Generative artificial intelligence (AI) has great potential to support your HR employees. The hope is that it can streamline administrative tasks and free HR employees to focus on interpersonal connections and big-picture strategies.

The global management firm McKinsey & Company reports that AI can answer as many as 70% of routine HR questions. And the jobs site Indeed estimates that generative AI can augment 88% of skills in a typical HR role.

That hope extends to HR employees themselves. They show a willingness to embrace AI as a tool to enhance productivity and performance. According to Indeed, 72% of HR workers are optimistic about using generative AI.

But hope is just the beginning. Many organizations and employees are asking for specifics: How can generative AI augment HR’s roles and responsibilities right now?

Let’s examine concrete ways AI can enhance HR’s abilities in the following areas:

• Recruiting and hiring
• Onboarding
• Engagement and feedback
• Compliance

Recruiting and hiring

Generative AI can efficiently and effectively create job postings based on your parameters. It can also deliver communications to promote these openings across defined channels, like social media posts. It can even identify job sites and boards tailored to your desired roles.

Inc. magazine reports generative AI has given rise to engaging and interactive virtual assistants. AI assistants can provide candidates with information on the application and hiring process.

AI can also handle administrative tasks such as:

• Screening applicant resumes
• Responding to candidate questions
• Scheduling interviews
• Creating interview questions based on job duties, industry and organizational needs, and candidates’ skills and experiences

AI can recommend job postings based on an applicant’s search history, resume keywords, skills and work experience. AI can also save time and reduce frustration by connecting applicants to their desired work arrangements. For example, remote, hybrid and in-person job postings would only be sent to employees seeking those arrangements. It can do the same for salary, geographic location, travel requirements and other factors.

AI can then generate communications throughout the hiring process to keep candidates engaged and informed.

Onboarding

Onboarding is crucial to employee engagement and retention. According to the industry news site HR Dive, nearly 45% of employees regret their decision to accept a job within the first week. Employers have an average of 44 days to make a positive impression with lasting effects on employee satisfaction and turnover.

Generative AI can add vital touchpoints to employees’ early months by creating, scheduling and sending communications and education. It can schedule check-ins to ensure every employee receives regular contact. Doing so can increase accessibility and understanding of required paperwork, benefit offerings and company policies.

AI can also answer routine questions and highlight ways for new employees to connect with colleagues. Forbes magazine notes that AI can help create onboarding content. For example, HR can choose the tone of voice, benefits and cultural offerings, and educational and training resources. Then AI can save time and effort by generating these communications.

Engagement and feedback

Professional development drives long-term employee engagement and performance. AI can create surveys to capture employee ideas, concerns and wants. It can summarize the results of employee feedback and suggest strategies for responding to their most pressing issues.

HR can also ask generative AI to create training materials tailored to your company’s and employees’ needs. And AI can identify employees as candidates for internal mobility, reskilling and upskilling.

HR employees can use AI to create training resources on the technical and soft skills your organization wants. Examples of technical skills include coding, statistics, natural language processing, machine learning, writing and editing. Soft skills include emotional intelligence, self-awareness, active listening, interpersonal communication, microaggressions, critical thinking, ethics and creativity.

According to Cornell University, generative AI can generate learning objectives, lesson plans, sample problems, quizzes and real-life scenarios to put knowledge into practice.

AI can also provide immediate feedback on training. This effort increases engagement by reinforcing employee strengths and highlighting areas for improvement. According to Inc., generative AI solutions can improve employee engagement by up to 30%. AI can then recommend next steps and related materials to enhance employees’ continuing education.

Compliance

Labor laws and benefits regulations are complex and ever-evolving. You won’t want HR employees relying on AI to remain compliant. However, automating compliance tasks can improve accuracy and efficiency.

Inc. notes generative AI can track essential inputs such as employee hours, payroll taxes, paid and unpaid leave, benefits eligibility and retirement plan contributions. According to research from the business advisory firm PwC, 44% of organizations using AI said it improved their HR compliance.

Using AI to enhance HR

Implementing generative AI solutions to streamline administrative tasks gives your HR employees more time to focus on strategy, human connections and other high-value work.

For more information on applying generative AI to HR roles and responsibilities, talk to your benefits adviser. They can connect you to education and training to turn AI hopes into real-world results.