and unlock novel opportunities.
• A business-centric introduction to decision intelligence, exploring why traditional decision-making strategies have become obsolete and how to transition effectively into decision-intelligence.
• The evolutionary journey of Decision Intelligence, tracing its roots from analytics to modern techniques like process mining and robotic process automation.
• An examination of decision intelligence at an organizational level, encompassing agile transformation, transparent organizational culture, and the pivotal role of psychological safety in facilitating innovative decision-making within modern companies.  
• An overview of why – and where – AI still needs human expertise and how to incorporate this topic into daily planning and decision making.

In the age of working smart, organizations who are able to effectively integrate AI into the fabric of their company are the ones who are going to be able to best optimize its use. As the corporate world becomes increasingly digital, this book is a great way of keeping in stride with these sweeping technological changes.

To grab a copy of Decision Intelligence, head over here if you’re in the US and here if you’re in the UK.

And if you would like to discuss how we can help shape your HR strategy to seize the opportunities presented by AI technologies, please get in touch with us!

A recent survey commissioned by SnapLogic found that almost half of employees believed that generative AI had the potential to save them a full day’s worth of work per week.

Of those who were already using AI, 67% reported saving one-to-five hours of work on a weekly basis. However, despite this enthusiasm for generative AI, the survey also found that over a third of respondents were not currently using AI in their work – with a correlation being discovered that the larger the company, the less likely employees were to be using artificial intelligence.

The survey goes on to highlight one of the biggest challenges facing AI in the modern workplace – the huge skills gap between employees understanding how to use and optimize it.

Read the full piece here: https://bit.ly/47g4QQe