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AI in HR: Creating Value With New Technology

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As artificial intelligence becomes more deeply embedded in everyday workflows, it is rapidly transforming the way businesses operate. For example, the recent rise of generative AI and data-driven insights provide an exciting glimpse into future possibilities. In fact, McKinsey estimates that AI could contribute an additional $13 trillion to the global economy by 2030. But what does this mean for AI in HR?

Many employers are eagerly embracing new AI-driven capabilities. And as the co-founder of an innovative HR tech platform, I’ve had a front-row seat in witnessing AI’s early impact.

But despite the enthusiasm, a central question remains: While navigating these uncharted waters, how can employers make sure AI has a meaningful, positive impact on their workforce as well as their business results? Here’s my perspective…

Moving From Hype to Measurable Value

In the HR tech sphere, many tools and service providers are racing to integrate AI into their platforms and processes — often to demonstrate tech prowess. But this, alone, doesn’t create business value.

That’s why problem-solving must be a top priority. Especially now, in this early adoption phase, it’s paramount for solutions to address the real needs of HR leaders, practitioners, managers, and employees.

If this is the goal, what truly matters? AI isn’t just about automation — it’s also about helping organizations save time, improve performance, enhance the employee experience, and provide actionable insights when and where they’re useful. In our world, this translates into feedback processes that are more responsive, managers who are more effective at coaching their teams, and employees who are more engaged and empowered to grow and perform their best.

Mapping AI to Employment Cycle Stages

To understand the tangible benefits of AI in HR, it’s helpful to look through the lens of the employee lifecycle. From talent acquisition to performance management, and from training to retention, AI is shaping each step in the employee journey. Let’s examine what that means for each stage:

1. Rethinking Talent Acquisition: Beyond the Resume

As the initial touchpoint in the employment cycle, hiring is pivotal in defining the employee experience. Traditional recruiting methods may be effective, but they often fall short in capturing the intricate nuances that determine a candidate’s fit for a particular role. This is where the transformative power of AI can propel employers beyond the limits of a conventional resume.

An excellent case is HireVue. This platform uses AI-driven predictive analytics to evaluate a candidate’s suitability based on numerous factors, including facial expressions and tone of voice during interviews. These innovative capabilities work hand-in-hand with recruiters to complement and enhance their human observations. This leads to a more comprehensive assessment that looks beyond surface-level qualifications and reduces unconscious bias.

How AI Adds Value

In a world where first impressions and gut feelings tend to drive decisions, AI adds a more objective layer of analysis. Plus, it helps “read between the lines” of a candidate’s responses for a more holistic, data-driven approach to talent acquisition.

As a result, employers can feel more confident they’re hiring people with personal attributes that fit their company culture and long-term objectives, as well as the right skills and experience.

But the true magic of AI lies in its potential to help decision-makers rethink their perceptions of candidates. Suitability indicators shift from qualifications, alone, to a nuanced combination of skills, culture fit, and long-term potential.

Ultimately, this promises to improve employee satisfaction, engagement, and retention by making it easier to find the strongest talent for each role, right from the start. However, AI can’t run on autopilot. For the best outcomes, employers and platform vendors will need to work together so they can avoid bias in AI algorithms while preserving the human touch that elevates the candidate experience.

2. Redefining Performance Metrics: Objective Evaluation

Performance assessment has long been a foundational HR function. But now, AI adds a new dimension to this process, reshaping how we track and evaluate employee contributions.

With AI algorithms, employers can extract insights that were once beyond reach. This means organizations can more quickly and accurately pinpoint high-potential talent, predict employee burnout, create a comprehensive analysis of any individual’s performance, and identify where they’re making the biggest impact.

How AI Adds Value

To illustrate how this works, consider the case of Fractl, a fast-paced digital marketing firm that relies on the WorkStory platform to drive employee pulse surveys, streamline performance reviews, and support continuous development for its fully distributed workforce.

What’s next? According to MIT Sloan, some organizations are taking this a step further by using AI to generate employee key performance indicators. These KPIs are carefully calibrated and dynamically adjusted to consider each employee’s past performance, while also considering their team’s objectives and their organization’s broader mission.

Although momentum is growing for AI-supported employee evaluation, several fundamental challenges remain. Employers need to foster workforce trust by ensuring their process is transparent and free from bias. As success stories become more widespread and best practices emerge, these barriers to adoption should diminish.

The shift to AI-enabled performance evaluation marks a pivotal moment in the evolution of HR practices. By providing more objective, dynamic, data-driven assessments, it’s possible to unlock new levels of employee potential and improve productivity, while significantly enhancing employee engagement and retention.

3. Empowering Growth: Tailored Learning Experiences

Continuous learning is vital in today’s fluid business environment. And AI is already transforming employee development from a formal one-size-fits-all experience to a personalized and highly adaptive journey.

For instance, imagine tailoring training modules and performance support resources to an individual’s organizational role, career aspirations, and learning patterns. With AI-enabled tools like Degreed, Coursera, EdCast, Docebo, and Cornerstone OnDemand, you can easily identify relevant skill gaps and deliver targeted learning, assessments, and coaching.

How AI Adds Value

These AI-powered platforms curate personalized learning paths, recommend relevant courses, and analyze individual learning behaviors, so employees can develop the knowledge and skills they need to thrive in their current roles. At the same time, they can prepare for future opportunities.

Organizations are rapidly embracing AI-based learning strategies because they see tremendous value in helping employees take charge of their professional growth while remaining aligned with existing business goals.

4. Fostering Retention: Finding the Pulse of Employee Engagement

Employee engagement is the lifeblood of every organization. With AI-based analytics tools, employers can gain deeper insight into subtle engagement indicators. By analyzing informal and formal feedback and communication patterns, organizations can better understand the strength and direction of workforce sentiment and proactively work to improve engagement.

How AI Adds Value

Organizations like KPMG are using an internal AI chatbot and predictive analytics to identify employees who are at risk of quitting, so they can intervene. And in 10-20% of cases, these interventions succeeded.

In this context, predictive analytics depends on historical data and AI algorithms to forecast future outcomes. For employee engagement, it can mean predicting which employees are more likely to leave based on their interactions, sentiments, and previous work patterns.

When the system identifies “at risk” employees, HR can take timely action to address underlying issues. For example, to resolve conflicts with a manager, a disaffected employee may respond to job restructuring, reassignment, coaching, or new development opportunities.

This proactive, personalized approach contrasts with traditional talent management methods that rely on periodic pulse surveys and subjective assessments, both of which may miss real-time fluctuations in employee sentiment.

Fusing AI and HR: Beyond Today’s Challenges

Integrating AI with HR is a journey filled with endless possibilities. But despite the benefits and buzz, HR professionals need to recognize the risks and ensure AI tools are used ethically and effectively.

This isn’t just about efficiency. It’s also about building a workplace that is more empathetic, empowered, and engaged.

In a few short years, AI-enabled HR tools will be ubiquitous. The burden of routine, repetitive tasks will fall more heavily on machines. At the same time, information will flow much more freely, giving business and HR professionals the ability to better understand their work environment, anticipate the need to adjust, and prepare for the road ahead.

As Harvard Business Review says, “These new capabilities remove barriers of expertise and time from the process of data preparation, insight discovery, and analysis and make it possible for ‘citizen data analysts’ to create insights and take actions that improve their businesses.”

We will learn and adapt. New jobs and industries will emerge that we haven’t even anticipated yet. In fact, The Institute for the Future predicts that most of the jobs that will exist in 2030 haven’t been invented yet — and many of those jobs will be created as a result of AI.

As employers move toward a world where AI is seamlessly integrated into HR processes, I think one guiding principle will determine the difference between failure and lasting success. When you’re trying to balance tech innovation with the human touch, ask yourself, “Will this truly help members of our workforce feel more connected, valued, and supported in their professional journey?” If so, you’re on the right track.

Worktech Can Work Better: Employers, What’s Your Plan?

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Over the years, worktech solutions of all types have repeatedly promised to transform the workplace. Still, employers aren’t so sure. In fact, it can feel like an impossible dream if your tech stack has ballooned into a jumble of loosely coupled platforms, applications, tools, and data.

Sound familiar? If so, it’s time to rethink how you tie together all the elements in your worktech ecosystem. But sorting through an alphabet soup of platforms — ATS, HCM/HRIS, ERP, CMS, TMS, LMS, LXP, and more — can be arduous.

Of course, that’s only the tip of the iceberg. You’ll also need to consider sub-level features that reach across systems. For example, is SSO fully deployed? Are you prepared to support enterprise-wide video or XR capabilities? Can you leverage APIs or SFTP for data sharing? And how will you demonstrate ROI to your CHRO?

The potential pitfalls are rampant, but employers don’t have a choice. To attract and retain high-quality people in today’s competitive talent market, a stellar employee experience is crucial. And the right worktech plays a central role in bringing that vision to life.

What’s Behind This Worktech Challenge?

Three factors:

1. An Overwhelming Array of Options

The landscape is massive. Thousands of HR tech solutions are available. The learning tech segment, alone, includes hundreds of platforms. And each system offers its own unique set of features.

For example, in the learning space, you can find platforms focused on content creation and curation, skills and competencies development, microlearning, training resource management, learning analytics, and much more. Similarly, among applicant tracking systems, features may include resume parsing, candidate screening, interview scheduling, job board integration, AI-based chatbots, and so on.

This barely scratches the surface of worktech functionality. Yet even more features are on the way, thanks to advances in generative AI, process automation, predictive analytics, and other machine learning-driven capabilities.

In other words, the options are overwhelming. And the landscape is becoming even more complex. Any organization could spend years trying to find clarity in the noise this saturated market generates.

2. A Disjointed Experience

Another challenge involves existing legacy infrastructures that result from ad-hoc purchasing decisions. Too many organizations suffer from a proliferation of systems, selected in silos, to address specific business needs over time.

What’s more, if decision-makers embrace the “sunk cost” fallacy, they’re likely to hold on to existing technology. But this only causes disjointed infrastructures to persist.

Highly cohesive digital experiences come from minimizing the need to toggle between technologies. Also, by combining data with actionable insights, you can ensure that system administrators don’t become full-time reporting specialists.

Every platform in your worktech stack needs to be flexible, so you can seamlessly integrate, share, and synchronize data. This ensures your ecosystem will scale and reduces disruptions in an otherwise harmonious employee experience.

3. Functional Silos

Talent, HR, and learning teams typically work in parallel, but not together. They don’t communicate or collaborate on the tools decision-makers invest in. This only compounds the proliferation of work tech tools and flawed sunk-cost logic.

The result? Perhaps your ATS doesn’t share data with your HRIS, so they don’t work together seamlessly. Your LMS may not sync with your LXP. Or your LXP may not share data with your HRIS. The potential disconnects grow with each incremental system you add.

Ultimately, you’ll find multiple dead ends, isolated data sets, and organizational blind spots. All these issues drain productivity. In fact, estimates say employees waste as much as five work weeks each year, just toggling between applications.

Obviously, this causes frustration for employees. It also harms platform engagement and adoption. Even worse, it contributes to employee dissatisfaction, disengagement, and even turnover.

So, What’s the Solution?

1. Take the Long View

As you choose platforms and vendors, let your long-term interests guide you. Look as far into the future as possible. Aligning worktech with your long-term strategy helps ensure it will support you well beyond the initial contract. Here are several “future-proofing” tips:

  • Be sure each platform and application is designed to integrate beyond its own proprietary products.
  • Select vendors with robust research and development resources. You should expect to see tangible examples of recent innovations. Evaluate each vendor’s recent product releases to understand how frequently and effectively the solution has improved over time.
  • Vendors may also help you look ahead by sharing a brief overview of their product roadmap. And if you both sign non-disclosure agreements, you can more freely discuss how well a vendor’s product strategy aligns with your organization’s objectives and expectations.
  • Don’t hesitate to ask specific questions about innovations of interest to you. For example, these days, generative AI, process automation, and other machine-learning capabilities are hot topics. Vendors who are ahead of the curve won’t hesitate to respond. Those who continuously adapt and innovate are far more likely to keep up when the next disruptive enabling technology or killer app enters the worktech space. The best vendors can demonstrate a consistent track record of advances and a clear vision for the future.

With so much at stake, you don’t want to leave these decisions to chance. If you don’t have sufficient expertise or bandwidth to develop a game plan or identify appropriate platforms, you may want to rely on an independent IT solutions architect or Consultant for insight and advice.

2. Pick the Best Worktech Providers

Speaking of vendor selection, choosing the right partners can be a bit of a minefield. You can find numerous suggestions and “top 10” lists for any flavor of HR platform. But keep in mind that each of those lists is based on the author’s point of view. Are your goals and their criteria aligned?

Ultimately, nothing beats conducting your own thorough research to learn about various platforms, understand each vendor’s use cases, and verify the results their customers have achieved.

No solution will be perfect. But some will be a better fit for your business. When engaging with a new vendor, I look for green flags like these:

  • The company has a clear mission and vision, with industry-leading partnerships and evidence of consistent, sustainable growth.
  • Sales representatives ask numerous intelligent questions about your specific needs.
  • You have access to a comprehensive demo or trial period, so you can test the platform.
  • They readily share user experience details – how they optimize UX and how this contributes to overall tech stack efficiency.

Ultimately, you’re looking for partners who will serve as an extension of your team and celebrate your wins. When they are invested in your success, everything else falls into place.

3. Focus on Open Platforms

Why does this matter? Open platforms are not just a work tech feature, they are the way forward. And they are proven. Many well-established enterprise tech stacks already depend on open systems. Atlassian, WordPress, and Zendesk are all examples of open platforms that support millions of businesses, globally.

The strength of open platforms comes from the flexibility of publicly available Application Programming Interfaces that make it easy for systems to exchange data. By leveraging APIs, your IT team and development partners can efficiently build desired functionality into your platforms, and continue to customize as your needs evolve.

Open Means Freedom to Explore Options

With an open platform, you aren’t limited to the functions, products, or partners defined by your chosen vendor. You have more latitude to experiment with various work technologies so you can configure the best solution for your business needs.

For example, at some point, you’ll probably want to build on the core capabilities in your LMS. Perhaps you want to offer a dedicated talent intelligence marketplace to improve internal mobility, or a coaching app for high-potential talent, or a just-in-time learning experience for frontline workers. Open systems make it possible to add these enhancements incrementally.

Closed Means More Complexity and Cost

On the other hand, a closed platform is just the opposite. Closed systems limit you to a predefined set of available data, features, developers, and partners. Any changes or additions require a skilled external developer or solutions integrator with access to proprietary knowledge and tools — and a budget to match.

All things considered, an open ecosystem makes sense for most organizations. This gives you the flexibility to decide for yourself which functionality works best for your workforce, along with the freedom to implement changes while preserving your core investment. You can prove and disprove the effectiveness of different platforms with relative ease because your technology foundation is integration-friendly.

The Result: Worktech That Works

Talent, HR, and Learning Working Together — Not Alongside

Your organization’s various “people” functions may already be collaborating. After all, most software buying cycles now involve stakeholders from HR, Learning, IT, the C-Suite, and others.

However, nothing is more valuable than ongoing visibility into related organizational functions, and direct communication with counterparts in those business areas. This helps you better understand others’ buying priorities. Plus, it helps you recognize where others’ teams, platforms, and efforts can be more fully aligned for more effective, cost-efficient operations, overall.

You may even discover that one team’s problem could be solved by another team’s platform.

For example, nearly every HR team is grappling with how to attract the talent they need in today’s tight labor market. Most organizations rely on relatively costly recruiting solutions to solve internal skills shortages. Still, many roles remain unfilled. Yet upskilling from within saves an estimated 72-90% over the cost of hiring new talent.

Now, think of this challenge from the perspective of a worktech ecosystem where platforms are integrated and working cohesively.

One solution could be to closely connect a talent intelligence marketplace with an employee upskilling platform. This lets you consolidate and mobilize valuable skills data, so you can efficiently identify which employees have desired proficiencies and which are strong upskilling candidates.

As a result, your organization could save time and money, while also improving business productivity and performance. Ultimately, this could move your organization forward in using skills as a strategic factor that improves workforce agility, innovation, and responsiveness.

Of course, this is only one example of the benefits that come from an open, integrated worktech game plan. Many more opportunities are getting attention from organizations these days. What workforce challenges are you ready to tackle with this approach?

11 Successful HR and Work Tech Trends to Adopt

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In recent years, we’ve seen an explosion in new and improved digital tools for HR and work activities. But with the landscape changing so rapidly, how can organizations decide which tech trends deserve serious attention and investment?

For useful advice, we asked HR and business leaders these questions:

What emerging HR or work tech trend is making the biggest impact on your organization? Why is this the case?

In response, we received excellent feedback from a variety of business professionals — from HR Directors to CEOs. And I’m sure you’ll agree as you skim this list, their recommendations make sense for employers everywhere:

  • Simplify Your Tech Stack to Enhance the Employee Experience
  • Enhance Recruitment Success With AI-Driven Hiring
  • Propel Real-Time Feedback With AI
  • Leverage People Analytics for Data-Driven HR Decisions
  • Automate Background Checks to Improve DEI
  • Boost Company Image With Employee Advocacy
  • Adopt AI to Transform HR Processes
  • Personalize the Hiring Experience With Video Interviews
  • Improve Compliance and Decision-Making With AI
  • Tap Into a PEO for Sophisticated HR Services
  • Streamline Repetitive HR Tasks With Automation

To learn more about how these tech trends are redefining organizations large and small, check the responses below…

11 Ways to Benefit From Top HR and Work Tech Trends

1. Simplify Your Tech Stack to Enhance the Employee Experience

One trend we’re tackling is the simplification of our tech stack to enable a seamless employee experience. As a result, we’re being more thoughtful about the systems we choose to enable key programs. Our goal is to offer an intuitive, natural employee journey from hire to retire. We also hope to benefit from improved data and integrations.

In conversations with other HR tech leaders, we’re finding many larger, established organizations that are also facing this issue. For some, shifting to a connected set of systems that matches a connected experience will be a multi-year process.

This can feel like fixing an airplane while in flight. Actually, it is. But when this is done in the right way, you’ll feel the net reward through improved employee productivity, reduced HR technology spending, and the opportunity to influence vendor roadmaps.

Tiffani Murray, Director, HR Tech Partners – Global Talent Organization, LinkedIn

2. Enhance Recruitment Success With AI-Driven Hiring

One of the most impactful HR tech trends our organization has adopted is AI-driven talent acquisition. With streamlined candidate screening and predictive analytics, we’ve reduced turnover rates and increased employee satisfaction.

Recently with the help of AI, we identified a top-notch senior developer that we subsequently hired. This led to a 20% increase in project completion rates and stellar client feedback. Going forward, we expect AI in recruitment to continue accelerating our company’s growth and success.

Vikas Kaushik, CEO, TechAhead

3. Propel Real-Time Feedback With AI

One HR tech trend that has made its way into our organization is an AI-backed app for real-time feedback. From helping us interact “anytime, anywhere,” to customized notifications that ensure we never miss feedback requested or received, this app is strengthening our organization’s feedback culture.

Its most powerful feature is an innovative feedback generator with a simple process that helps individuals produce, amend, and share feedback in less than 2 minutes. It also helps senders and receivers schedule and conduct private one-on-one interactions with end-to-end encryption.

We’re seeing numerous positive outcomes. For example, this ensures feedback focuses on competencies that align with our organization’s vision and values. Also, detailed reporting makes it easy for leaders to track team engagement while helping individuals understand how their contributions advance our feedback culture.

Manvika Jhala, Principal Consultant, Projects, NamanHR

4. Leverage People Analytics for Data-Driven HR Decisions

People analytics is a growing tech trend, and it’s making a notable impact on our organization. With timely access to relevant, useful data, we’re able to make better decisions about our employees. We can thoroughly analyze personnel performance from multiple angles, with insights we would have otherwise missed or misinterpreted.

For example, we used people analytics to make sure our pay structure is fair and equitable across various employee groups, regardless of an individual’s personal background. This has had a positive effect on overall employee morale because people feel their contributions are appreciated and compensated fairly.

Michael Alexis, CEO, teambuilding.com

5. Automate Background Checks to Improve DEI

As a company that provides background checks, automation helps us filter for specific candidate criteria, focus on unique company needs, and avoid bias in the process. This has helped us significantly level up our recruiting and hiring game. We now offer these services to companies that are striving to reach ambitious DEI goals.

Max Wesman, Chief Operating Officer, GoodHire

6. Boost Company Image With Employee Advocacy

Our employee advocacy program is making a big difference at our company. When our satisfied workers speak positively about us online, it elevates our company image.

For instance, when we had a job opening, we asked our people to share the job with their friends and colleagues online. This kind of outreach worked really well. As a result, we hired a great candidate who fit in with our company and immediately started contributing in a meaningful way.

This program also helps us get more customers. People looking to buy our products trust what our workers say about us more than what we say about ourselves. So the employee advocacy program isn’t just about hiring. It also helps our business grow in other ways.

Martin Potocki, CEO, Jobera

7. Adopt AI to Transform HR Processes

Although artificial intelligence is one of today’s hottest tech trends, some employers still aren’t sure what their adoption path should be. However, we are integrating artificial intelligence across multiple HR processes, from recruitment to employee engagement.

For instance, we’ve implemented an AI-powered recruitment tool that streamlines the hiring process. It automates tasks like resume screening and interview scheduling, which saves significant time and reduces bias in the candidate selection process.

This has improved our recruitment results and enhanced the candidate experience, as well. Also, in addition to improving HR operations, AI is helping us make better-informed decisions and improve business outcomes.

Madhurima Halder, Content Manager, Recruit CRM

8. Personalize the Hiring Experience With Video Interviews

Video interviewing is one of today’s biggest HR tech trends. It can provide a more personalized hiring experience that improves the applicant experience and helps employers extend their hiring reach in more inclusive ways.

For example, employers can use video tools to conduct non-traditional interviews with applicants who aren’t able to travel, or who speak languages that aren’t common in the employer’s geographic location.

With platforms that make it easier for skilled people to connect with potential employers, this opens up opportunities beyond traditional face-to-face interviews. It also ensures no candidates are left behind because of geographical or physical limitations.

Julia Kelly, Managing Partner, Rigits

9. Improve Compliance and Decision-Making With AI

Recent technological developments have altered nearly every facet of human resources, from sourcing to performance management. Artificial intelligence is now streamlining administrative duties like reviewing applications and setting up interviews. This not only benefits the company financially but also frees up HR personnel for more important, strategic tasks.

Employment law, health and safety regulations, and data privacy are just a few examples of HR’s responsibilities. By providing consistent, accurate record-keeping and reporting, automated HR processes can help ensure compliance with these critical requirements.

Also, with the help of data and analytics tools in automated solutions, HR professionals and business leaders can make better decisions. For instance, AI is helping HR teams more quickly and easily spot issues with employee absences and turnover.

Aleksandar Ginovski, Career Expert, Resume Expert and Product Manager, Enhancv

10. Tap Into a PEO for Sophisticated HR Services

As a startup executive since 2012, I’ve relied on Professional Employer Organizations (PEOs) as a fairly common fixture in my work life. These organizations make it possible for smaller companies to tap into core HR packages that include payroll, benefits negotiation, and a suite of other HR capabilities.

Working with a PEO is an easy decision if you don’t have sufficient resources or admin staff to deal with HR logistics and other technicalities. So, not surprisingly, the number of PEO providers and levels of service have grown significantly over the years.

In our company’s case, the HR apparatus is much more sophisticated than you would typically expect for a company of our size. This makes it possible for us to offer everyone more and better benefits.

Trevor Ewen, COO, QBench

11. Streamline Repetitive HR Tasks With Automation

Artificial intelligence is making a massive impact on the HR function. AI technology is redefining the human resources department, streamlining many of its work processes.

Today, HR leaders apply AI to a wide range of tasks, so they no longer manually manage functions like payroll, recruitment, onboarding, and performance management. It can help employers find the right talent, identify skill gaps, answer employee questions, analyze survey data, and more.

The most positive and profound impact of AI technology is the automation of repetitive, boring tasks. It saves manual HR labor, while simultaneously improving process efficiency and accuracy. This frees HR team members to focus on more strategic, creative tasks.

Although some organizations are quickly embracing HR automation, it may be more beneficial to adopt it incrementally over time, so teams can adjust and adapt to the change.

Saikat Ghosh, Associate Director of HR and Business, Technource

HR Enters the Metaverse. What Are the Pros and Cons?

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As technology continues to evolve, so does the way we connect and work with others. One of the newest advances in technology is the metaverse, a virtual world where users can interact with each other and with digital objects in a three-dimensional space. Because this immersive world has tremendous potential to transform the way we work, future-minded HR professionals are actively exploring its potential, and technology companies are helping them understand the possibilities.

Meta, Microsoft, Google, and Apple are just a few well-known innovators that are investing heavily in metaverse technology. Fortunately, these players and others are prioritizing workplace collaboration solutions. For example, Meta Horizon Workrooms and Microsoft Mesh VR technology are both designed to help teams collaborate in the same virtual room, regardless of an individual’s physical location.

The upside is significant for vendors developing business-related metaverse tools and technologies. In fact, the enterprise virtual reality market is expected to grow from $829 million in 2018 to $4.26 billion this year. So, it’s easy to see why Bill Gates says he is confident that work teams will soon shift from Zoom calls to Microsoft’s more advanced 3-D experience.

5 Ways HR Can Leverage the Metaverse

Because the metaverse makes it possible for employees to interact with each other and with digital objects in a virtual environment, the experience is more engaging and immersive than traditional video conferencing or messaging platforms. This offers HR a range of possibilities, from virtual recruitment and onboarding to team-building activities and training sessions. Let’s take a closer look at some of the most promising HR applications…

1. Workforce Inclusion

One of the strongest benefits of the metaverse is its ability to enable a more inclusive work environment. In the virtual world, employees can interact with each other regardless of their physical location. This makes it easier for remote workers to feel included and engaged. This, in turn, opens the door to a much more diverse and inclusive work culture, with better opportunities for collaboration and innovation.

2. Recruitment

Another potential HR application for the metaverse is virtual recruitment. With the ability to create a three-dimensional space, companies can create a virtual office or work environment that helps candidates experience what it’s like to work within their organization. For example, employers can offer virtual tours, interactive experiences, and the ability to interact directly with current employees. This means candidates will discover a more authentic, immersive recruitment process. As a result, employers are likely to attract higher-quality candidates and accelerate the talent acquisition process.

3. Onboarding

HR can also leverage the metaverse for virtual onboarding. Instead of a traditional one-dimensional orientation process, new hires can enter a virtual environment that simulates their new workspace and introduces them to their team and their role. For example, this could include virtual tours and interactive experiences, as well as the ability to ask questions and interact directly with colleagues. Because this onboarding approach is highly engaging and effective, it can help new hires more quickly understand and embrace the work culture, while accelerating time-to-competency and ultimately increasing employee retention.

4. Team-Building

The metaverse can also help transform the way organizations conduct team-building activities. With the ability to create an immersive virtual environment, HR professionals can create a range of interactive experiences that promote trust and teamwork. This can include virtual games, simulations, and challenges that require communication, collaboration, and group problem-solving. By offering far more engaging digital team-building exercises, organizations can continuously develop stronger, more effective teams.

5. Training

Training is another area where the metaverse can make a significant impact. By creating a virtual learning environment, HR professionals can deliver training simulations that develop employee skills and competencies in a more engaging, immersive way. This can include simulations of real-world scenarios that make it possible for employees to practice, test, and build knowledge and skills in a safe, controlled environment. It’s also a more convenient way for distributed employees to access training from a distance, rather than requiring them to travel to a central in-person facility. As a result, this approach can improve training efficiency and cost-effectiveness without compromising learning outcomes.

Concerns About HR in the Metaverse

Although the metaverse presents numerous opportunities, HR professionals must also consider potential challenges. For example:

1. Safety, Privacy, and Data Security

Employers must ensure the privacy and safety of employees who participate in the virtual world. This includes protecting sensitive information and preventing inappropriate behavior and harassment. HR professionals will need to anticipate potential behavioral and data management issues that can arise in a virtual world. They’ll also need to develop relevant procedures, policies, and guidelines to prevent these issues. In addition, they’ll need to provide ongoing communication and training to ensure that employees understand these expectations, as well as the consequences of any harmful actions.

2. Accessibility

Another concern focuses on the need for employers to ensure that virtual environments are accessible to all employees, regardless of their physical abilities. HR professionals will need to consider how virtual environments can be designed, deployed, and maintained to accommodate diverse needs over time. This can ensure that employers remain in compliance with standards that promote equal access and participation in the virtual world.

A Final Note on HR in the Metaverse

Clearly, the metaverse has tremendous potential to transform the way we work, connect, and collaborate with others. HR professionals are beginning to explore possible use cases, from virtual recruitment and onboarding to team-building activities and training sessions.

However, there are also potential issues and concerns employers cannot afford to ignore, including privacy and accessibility. These are complex issues that require careful consideration and technical expertise. But with a thoughtful approach, HR professionals can leverage the metaverse to create a more engaging and rewarding work environment that supports employee growth and development for all.