GenAI in transforming HR and employee enablement

Increasingly, GenAI has been deployed to enhance talent management and employee experience, and even offers analysis of candidates' resumes, thereby easing and expediting the manual recruitment process. In other examples, GenAI is capable of identifying people with high potential using digital values and is even powerful enough to conduct deep profiling prediction of candidates, along with skills matching for specific job roles and mapping future career paths and development for individuals.

From automating internal processes to customizing employee training, there appears to be no limit to the ways that GenAI could add value to HR tasks - for the most part. While the appropriate use of GenAI could drive innovation throughout the company with HR being the perfect role model for trailblazing this path, there are challenges however, fronting GenAI's deployment, which calls for added scrutiny and informed decision-making.

Not to replace, but to support

As GenAI is trained on either public or customized sources of data, its output is rendered based on the supplied information being processed and recombined in novel ways. For HR, this means that ensuring fairness and eliminating bias are key considerations for the model, with transparency and accountability as guardrails that need to be in place to prevent any loopholes for discrimination.

For example, when it comes to hiring, companies need to know if there is any bias in the preset algorithm when it is mapped against a pool of resumes received in the system. Bias can appear in the measure of an educational institution, job experience or a particular group of people, causing GenAI to have problems accurately capturing the different contexts and complexity of work groups.

It is imperative for organizations to be conscious of bias by steadfastly keeping to the hiring criteria and weightage, which are metrics that GenAI can pick up. Other driving forces, such as regulations and governance, confidentiality and security of data, and guidelines with valid reasoning, are critical when it comes to steering clear of biases and keeping GenAI to objective, responsible, and secure usage and harvesting of information.

At the rate that GenAI is progressing, there's no doubt that such biases will be addressed. But until that happens, GenAI will play a supporting role for its human counterparts.

New GenAI skills sets

Recruitment is only one half of the equation; the other half consists of talents' GenAI skill sets. The 2024 Work Trend Index released by Microsoft Corp. and LinkedIn revealed a significant increase in professionals adding AI skills to their profiles, while correspondingly, two-thirds of leaders admitted that they wouldn't hire someone without AI skills, as companies are creating pioneering roles, such as Head of AI, to redesign workflows with AI.

However, it is reported that only 39% of users have received AI training from their companies, and only 25% of companies are expected to offer it this year. This mismatch has led to professionals upskilling and reskilling on their own, with a 142x increase seen late last year among LinkedIn members who added AI skills like Copilot and ChatGPT to their profiles. There has also been a 160% increase in non-technical professionals using LinkedIn Learning courses to build their AI aptitude.

Source: Microsoft and LinkedIn release the 2024 Work Trend Index on the state of AI at work - Stories

For companies offering AI training, there's a constant need to create new curriculum or refresh existing content, as AI is a quickly evolving technology, and courses may become irrelevant with time.

This next-generation skill and talent shortage has also resulted in employees eyeing a career change. On the other hand, about 55% of leaders are reportedly concerned about not having sufficient talent to fill some of the roles in demand this year. Therefore, organizations that empower employees with AI and GenAI skills training will attract the best talent, while candidates who skill up will have an added advantage.

GenAI training at Orange Business

Orange Business has rolled out training for our employees with the aim of ensuring that 50% of our workforce is acculturated and trained on AI by the end of 2024 to prepare them for the jobs of tomorrow.

The acculturation or sensitization for these target employees is based on selected modules on data, AI and GenAI along with HR proactively communicating and pushing specific training - including Responsible and Ethical AI to ensure that all uses of data and AI are ethical - topics that are being followed closely based on current market trends. Among this specific training is the "Learn by Doing" approach, which enables experimentation of GenAI in one's job and experiencing the new opportunities that GenAI offers. This training took place at several locations at the end of May, including France, Egypt and Morocco, and was attended by more than 50 employees in job roles like marketing, developers (IT), UX designers, sales and operations. The feedback received from the training has been very positive.

Additionally, Data & AI learning development for experts involves reskilling/upskilling programs to train consultants and experts on GenAI through our Digital Services School. At the Orange Business executive level, the Lead by Example program offers strong sensitization for top management with specific GenAI training.

In the words of Orange Business Chief People Officer Laurent Alfils: "HR is the driving force in empowering our employees with GenAI, providing them with the skills they need to thrive and succeed in this new era."

To encourage more employees to familiarize themselves with GenAI, the Orange Innovation team developed and implemented an internal, multi-model (OpenAI, Mistral and Google) Orange GenAI toolbox late last year to support efficient and accurate document handling and information retrieval within Orange. It is securely integrated within the Orange document management systems and adheres to usage guidelines to maintain brand integrity and security compliance. The security and compliance policies in place ensure a secure environment for professional usage with strict data privacy protocols, as all document processing is confined within the secure Orange infrastructure.

As of 2 July 2024, there have been 2.4M requests since the tool's launch with 36k distinct Orange employee users globally. At Orange Business, about one-third of HR employees are already active users.

Conclusion

It's undeniable that HR's engagement with GenAI, or GenAI being a disruptive tool for HR, is set to accelerate even more in the years to come. As HR transforms itself as a business function that could lead the way in company-wide strategic transformation, its adoption of AI can be a best-role-model example for other groups within the organization on how to best engage this critical technology in forward-thinking approaches.

Additionally, GenAI is not just redefining the HR space in different disciplines/capabilities; it's also redefining the recruitment domain. The new job-market reality is that GenAI skills are now a hot commodity as one of the key hiring criteria for employers. An organization's sustainability is dependent on how well we encourage GenAI innovation and provide valuable training to foster more power users internally. GenAI is here to stay. The sooner we realize that, the sooner we can embrace GenaAI and use it to add significant value to our work and our lives and move forward at the pace needed to keep up with today's digital transformation.

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Nurrul Raudha is the Regional Head of HR for APAC in Orange Business. She drives organizational and employees' success in partnership with business leaders through strategic talent management, skills development and employee engagement. She is passionate about developing inclusive workplace and culture where every employee can grow and contribute their best. In her spare time, Nurrul enjoys chilling at home watching Netflix and doing home exercises.