HR's Unseen Partner

Charles Ashworth, Chief People Officer, COPPER

“We believe that while technology can cause apathy, immersive technology can drive empathy and fundamentally make the world more human. We believe that the heart of all we do is human. The way we make the world more human is by using technology to teach and inspire people to become the very best versions of themselves they always hoped to be.” - Morgan Mercer, Chief Executive Officer, Vantagepoint

Morgan Mercer is right! We can make the world more human by using technology to teach and inspire people to become their very best version. Too many times, technology has been seen as the evil nemesis of the HR community. So many professionals feel threatened with its introduction for fear they will be replaced. The good news is, you won’t. Not if you’re willing to see technology as your partner. Before long you won’t know how you lived without it!

Let’s take a look at a technology that's been around for almost 50 years —virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR). Virtual reality is constantly evolving and pushing the boundaries of what we understand about the world around us. Funny how we consider VR and AR to be “emerging technology” when they’ve been around so long. VR has come into the spotlight in the last 10 years, mostly from tech giants like Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google, Microsoft.. and the list goes on.. who all built VR and AR divisions. Most of us see VR as a gaming product, but in the last several years, there has been an emergence of this sort of technology in the workplace, and this is where HR and VR have become partners.

We are seeing companies like Highfidelity release virtual reality platforms designed to help distributed and remote teams work together by connecting them into communal worlds. Since being connected is our basic human need, this sort of technology is helping us stay connected in a disconnected, distributed workplace.

New tools indeed will be our partners in achieving business results —they do make HR more productive, and enable us to work smarter

Training retention is always a problem we are trying to solve. Vantage Point realized that most workplace sexual harassment training isn’t impactful, so they leveraged VR technology to create a safe, yet realistic, space for employees to practice responses to some of the most difficult situations. What I love about both of these companies solutions is that they understand the importance of people being connected —and find HR as a customer who desperately needs a partner. The good news here —early results from these technologies show they are achieving the outcomes we need.

The other technology we hear so much hype about is Artificial Intelligence (AI) —I hear my colleagues say “be prepared, AI is coming.” AI isn’t coming. AI is here! Pick your problem and I guarantee there’s likely to be an AI-infused HR application that can be applied as a solution. Just about every HR function now has an AI partner that can deliver great results: from sourcing ideal candidates to feedback and performance management.

On the talent acquisition front, one of our major problems is finding qualified candidates. The level of work that goes into peeling back layers and layers of data from someone’s LinkedIn profile or resume can now be seamlessly replaced with an AI tool that can produce detailed results within seconds. This means recruiters can spend the majority of their time on the relationship management (EQ) of their role and let the technology do the analysis/search (IQ) work. Companies like Findem are leading the way in candidate sourcing, resulting in a healthy pool of ideal candidates sourced at such a granular level that it would have taken a recruiter weeks to achieve what the tool can do in a matter of minutes.

One thing seems pretty certain. These new tools indeed will be our partners in achieving business results —they do make HR more productive, and enable us to work smarter.

So, instead of asking ourselves when we’re going to use this kind of technology, it’s time to ask ourselves why you don’t already have it in place?

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