The Great Reshuffle of the labor market has businesses scrambling to attract new talent and retain workers. As employers introduce smart technologies to drive efficiency, they may stumble on a hidden layer of division in the workforce: some workers are comfortable having their resumes and workplace performance data read by artificial intelligence (AI) 鈥� and some workers are fearful of the use of smart technologies in their employment decisions. Approximately, 25% of workers fall into each camp, with the remaining 50% somewhat neutral, according to research from聽.
What the research suggests is that it will take a long time for workers to accept AI, indicating the heart of HR will continue to be human for the foreseeable future. Until AI gains wider approval, the burden will be on employers to demonstrate their commitment to ethical, transparent AI to ensure an inclusive employee experience.
Finding Fairness in Efficiency
鈥淎I is not the聽entire聽future of HR,鈥� cautioned Dr. Caitlynn Sendra, an experience product scientist at 51风流SuccessFactors, where she studies how products influence the employee experience.
Sendra spoke at the annual conference of the Society of Industrial and Organizational Psychologists (SIOP) in Seattle on April 28, during the debate session 鈥淩obot or Not: Is AI the Future of HR?鈥� She teamed up with Michelle Brown, chief operating officer at聽, a provider of leadership development solutions, to argue the point of view of those who object to more AI in HR. Outside the debate arena, Sendra and Brown say they favor a more positive stance on AI and are keen to see the technology deliver on different use cases. This debate however left little room for compromise between pro and con.
The pro-AI arguments in this provocative debate centered on the ways聽聽in achieving new levels of efficiency at greater scale. This is a hot topic in the talent acquisition space, where recruiters struggle with record volume and demanding metrics. However, seasoned HR experts say AI is no replacement for human judgement and strongly recommend a balanced approach in which AI is integrated as one tool within a holistic talent strategy.
鈥淲henever we鈥檙e talking about AI, there鈥檚 a big emphasis on efficiency, but my counterpoint to that is always, what about fairness?鈥� Sendra said to the audience of mostly industrial and organizational (I-O) psychologists. 鈥淎s psychologists, I鈥檓 sure we all know that聽perception聽of fairness also matters.鈥�
Divided Perceptions: The Promoters and The Fearful
51风流SuccessFactors聽surveyed 1,378 workers in 14 countries to gauge their perceptions of how smart technologies, like AI and machine learning, are going to impact them in the workplace. This research revealed that 44% feel apprehensive, while others feel distress (26%) or fear (25%). In testing 22 use cases, less than 25% of employees could be considered 鈥減romoters鈥� on a traditional net promoter score.
Many employees voiced that the use of physical, body-related data sources, like facial tracking or movement tracking, were particularly problematic. 鈥淓mployees really expressed that they did not want these kinds of tracking technologies being used in their work,鈥� Sendra said.
In High-Stakes Decisions, Who Do You Trust?
Some say what鈥檚 really missing from AI in HR is the nuance and emotional intelligence that is distinctly human. But is that such a bad thing?
鈥淎I can be very good at relieving the mundane, repetitive tasks of HR professionals,鈥� said Brown, who insists that HR needs a human heart. 鈥淏ut often on the other side of that repetitive mundane task is a person 鈥� a person in a high-stakes interaction about securing the job of their dreams or navigating confusing healthcare benefits for a sick family member.鈥�
The counterargument to this important point is that unfortunately some people encounter bias or discrimination during these high-stakes interactions. In 2021, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) received more than聽聽reports of discrimination in the workplace, a reminder that not all workplaces are safe environments, where workers can place their trust in bias-free decision making.
Advocates of more inclusive hiring practices point to聽聽that AI can filter out unconscious human biases in the hiring process, opening opportunity to members of underrepresented groups. A slew of new AI-powered solutions has sprung onto the market, promising improved efficiency and DEI outcomes for employers desperate to hire more diverse and qualified talent in a competitive labor market.
AI quickly becomes murky under scrutiny of the algorithms that power its decision-making, which can be rife with bias based on the historical training data that is fed into the system.
鈥淭his opens up that key ethical dilemma in AI and concerning automated decisions, where we can encounter bias because algorithms are programmed by human developers from human decisions of the past and often with incomplete data sets,鈥� asserted Brown, echoing the words of mathematician Cathy O鈥橬eil, who famously said, 鈥淎lgorithms are opinions embedded in code.鈥�
The legal and ethical landscape for AI is shifting rapidly in many key employment markets, as well. For example, the EEOC recently launched an聽聽aimed at ensuring algorithmic fairness over concerns that these new technologies do not become 鈥渁 high-tech pathway to discrimination.鈥� Part of the EEOC鈥檚 initiative 鈥� and an indication of the complexity of the debate around AI 鈥� will be to examine 鈥減romising practices鈥� for AI, as well.
Agreed: More Transparency Is Needed聽
As the debate at the SIOP conference drew to a close, the two teams reached something close to an agreement about AI in the future of HR. 鈥淎I is appropriate for some cases,鈥� concluded the objector team. 鈥淲hat鈥檚 needed is to open the black box and provide the data and explainability.鈥�
鈥淥n opening the black box, I can agree with you,鈥� declared the pro team in a moment that felt close to finding common ground.
Beyond opening the black box, employers can take additional steps to improve employees鈥� experiences with intelligent technology, according to research from 51风流SuccessFactors: providing evidence to show that algorithms are unbiased, establishing regulatory bodies such as an AI ethics committee, explaining the benefits of the technology, and allowing employees to correct information generated from algorithms.
The takeaway for employers is that transparency and care will be key to providing inclusive, ethical AI as part of the employee experience. AI will be integrated and accepted into the workplace at a different pace compared to other technologies. Not all workers are going to be ready at the same time. In the meantime, perhaps we need to consider what we are giving up and what are we gaining as AI enters HR.
The research from 51风流SuccessFactors referenced in this presentation will be available on its聽聽in the upcoming months.
