RESOURCING HUMAN RESOURCE

Individual Report (CASE STUDY) – 15%

COURSEWORK : INDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENT (25%)

PUTTING THE HUMAN BACK IN HUMAN RESOURCES

ONE of the important functions of the human resource department is to identify and recruit the best people for the company, but this has never been an easy task.

There are occasions when the hired candidates don’t perform as expected.

As dealing with humans has its challenges, technology is here to help. In this case, technology like artificial intelligence (AI), for example, can play a role in making the recruitment process better.

Pulsifi CEO and co-founder Jay Huang feels it’s time for companies to adopt emerging technologies such as AI into their HR system.

Pulsifi is an AI and HR startup that provides a talent acquisition solution that recommends people based on the ideal mix of hard skills and soft traits for specific roles.

“Hiring the right people takes time and resources. To improve hiring, many companies focus on improving hiring metrics like speed of hire and cost of hire but tools and technology that can improve the efficiency of hiring processes are key,” says Huang.

Making the right hire is often more important than the speed or cost of hiring.

With the right hire, companies can experience increased productivity, happier customers and even higher revenue, according to past studies.

“Unfortunately, some companies end up compromising on the quality of hiring to hit the target of their speed and cost metrics.”

Worse still, a bad hire costs even more time and resources, and on top of hiring costs, additional time and resources are needed to replace the bad hire, and even repair damage done on the team or external parties.

“Studies have shown that replacing a bad hire could cost several times the cost of the hire.”

WEAKNESSES OF TRADITIONAL METHOD
There are two drawbacks with recruiting the traditional way. One is having not enough data. The other is having too much of it.

Firstly, the traditional method of evaluating people is too single dimensional, with a disproportionate emphasis on the curriculum vitae.

“If you ask any team leaders what traits differentiate their best team members, you will hear responses like teamwork, motivation to learn, grit, etc. But it is often impossible to assess these traits from the CV. How is one supposed to make the right hire without looking at the right data?,” asks Huang.

Secondly, when candidate evaluation goes beyond the CV, it is very challenging to evaluate people on a large scale. For one candidate, it already takes significant effort to understand the CV, carry out the interview and obtain other information.

“Imagine doing that for tens, hundreds or even thousands of candidates. Hiring managers are not built to process that amount of data,” he says.

TECH ROLE
Technology today can help companies collect and analyse more data more objectively, more consistently and definitely faster.

“AI can help us make better and faster decisions that we should have been able to make, such as making better hires faster,” says Huang.

Pulsifi’s predictive models can, from various data points, tell HR things about a person that the hirer (or even the person himself) might not know.

“These include the likely behaviour and attitude at work, or even his potential. Is he comfortable with change? Is he a good communicator? Can he be a good leader?”

Predictive models and machine learning with added AI and organisational psychology features can help companies manage recruitment.

Pulsifi’s technology analyses CVs, psychometric assessment results, social media, the web and other data sources to assess and predict these traits, with the traits said to be 80-90 plus per cent accurate.

This then creates a holistic profile of each person and assigns a fit score for the role to each person and thereby drives hiring, retention and development decisions.

Workplace happiness boils down to how a person sees his role in the company.

However, the purpose varies from person to person, and can only be discovered by truly understanding each person and what drives him.

WHY AI
AI will be mainstream in HR solutions over the next few years. HR has historically lagged in functions like marketing and incorporating latest technologies. Some think that this gap is 10-15 years, with AI already common in marketing solutions.

Pulsifi’s software as a service (SaaS) AI platform collects and analyses data on each candidate relating to experience, competencies, abilities, personality, interests and values; predicts likely attitudes and behaviour at work, and how much each candidate fits the specific role in the specific company via a score.

“Our talent management platform also supports use cases like teaming and succession planning,” says Huang.

Companies and organisations can unlock the potential and value of their employees to avoid staff turnover and retain top talent for an engaged and effective workforce.

AI puts the “human” back in “human resources”, rather than take it away as some see it.

“For many years, the HR function has been a process administrator, for example, making employees complete routine performance review forms, rather than facilitating constructive performance review conversations and discussing gaps and development plans.”

Instead of AI replacing HR professionals, AI helps HR professionals excel at their role by allowing them to focus on the more strategic side of things.

“Beyond helping us to understand each person at a deeper level, AI is able to customise everything from engagement to learning and development plans for each person, which in practice can turnout to be pretty unique for each person.”

In LinkedIn’s Global Recruiting Trends 2018 report, of the 9,000 recruiters and hiring managers from 39 countries surveyed, close to 60 per cent said that AI is most helpful in sourcing and screening candidates.

The same respondents felt that traditional interviews fail because they are not effective in assessing the interviewee’s soft skills and weaknesses, they get biased, they take too long, and interviewers actually sometimes do not know what questions to ask.

Pulsifi supports clients, such as Nestle in multiple countries, in selecting young talent such as management trainees and interns, among thousands of candidates.

However many HR professionals are hesitant in accepting the latest trend as they feel human touch is very crucial in understanding another human especially when it comes to hiring.

“Really understanding these candidates is important because on one hand, management trainees are groomed into leadership positions, but on the other hand, the candidates do not have much work experience to be judged by.

“On average, we have improved selection quality by 100 per cent and improved selection efficiency by 70 per cent for companies, and improved the overall experience for candidates.

“I am bullish that the gap for AI in HR solutions will be smaller, because technology maturity and user readiness have never been closer aligned.

“Having personally witnessed how AI has taken marketers and marketing to the next level, I am very very confident that AI will significantly benefit HR professionals and the HR industry as a whole.”

Source: New Straits Time, February 21,2019

Questions

1. Discuss critically how Pulsifi’s can add value in the effectiveness of HR department.

(30marks)

1. Discuss critically challenges that been faced by traditional method of recruiting and how can be these be managed besides AI.                                                                                                                          (30marks)

1. Discuss and critically analyze strategies could be used to reduce the anxiety and convince HR professionals to accept the latest trends such as AI in enhancing the HR industry.                                                                                                                                                                                    (40marks)

Marking Criteria