HR Strategy & Planning Excellence - March 2023

ChatGPT Accelerates The Path To B- But Not A+ In HR Tech Solutions

ChatGPT - A tool for accelerating innovation, but not a panacea

- Purbita Banerjee, Vice President of Product Management, Korn Ferry

8 Important Factors When Choosing HR Technologies

Insights from HR and business leaders

- Brett Farmiloe, CEO and CHRO, Terkel.io.

ChatGPT: The Secret To Helping HR Save Time And Reduce Stress

Transforming HRBP workflows with AI

- Courtney Ramsey, Keynote Speaker & Facilitator, Courtney Ramsey Speaks, LLC.

Top Picks 10 18 26 34

The Impact Of ChatGPT And Generative AI On The Future Of Contingent Workers

Risks and opportunities

- Sanjoe Jose, CEO and Co-Founder, Talview

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Balancing the Pros and Cons of ChatGPT and AI in HR

As we move forward into the next wave of automation at work, it’s important to consider how new artificial intelligence (AI) like ChatGPT can benefit HR departments, but beware of their potential drawbacks.

ChatGPT is a powerful tool that can help HR teams streamline their workflow and improve their productivity. Increasingly, HR teams are turning to generative AI to compose summaries of virtual interviews and gain insights into candidates’ skills, experience, and potential. However, there are some potential drawbacks to using ChatGPT and other AI technology in HR. One concern is that these tools may lead to a loss of human touch and empathy in HR interactions, which could negatively impact employee morale and engagement. Additionally, there is a risk that AI algorithms may unintentionally perpetuate biases or discriminatory practices, which could lead to legal and ethical issues for HR departments.

The March edition of HR Strategy & Planning Excellence includes informative articles that focus on the potential impact of new AI technology like ChatGPT on the human capital industry and provides valuable information for HR professionals looking to leverage AI to improve their work.

Dave Ulrich (Rensis Likert Professor of Business at the Ross School, University of Michigan) outlines in his article, What Will ChatGPT Mean For Human Capability?, that while the potential for AI—in this case ChatGPT—is great, it may

be useful but not sufficient for HR’s future advantage.

In Korn Ferry Digital’s Purbita Banerjee’s article, ChatGPT Accelerates The Path To B- But Not A+ In HR Tech Solutions, she shares ways to take full advantage of the innovative leaps ChatGPT may enable and also about the warning flags flying around ChatGPT.

From maintaining employee autonomy to discovering how new tech will integrate with your existing HR tech stack, 8 leaders shares valuable insights in Brett Farmiloe’s (Terkel.io) article, 8 Important Factors When Choosing HR Technologies.

Courtney Ramsey’s article, ChatGPT: The Secret To Helping HR Save Time And Reduce Stress, suggests three ways to use ChatGPT to create scripts for difficult conversation topics, create an outline for a presentation, and build relationships with top talent from LinkedIn.

In brief, this edition of the magazine provides valuable insights and guidance on how to leverage AI to improve HR practices while avoiding potential pitfalls.

We hope you find the articles in this issue informative and helpful and, as always, we welcome your valuable feedback and suggestions.

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What Will ChatGPT Mean For Human Capability?

Exploring the potential and limitations of AI in HR

By Dave Ulrich, Rensis Likert Professor, Ross School of Business

Almost all my friends and colleagues are awed by ChatGPT and its ability to compose essays about nearly any topic. ChatGPT is a leading example of how AI will change our world. Its advancement is like moving from encyclopedia Britannica to Wikipedia, from long-hand math to calculators, and from maps to GPS guidance systems.

ChatGPT has great potential for preparing documents of all types.  So I tested it with a simple question: What is the future of HR? Here is the 200-word answer, generated within seconds:

It is difficult to predict the exact future of HR with certainty, but it is likely that the role of HR will continue to evolve and become increasingly important as organizations place a greater emphasis on people and culture. Some potential developments that could shape the future of HR include:

● Greater use of technology: HR technology, such as applicant tracking systems and HR information systems, is expected to become more prevalent and sophisticated.

● Increased focus on diversity and inclusion: Companies are likely to place a greater emphasis on creating diverse and inclusive workplaces, and HR will play a key role in this effort.

● More strategic role: HR is expected to take on a more strategic role within organizations, working closely with business leaders to align

HR practices with business objectives and drive organizational performance.

● Emphasis on employee experience: HR is likely to focus more on creating positive employee experiences, including through the use of employee engagement and satisfaction surveys and by implementing programs and initiatives that support employee well-being.

● Talent management: As the competition for top talent continues to heat up, HR will play a critical role in attracting, retaining, and developing top performers.

Very impressive. Like a tailored Wikipedia and an advanced Google search, this essay offers an astute and able overview of the future HR agenda. Using ChatGPT could be useful for almost any written document provided by HR: policies, training manuals, communications, speeches, presentations, social media, letters to employees, and so forth. However, relying only on this technology has four limitations (at least).

1. Emphasizes the Past More Than the Future

AI relies on existing information on the Internet. It sources and communicates that information in conversational language so that answers sound reliable and relevant. It can reconfigure words into patterns that synthesize what has been and is today.

But it does not have the ability to create what can be tomorrow. If compared to a GPS map system, AI is like how a GPS can give you a route to get where you are going but is less able to help you define where you want to go.

2. Conveys a Standard More Than Guidance

The insights from the essays of ChatGPT could quickly become an accepted standard for how to think about an HR agenda. In organizations today, a baseline of HR benchmarks often becomes accepted as generally used and even can become best practices. However, success comes less from benchmarking and copying others and more from differentiating and being the thought leader or first mover in a field. ChatGPT can synthesize what others have done but cannot offer guidance about what your company should uniquely do.

3. Generates Generic More Than Specific Responses

AI–generated answers are often more generic than specific. The answers to the HR query above

(technology, diversity and inclusion [DI], strategic role, employee experience, talent management) are very helpful categories to explore HR’s future. But the ultimate future of HR is likely in the specific insights. Insights provide theories that explain why things happen so that they can be replicated, research to test those ideas with both quantitative and qualitative data, and solutions that are tailored to a specific situation. The generic essays from AI may not offer specific insights related to a specific circumstance.

4. Provides Thought Synthesis More Than Thought Leadership

Thought leadership creates the future more than builds on the past, discovers new opportunities rather than repackaging traditional actions, provides expertise based on research more than personal opinion, identifies and explores questions that do not have readily packaged answers, and continually learns by sharing and debating ideas. Organizations need thought leaders who don’t repackage what others have done but imagine what can be done. Relying on AI may encourage intellectual laziness where the

machine “thinks” by recasting previous work rather than creating new ideas.

So while the potential for AI—in this case ChatGPT— is great (and will likely be used for college essays, internet searches, and baseline HR work), it may be useful but not sufficient for HR’s future advantage.

The HR future answer above by ChatGPT is a great baseline, but if I (or many others) were asked the question, “What is the future of HR?” I would add:

● HR’s future is not about HR but about creating value in the marketplace with key stakeholders. HR activities (like technology, DI, and employee experience) should be linked to the value they create for others.

● HR’s future requires an integrated framework to organize all the disparate HR practices and tools. We have seen the evolution of HR from personnel (administrative work); to HR practices (array of HR tools); to human capital (focus on employee experience); to human capability, which includes HR tools and talent (human capital); and then also adds leadership and organization to the framework. Within this human capability framework are specific initiatives for HR, all of which can be aligned to stakeholder value.

● HR’s future will require an ability to select which of the myriad of HR initiatives deliver value to a specific organizational setting. We call this organization guidance and want to move beyond generic ideas to specific recommendations that deliver value. Prioritizing HR investments can increasingly be done through rigorous AI/NLP research that links HR investments to stakeholder value through analytics that determine the right choices.

● HR’s future will lead to increased disclosure and dialogue with: investors to show them how human capability is material to their debt or equity investments and thus reduce their risk; customers to show them which human capabilities will ensure they have the right products and services; boards to help them deliver on financial and strategic goals; senior

executives to help the crafting and delivery of strategic reinvention; employees to help them have a positive experience.

● HR’s future lies in the creative genius of individuals who observe challenges not yet discussed and explore unique solutions to those challenges.

● Add your own?

(See our work on these future agendas with insights based on new ideas, rigorous research, and improved practice: www.g3humancapability.com.)

Envisioning the potential of new AI technology like ChatGTP to improve our personal and professional lives is exciting. But helping business and HR leaders integrate this technology with thought leadership so that they will craft human capabilities (talent, leadership, organization, and HR) that deliver value to all stakeholders is more exciting.

The best is yet ahead.

Dave Ulrich is the Rensis Likert Professor of Business at the Ross School, University of Michigan, and the Co-Founder & Principal at the RBL Group He has helped generate award-winning databases that assess alignment between external business conditions, strategies, organization capabilities, HR practices, HR competencies, and customer and investor results. Would you like to comment?

ChatGPT Accelerates The Path To B- But Not A+ In HR Tech Solutions

ChatGPT - A tool for accelerating innovation, but not a panacea

By Purbita Banerjee, Korn Ferry Digital

Immediatelyafter its introduction last Nov. 30, ChatGPT became the fastest-growing app in history, with 13 million daily users and 100 million total users within two months.

In early March, OpenAI launched ChatGPT API at low cost, putting ChatGPT in the hands of the world’s developers and unleashing a ferocious wave of innovation.

What does ChatGPT mean for those of us creating HR tech solutions?  On one hand, ChatGPT is revolutionary: it compels the entire HR tech industry to reengineer every product in our field. Within the space of a few months, our entire world has changed.

On the other hand, ChatGPT is merely evolutionary: it accelerates our path to a stolid B. That was the grade ChatGPT earned when various academic and professional organizations tested it on such things as law school exams, MBA tests, and school essay contests

ChatGPT’s grades went up a bit when GPT-4 was released on March 14. The media played the results

as job-destroying – “ChatGPT Just Passed the Bar Exam!” – but for HR tech vendors, even a B isn’t good enough. Our customers demand and deserve A+ solutions.

There are so many warning flags flying around ChatGPT that extreme caution is the smartest strategy (I note some of those warning flags later in this article)

ChatGPT is a Shiny New Hammer. Let’s Go Find Some Nails!

ChatGPT is neither the one source of truth and the answer to all problems, nor so terrible and creepy that we shouldn’t use it. It’s a wonderful new tool, but it doesn’t change the problems we solve. It simply accelerates the quest we’re already on to solve HR problems, making our work faster, easier, and more effective.

This moment reminds me of a similar feeling when AI first became available to data scientists. There was the euphoric belief that AI in the hands of data scientists would almost magically solve all the HR challenges our customers faced.

Experience soon taught us that AI/data science is a great new addition to our toolkit, not a panacea. To yield optimum benefits it needs to be used in conjunction with other valuable tools. And above all, the results require a validation cycle centered on human enhancement and curation.

Same with ChatGPT. As I tell my hair-on-fire team members: use it, but validate it constantly.

Example: ChatGPT Gets Us to B-Minus Faster in Success Profiles

Many HR tech solutions help organizational designers by creating Success Profiles to define the technical and soft skills, behaviors, and attributes required for success in a particular role. Success Profiles are detailed descriptions of competencies a candidate or employee must possess to excel in their job and contribute to organizational success.

Until now, creating quality Success Profiles took a long time. Subject matter experts spent weeks doing job analysis, competency modeling, and extensive interviewing. The introduction of pre-ChatGPT AI allowed us to increase the granularity, harvesting specific skills, job descriptions, and responsibility statements to sharpen the focus of Success Profiles.

With ChatGPT, we can ask, “What’s a good Success Profile representation of this job?” The chatbot replies: “Here are the responsibilities, here are the skills

needed.” The result is a B- Success Profile in a jiffy. But our customers demand A+ solutions.

We take ChatGPT’s B- solution and train it on our proprietary IP framework to look for certain additional data, then apply individual and crowdsourced human expertise, reinvention, curation, and validation. The result is an A+ Success Profile that can be trusted in organizational design and career navigation.

ChatGPT cuts the time it takes to go from zero to B-, but it can’t take HR tech solutions to A+ by itself.

About those warning flags noted above:

● Even before the arrival of ChatGPT, AI posed bias risks in HR. For example, a January 2022 class action lawsuit in Illinois against an online video interview platform used in Talent Assessment and Recruiting seeks damages for job applicants because the platform allegedly violated government regulation by collecting applicants’ “biometric information” in recorded video interviews without obtaining consent. The company used AI to assess “cognitive ability, personality traits, emotional intelligence, and social aptitude” to provide an “employability score.”

● Fearful of exposing sensitive personal, financial, or competitive data; violating government regulations; or incorporating misinformation and bias, several of the world’s largest financial

institutions, many technology and telecommunications firms, Amazon, and Wal-Mart, among other organizations, have already banned the widespread use of ChatGPT.

● Generative AI chatbots like ChatGPT have a tendency to simply make things up to satisfy human requests.

● In what could be the first of many similar moves, Apple blocked the distribution of an app that uses ChatGPT to compose emails because it feared exposing users – especially children – to inappropriate content generated from ChatGPT’s training databases.

● From personal experience, I can say ChatGPT has a swollen head. I asked it to comment on ChatGPT becoming the most viral app in history, and here, in part, is what it said:

“[ChatGPT is] a whirlwind that swept across the digital landscape like a wildfire fueled by the wind. Like a seed that sprouts in fertile soil, ChatGPT’s innovative algorithms took root in the minds of users, germinating into a powerful force that spread with astonishing speed. Its virtual tendrils reached out, connecting people from every corner of the globe in a web of conversation, information, and inspiration. As ChatGPT’s popularity grew, it became a raging river, a torrent of communication that surged through the digital realm, carrying with it the hopes, dreams, and aspirations of millions. Its currents flowed strong and swift, carving out new channels of connectivity and forging a path toward a brighter, more interconnected future. ChatGPT ignited the passions of people everywhere, inspiring them to reach out, connect, and explore the vast expanse of the digital landscape.”

ChatGPT and every AI iteration that succeeds it won’t change the big problems we’re trying to solve for our customers and clients. Arriving at the B- starting gate just got faster, but that only raises customer expectations for what A+ solutions will do for them.

Since the excitement began in late 2022, I’ve encouraged my team to explore ways to take full advantage of the innovative leaps ChatGPT may enable, but also keep a sharp eye on the risks.

We are in the HR business, which means we are in the people business. Our fundamental purpose is to help people, not harm them.

Purbita Banerjee is the Vice President of Product Management of Korn Ferry’s Digital Platform and Learning Solutions. She manages Korn Ferry’s learning portfolio including sales, customer service, project management, digital leadership and front-line leadership training. She has successfully launched innovative solutions in the Talent management space, solving critical challenges faced by Fortune 1000 companies. Purbita Banerjee is the Vice President of Product Management of Korn Ferry’s Digital Platform and Learning Solutions. She manages Korn Ferry’s learning portfolio including sales, customer service, project management, digital leadership and front-line leadership training.

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The arrival of ChatGPT feels to many like the dawn of a new age, the opening of an exciting new frontier. Using ChatGPT for the first time was like signing onto the World Wide Web for the first time, multiple people have written. I understand that feeling, but in HR technology it’s important we proceed thoughtfully and cautiously.

I tell my team: “Take advantage of innovation, but keep your eye on the risks”

Building HR Strategies Like You Use Your GPS

The 7 steps of operation

By Yoram Solomon, Ph.D. Innovation Culture Institute™ LLC

TheHuman Resources function, and the Human Resources department, like any other department or business unit within the company, is a business. It’s a business that deals with the most essential part of the company: its people. It’s not a profit center for the company, at least not a direct one. At the same time, not all departments in the company generate profits. But just like any other business, it must have a strategy. Otherwise, it will be pulled in multiple directions and be unproductive and ineffective.

In this article, I will adapt my strategy development process to the Human Resources department. The analogy I use when facilitating strategy workshops is the GPS navigation system in your car, and I will start by defining strategy.

What Is Strategy?

Whenever I open a strategy development workshop, I ask, “what is strategy?” You might be amazed by the answers I got. One day I decided to use an analogy. It was a hot August day in Texas, and at 8 am, we started a workshop that would end around 4 pm. “It’s a hot day,” I said, “who here parked their car in the shade?” Most people raised their hands, looking around, feeling confident that they now understood what strategy was. It’s understanding that parking their cars in the shade will make their car cooler and that they acted on it. I asked them to lower their hands and asked, “ Who parked their car where the shade will

be at 4 pm?” This was the moment they understood what strategy was.

Furthermore, a strategy should not be presented as a complex, 40-page document that will be put on a shelf and never referenced. Many companies develop such documents mainly to satisfy the needs of their supervisors. A strategy should be a simple, one-page document that will easily be remembered and acted upon daily, guiding employees when making decisions.

Who Is Responsible for Developing the HR Strategy?

Often people think that the top executives, whether the CEO, the executive leadership team, or the VP of HR (or CHRO), are responsible for developing the HR strategy. I firmly believe that the responsibility lies with those affected by the strategy, those responsible for executing it, and those who can provide input to it (the latter are only responsible for giving such input rather than taking part in developing the strategy). When people take part in developing the strategy, they also “own it.” But when creating the HR strategy, it must be done in a way that harmonizes it with the overall company strategy and values.

To develop a strategy, I chose another analogy: the GPS (Global Positioning System) navigation system in your car, through the 7 steps of operation.

Step 1: Acquiring Satellites / Know Where You Are

Many people don’t know that their navigation system is not ready to work or accept a destination before knowing where it is. The same applies to strategy. You cannot build a meaningful strategy if you don’t clearly identify where you are right now. The old SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) analysis could work well as long as you are true to yourself. The “where are we?” step is not the place for bragging. It’s the place to identify the areas your strategy must focus on. Look for the areas you want to improve on. Identify the metrics you should use and use them to measure the current state of those variables. One example would be identifying that the employee turnover is currently 40% annually.

Step 2: Enter Destination / Where Do You Want to Be?

First, you will have to choose an appropriate time horizon. If it is too short, you will miss strategic opportunities to make real change. If too long, there might be too many changes that would force constant strategy course corrections. Different industries would have different dynamics that would suggest different time horizons. Start with a strategic intent statement

(or a mission statement, or goals, or objectives. The name doesn’t matter) that is clear enough, specific enough, and meaningful (the test for a meaningful strategic intent statement is to take any component of it and see if the opposite makes sense. If the opposite is absurd, then the original is meaningless).  An essential part of determining a valid destination is considering how the environment would change within the time horizon (“where the sun will be at 4 PM”). You can use forecasting processes such as scenario planning of business war games. You may ask questions such as: what will the industry do? How will artificial intelligence (AI) affect the workplace? How will remote work preferences change? Will we go to a 4-day work week? etc. You must be pragmatic in this step and identify what you know as a fact versus what is an assumption. Your destination should use the same metrics you used to determine where you are. For example, a strategic intent could be to reduce employee turnover from 40% annually to 20% within 3 years.

Step 3: Route Preferences / Define Boundary Constraints

When you navigate, you must provide the navigation system with boundary rules that will guide how it

calculates the route. For example, you may want to choose the fastest route, the shortest route, the toll-free route, the scenic route, etc. When developing a strategy, you have boundary constraints too, and this is the time to identify them. Are the budget constraints? Timing constraints? When creating an HR strategy, you might be constrained by legal issues; how fast can we recruit people? How quickly can we train new employees? Any layoff restrictions? Etc.

Step 4: Calculating a Route / Strategy Rules

Once the navigation system knows where it is, where you want to go, and your route preferences, it will calculate the most optimal route. Unfortunately, when it comes to strategy development, this step is manual and possibly the most critical step in developing a solid strategy. A 2001 Harvard Business Review article by

of rules: how-to rules, boundary rules (addressed in step 3), priority rules, timing rules, and exit rules. You may encounter no path from where you are to where you want to go within the defined boundaries. If that happens, you may have to revisit your destination or boundary rules (you can’t change where you are). Do that judiciously. Alternatively, you may find that there is more than one way to get to your destination while complying with the boundary rules. Choose the most optimal one. Those rules should be simple and occupy a few sentences on a single sheet of paper. They will guide decisions within the time horizon defined for the strategy.

Step 5: Drive / Execute the Strategy

Kathleen Eisenhardt and Donald Sull

described a great framework to use, Strategy as Simple Rules

They propose to have 2-5 simple rules out of 5 types

You never drive blindly. You observe any unexpected and unplanned changes. You are in the driver’s seat, and the ultimate decision on driving and turning is yours. You may force a detour because conditions warrant it. The same applies to strategy. Everyone in the organization must follow the strategy. It is easier if

they took part in creating it and thus feel ownership of it and a vested interest in its success. Keep everyone informed. Monitor the metrics you have set. You don’t want to find only at the last moment that you are significantly off course. If something unexpected happens that has the potential to affect your ability to reach the destination, raise a red flag.

Step 6: Recalculating / Detour

Every now and then, unexpected road conditions would force your navigation system to have to recalculate an alternate route. It recalculates the route only from the current location to the same destination. The detour could be forced by you, the driver, if you decide to deviate from the driving instructions. The same happens with strategy. Whether it is a conscious decision or, often, driven by external events, you must recalculate the new route. It might happen because the planned strategy is not yielding the expected interim results. Maybe even because one of your basic assumptions turned out to be wrong. You must first take inventory of where you are now. You may need to challenge whether your destination is still the same, and you may have to revisit your boundary constraints. When a significant detour such as this happens, you must go back to step 1, although you will typically only be looking to modify the different steps rather than start

from scratch. Don’t force a detour just because you can. Changing the strategy too often reduces the value of having a strategy, to begin with.

Step 7: How Do You Know That You Got There?

It’s easy for the navigation system. Within a short distance from the destination, the system will declare “arrived at destination” and stop giving directions. With strategy, if you define your destination well (for example, reaching a turnover rate of 20% or better), you can measure it. Ensure that your measurement is accurate and that you are not relying on a temporary result. Typically, it would be best to revisit the strategy every period of time, say 3 to 5 times within the time horizon. If your strategy time horizon is 5 years, it will make sense to revisit it every year. If your time horizon is 3 months, it will make sense to review it every month. Do it to ensure your destination is still where you want to go, that the boundary restrictions are still in effect and haven’t changed, and that the strategy rules are still effective in getting you to the destination. As you get close to the destination (say 70-80% there), you may want to start thinking about your next destination and modify the strategy. Unlike the navigation system, you continue to drive after reaching the interim destination.

Examples:

Define

Consider things such as what the industry will do. How will artificial intelligence (AI) affect the workplace?

How will remote work preferences change? Will we go to a 4-day work week?

3 Route preferences

When determining the strategy rules, define the lines that cannot be crossed (and maybe lines that must be crossed). Typical boundaries may include budget, time, and other limitations.

HR boundaries might include realistic expectations of the time it takes to recruit and train new employees, legal issues associated with changing work conditions or layoffs, etc.

4 Calculate route

Define a simple set of 2-5 strategy rules. They should take no more than a single page. Those can be how-to rules, boundary rules (already defined in step 3), priority, timing, or exit rules. If you cannot specify a path from where you are to where you need to be while complying with the boundary constraints, you must revisit the destination and boundary restrictions you defined judiciously. These simple rules will guide decision-making until reaching the destination.

5 Follow directions

Follow the strategy rules, but don’t do it blindly. Look out for unexpected events that might affect your ability to reach the destination as planned. Keep everyone involved and updated. Monitor the destination metrics to notice if you are getting too far off course. You might have to take a detour if that happens.

Changing environmental conditions or not getting the interim results you were looking for could force you to make a change. You must return to step 1 (where are we now?) and revisit all the other steps. It might not be as hard as starting from scratch. The detour could be intentional, but try not to change the strategy arbitrarily too often, or it will lose its value.

You will know you had reached your destination when the values of the metrics you used to define the destination are reached sustainably. During the strategy execution, you should have checkpoints 3-5 times, depending on the strategy time horizon. When you are about 70-80% done, it is recommended to start thinking about the next destination and modify the strategy accordingly.

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Yoram Solomon, Ph.D., MBA, LLB, is the author of The Book of Trust®, host of The Trust Show podcast, founder of the Innovation Culture Institute™ LLC, and facilitator of the Trust Habits™ workshop. He is a regular speaker at SHRM events.

6 Recalculating / Detour

7 You have arrived

8 Important Factors When Choosing HR Technologies

Insights from HR and business leaders

By Brett Farmiloe, Terkel.io

Frommaintaining employee autonomy to discovering how new tech will integrate with your existing HR tech stack, here are eight answers to the question, “What are the most important factors to HR leaders when evaluating and choosing HR technologies to add to their tech stack?”

● Self-Service Options for Employees

● Cost Savings

● Easy Implementation

● Technology Should Augment but Never Replace Humans

● Understand Your Company’s Level of Productivity

● Prioritize “Must-Haves” First

● Focus on End Users’ Needs

● Do Thorough Research

Self-Service Options for Employees

We look for an integrated solution when selecting an HR technology that has self-service functionalities. We select those that enable our employees to keep track of, manage, and update their own data so they can add, view, and change their own private data as needed.

By doing so, we can cut down on labor hours, reduce user error, and minimize redundant work. It is helpful because it guarantees that information is always correct and current, preventing mistakes or errors that can impair efficiency.

Employee self-service allows HR staff to devote more time to mission-driven activities like employee engagement and retention.

Cost Savings

Cost is always a consideration when choosing any business technology. But it is especially important when choosing an HRIS because of the potential return on investment. A good HRIS can offer significant cost savings by automating many of the tasks of HR staff.

In addition, a good HRIS can help managers make better personnel decisions that lead to increased productivity and profitability. When considering cost, be sure to look at the total cost of ownership, not just the initial purchase price. The total cost of ownership includes the costs of implementation, training, support, and maintenance.

Danielle Bedford, Head of Marketing, Coople

David Bitton, Co-Founder and CMO, DoorLoop

Easy Implementation

Before adding anything to your tech stack, ensure how adaptable it is first. Can your team pick it up easily? Make sure there will not be a lot of turbulence during those initial stages of use.

If certain technology offers a slight improvement but carries significant adoption barriers, you must decide on whether the short-term volatility is both warranted and manageable. After all, even a different user interface can lead to a loss of productivity if workers can’t quickly find what they’re looking for. Left unchecked, this can bring entire departments to a grinding halt.

Before adding new technology to your stack, ensure that training resources are both fully comprehensive and easy for your team to understand. This helps to streamline adoption and ensures that HR teams become more efficient—not less—through the use of modern innovations and technology.

Max Wesman, Chief Operating Officer, GoodHire

Technology Should Augment but Never Replace Humans

The trend in HR tech has been to automate everything and anything. Companies that adopt emerging technologies without reservations see efficiency improvements, but the impact on other areas is often concerning.

Take recruitment as an example. Companies can theoretically automate finding, evaluating, and hiring new employees. Actually, many companies offer such services already. However, human relationships are what companies and teams are built on. For many, entering a new company is like joining a family. That’s why having a human talk with candidates has intrinsic value. You wouldn’t send a robot in your stead to welcome your newborn into the world—you should be there yourself because you want to be.

I agree with HR practitioners that de-humanization is the most significant risk of increased AI adoption. The key factor I consider when implementing HR tech is this: does this technology augment or destroy the “humanness” of my HR team?

Understand Your Company’s Level of Productivity

As remote work continues to trend bigger, productivity is the word of the year. Using HR technology to understand and improve productivity is a new necessity to look for when adding new programs. To decide which features will work best for your company, consider where your company stands with productivity.

Has it been at the forefront of company focus for a long, or is it something the company is just now beginning to look into? If you understand your company’s productivity already, you may look for features in HR tech that can help you identify areas for improvement.

But perhaps productivity has just come into the company’s view, so you would look for an HR tech that can help you understand where company productivity is already at, in order to move forward soon. Whatever stage you are at in productivity improvement, there is HR tech that can help take you further and should be the selling point of any newly adapted technology.

Max Korpinen, Co-Founder and CEO, Hireproof

Prioritize “Must-Haves” First

One of the biggest concerns when building an HR tech stack is to get all your core functions covered. Since most HR departments have limited budgets, spending over budget and missing the bigger picture can be far too easy when you’re excited about some shiny, tech-forward features.

You need to ensure your tech minimizes bottlenecks and makes your core functions faster and easier before you get wrapped up in the excitement. By creating a list of “must-haves” and ensuring every layer in your tech stack meets those needs first, you can then choose between the software that has your “nice-to-haves” next.

Fernando Lopez, Marketing Director, Circuit

Chandler Rogers, CEO, Relay App

Focus on the End Users’ Needs

It seems kind of obvious, but the most important factor should always be if the solution is what best serves end users’ needs. We should also critically evaluate other factors like integrations, administration burden, cost, etc. And some factors, like security, are non-negotiable. We should critically evaluate other factors such as integrations, always making sure that the solution is what best serves end users’ needs.

Do Thorough Research

When evaluating which HR technologies, make sure you do your due diligence. The key thing I consider is how any new platform will integrate with my existing HR tech stack. See if the vendor already has a relationship with the provider of my existing HCM.

Matthew Hamilton, VP of People Analytics and HRIS, Protective Life

Do they have proven case studies from customers who already use that combination of software? See if adding this application to your HR tech stack will make your life easier—and not cause complications because it doesn’t integrate with the existing suite of applications. Find out if it will be easy to swap out if you no longer need it, or need to replace it.

Claire Williams, Chief People Officer, Ciphr

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Brett Farmiloe is the Founder/CEO and currently the CHRO of Terkel.io

Why Are Travel Adventures Important For HR Leaders?

The benefits of planning, risk assessment, and self-awareness for HR leaders

By Elma Levy and Dov Levy, The Eldov Group, LLC.

When we wrote our book Partners in Life and Work, Finding Success Through a Partner Business, we decided to include a chapter about our adventure travel because we know that the benefits of our adventure travels, for us as a couple, as entrepreneurs, and for Dovel as a growing company, were clear. The feedback from the publisher was one of surprise: what is the reason for this chapter? This is not a travel book!

We explained that building a company, entrepreneurship, and attracting and retaining talent is very demanding and a 7/24 job. Add to that the complexity of working day-in-day-out with your spouse, and you have a definite need for experiences that force you to think differently and cause you to be off the grid.

We also see significant correlations between planning and executing adventure travel together and building and growing a company together: risk assessment and mitigation, lots of “planning for the worst and hoping for the best,” knowing each other’s strengths and weaknesses, and self-awareness. Adventure travel has the added benefit of requiring strong physical condition, so it forces us to stay in shape, which is not easy for busy entrepreneurs as there seems to always be competing needs more critical than exercising and eating healthy.

So, why is adventure travel important to HR leaders? This article will address the question, and perhaps it will incentivize some of you, setting you on a journey of adventure travel. We certainly hope it will as we know the rewards.

What Do Entrepreneurship and Adventure Hiking Have in Common? Planning, Planning, and More Planning

Both growing and scaling a company, and executing a complex adventure trip starts with planning. Prepare for things to go haywire at the most inconvenient times. There are multiple questions that you will have to identify, discuss, decide on a road map, prepare and execute. Indeed, we all know this intuitively about a company. Still, it is just as complex and just as rewarding to identify an exciting adventure trip, plan it, prepare for it, and then actually go…This last step might be the hardest as you will likely be off the radar, so part of the prep involves ensuring that the company is ready for you not to be available for 5-10 days. At this point, many of you will already stop reading, as you are sure that this is impossible, but please keep reading. We found the ability to disengage from the everyday stress of running our company to be very beneficial.

As complex as it is to decide on the division of labor between you and your business/life partner, it is just

as complex when it comes to this with your travel/ life/business partner. What are the swim lanes? Who ‘owns’ what? Are the skillsets that helped you decide on the business swim lanes the same as those for complex travel?? What comes naturally for each one?

It is not necessarily true that the skills required for entrepreneurship are similar to those needed to successfully plan complex travel, but in our case, we see a parallel between the company and adventure travel.

As married co-founders of Dovel Technologies Group, we had a well-understood and defined understanding of each other’s domains: Dov spent most of his time planning and executing long-term, full life cycle, missions, critical information systems, which required lots of planning and organizing, whereas Elma was the planner and corporate governance organizer, taking care of the details of running an organization. So when it comes to our travel, Dov concentrates on the planning, such as where to go and the best time of year (rainfall, snowfall, temperature, etc.), and Elma takes care of the logistics, such as flight reservations, travel insurance, etc. Perfect division of

responsibilities based on our strengths, similar to how we successfully ran Dovel.

The question of risk tolerance is an essential question both when building a company as well as with adventure travel. You have to learn and challenge how much risk you can manage. There is a risk when summiting Kilimanjaro, no doubt about it, but that makes it part of the fun as long as you know how to mitigate the risk.   In a way, you manage these risks in the same way you manage the risks at your company: planning, anticipating, listening to people who have done what you’re about to do, and, most of all, getting physically and mentally ready! Always: preparing for the worst and getting ready…

We talked about one possible and not unlikely scenario and how to handle it: what if one of us had to discontinue the hike before getting to the summit? We decided that if this is due to low oxygen levels, the non-impacted will continue since the impacted will have a guide taking them to lower altitudes, where the problem would be immediately solved. However, if either of us cannot continue for any other reason, we stay together.

Staying in Good Shape and Taking Time Off

One of the key benefits of strenuous adventure travel is the necessity to stay in shape…adventure travel has definitely done this for us. Of the hazards of entrepreneurship we usually do not talk about are the poor lifestyle habits we develop: the long hours in the office, most of them sitting behind a computer monitor, and poor diet, like a candy bar with coffee on the run (sound familiar??). Over the years, this results in lifestyle conditions such as excess weight and worse.

However, if you know you have a strenuous hike in the near future, you will definitely have a solid incentive to maintain your weight and stay in good shape. Your reward is overcoming the challenge of the hike and a successful adventure. What can be more rewarding than looking back on an amazingly exciting experience that made you overcome challenges? Nobody can take that away from you….

Once we decided to summit Kilimanjaro, we began researching and preparing, including getting in shape for a demanding multi-day hike at a very high elevation. First, we had to find a tour company, as it is not permitted to hike up the mountain without a certified guide. Next, the best time of year to undertake this journey, which we learned was January. Also, we learned all we needed to know about altitude sickness and how to minimize this risk (Diamox). We went on day hikes and multi-day hikes in freezing cold temperatures to mimic the conditions and make sure our gear was adequate. We knew that the last night, as we would reach 19,341 feet, it would be freezing (at the summit, it is between 20 and -20 degrees Fahrenheit), and the air would be thin. We knew we had to prepare for this cold, so on the final climbing night, which took 7-8 hours of non-stop hiking up, we wore seven top layers and four bottom layers of clothing.

One significant benefit for company founders is that adventure travel provides time off for you, but it also allows company management to run things without you. As we all know, we live in a connected

world. In today’s world, when we are all connected to our smartphones, it is impossible to escape from telephone calls, voice mails, e-mail, text, WhatsApp, Facebook, etc. Thus, even the best vacation does not provide any separation from work. However, on adventure travel with either spotty or no cell phone connection, you are forcibly disconnected from work, and you learn that everything works out just fine (if not better sometimes)

We engaged the Dovel team, which was very exciting to them. We brought a SPOT tracker with us so that people could track our progress, and many followed us daily and shared our progress. One employee, an avid adventurist, woke his kids up to show them that we were reaching the summit. At the summit, we took out the Dovel sign for the picture. We had taken Dovel to new heights, and the Dovel team had traveled with us 1. It was a wonderful sharing experience for the company and the team.

This was an 8-day of grid hike, and, as almost always, you prepare for the worst, and all turns out fine. We did OK, even with blood oxygen levels going to 73%, and the company and the team did just fine. Everyone enjoyed the experience with us, the team learned that they do not need us to make all the decisions, and we came back inspired, invigorated, and proud of our accomplishment.

Elma and Dov took Dovel to the top of the Kilimanjaro

We are excited to share this experience with you, fellow business owners and entrepreneurs, as we know the stresses and poor lifestyle choices that come with owning and running a company, and we also know that strenuous and challenging adventure travel can be a cure. We hope you found this incetivizing and will give it a try

We are in our post-company days, since we sold our company, and we now have more time to devote to our favorite activity: adventure travel!

Notes:

1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7sQ6M7xqSmk&t=137s

Elma Levy and Dov Levy are coauthors of Partners in Work and Life: Finding Success Through a Partner Business (Routledge, 2022).

Elma Levy is an entrepreneur, investor, leadership coach, and public speaker. She is cofounder and principal (with her husband Dov) of The Eldov Group, LLC, a boutique investment and startup advisory in the Washington, D.C. area.

Dov Levy is an entrepreneur, investor, and leading expert in large-scale, mission-critical IT solutions. He cofounded Dovel Technologies and served as its chief technologist until the company’s acquisition in 2019, remaining a dynamic leader at the forefront of technological innovations.

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ChatGPT: The Secret To Helping HR Save Time And Reduce Stress

Transforming HRBP workflows with AI

By Courtney Ramsey, Courtney Ramsey Speaks, LLC.

Have you ever been in a situation where you need to have a difficult conversation with an employee, but don’t know how to approach the topic? Do you struggle to create outlines and content for big presentations? Maybe you want to recruit top talent from LinkedIn, but you can’t find the time!

I have good news, and it comes in the form of ChatGPT.

ChatGPT is a language program designed by OpenAI that generates human-like responses to your text inputs. The program has been trained on a massive dataset of text from the internet and other sources, which enables it to comprehend the context and meaning of words and phrases and create coherent responses.

In short, remember when you longed for an admin to help you do your job? Those days are over!

In this article, we’ll explore three ways you can use ChatGPT to create scripts for difficult conversation topics, create an outline for a presentation, and build relationships with top talent from LinkedIn.

Create Scripts for Difficult Conversation Topics

As an HR Business Partner (HRBP), one of your main responsibilities is to handle difficult conversations with employees. Whether it’s a performance issue, a conflict between coworkers, or a termination, these conversations can be uncomfortable and challenging to navigate. ChatGPT can help.

You can use ChatGPT to prepare for these difficult conversations. Simply provide some details of the situation, and it will generate a script that outlines the key points that you need to cover in the conversation. This can help you stay on track during the conversation and ensure you don’t miss any important details.

If an outline isn’t enough, it can even craft a script for you to use using concepts from your favorite book. For example, here’s what ChatGPT created for me with the following prompt:

“Using concepts from the book, Crucial Conversations, write a script in first person to begin a conversation about bad body odor at work with a team member”

Hi there, can we talk for a moment?

I wanted to discuss something that has been on my mind lately. It’s a difficult topic to bring up, but I feel it’s important to address.

I’ve noticed that there have been some comments going around about body odor in the office, and unfortunately, it seems like you may be the source of the odor. I don’t mean to be critical or make you feel uncomfortable, but I wanted to talk to you directly and respectfully about it.

I think it’s important for us to maintain a professional work environment where everyone feels comfortable and respected, and body odor can unfortunately have a negative impact on that environment. I understand that this may be a sensitive topic, but I want to make sure that we can have an open and honest conversation about it.

I want to make it clear that I’m not trying to attack you or make you feel embarrassed. Instead, I’m hoping we can work together to find a solution that works for everyone.

I’d really appreciate hearing your thoughts on this, and I’m open to any suggestions you may have.

Using ChatGPT, you can create an outline for your presentation in just a few minutes. Simply provide the topic of your presentation and your desired result, and it can generate an outline that includes the key points that you need to cover. This can help you save time and ensure that your presentation is well-organized and effective.

Here’s what ChatGPT created for me with the following prompt:

“Create an outline for a presentation to my CHO to request budget to create a nine-month training program for our high-potential individual contributor employees. Relate how this investment will save the company money by retaining top talent, helping those promoted to leadership roles be more successful as leaders of people, and have a positive effect on employee engagement.”

I. Introduction

● Introduce yourself and explain the purpose of the presentation

● Explain the need for a nine-month training program for high-potential individual contributor employees

● Preview the main points of the presentation

II. Importance of High-Potential Individual Contributors

● Explain the importance of high-potential individual contributors to the success of the company

Once I typed in the prompt and hit “enter,” ChatGPT generated that script in under 30 seconds. Is it perfect? Not necessarily, but is it a great place to begin? Yes!

From here, you can manually edit as needed to make it sound even more like “you,” or you can ask ChatGPT to revise it for you.

Create an Outline for a Presentation

As an HRBP, you often give presentations to your team or other stakeholders. The problem with presentations they’re time-consuming and challenging, especially if you’re not sure where to start. Again, ChatGPT can help.

● Discuss the risks associated with losing these valuable employees

III. Benefits of a Nine-Month Training Program

● Explain the benefits of a nine-month training program, including:

● Improving employee engagement and job satisfaction

● Retaining top talent

● Preparing employees for leadership roles

● Helping employees be more successful as leaders of people

● Provide data to support the benefits, such as statistics on retention rates and employee engagement

IV. Program Overview

● Provide an overview of the nine-month training program, including:

● The topics that will be covered

● The format of the training (e.g. in-person, online, a combination)

● The length of each training session

● The instructors and their qualifications

V. Program Costs

● Provide a breakdown of the costs associated with the program, including:

● The cost of materials (e.g. workbooks, training manuals)

● The cost of instructors and facilitators

● The cost of venue and equipment rentals

● The cost of any travel or lodging expenses

VI. Return on Investment (ROI)

● Discuss the expected ROI for the training program, including:

● The expected increase in retention rates

● The expected increase in employee engagement

● The expected increase in leadership effectiveness

● Provide data to support the expected ROI, such as estimates of the cost of replacing lost employees

VII. Conclusion

● Summarize the main points of the presentation

● Thank the CHO for their time and consideration

● Offer to answer any questions or provide additional information

Remember to tailor the presentation to the specific needs and interests of your CHO, and to provide clear and concise information to support your request for budget. Good luck!

ChatGPT generated that for me in under 60 seconds, and it even wished me good luck.

Here’s the best part. You can revise the outline as needed and even ask it to help you create the actual content. Need an example? Check out this prompt:

“What is the expected ROI of a 9-month high potential training program for individual contributors going into leadership roles? Cite data and sources.”

I received a great response that cited data from the Association of Talent Development, McKinsey & Company, and Deloitte, but remember to fact-check. ChatGPT is currently in “free research preview” mode. It makes no promises of perfection and you don’t want to cite data unless you’re sure it’s used correctly.

Recruit Top Talent from LinkedIn

Recruiting top talent is often part of the HRBP role, especially at smaller companies. LinkedIn is a great platform for finding and connecting with potential candidates, but it can be overwhelming and time-consuming to navigate. ChatGPT can help you be more effective and efficient!

Using ChatGPT, you can create customized responses to LinkedIn posts to send to potential candidates. Just copy the content of the post you’d like to respond to, give it some instruction, and watch the magic happen! Here’s what I received in under 20 seconds with the following prompt:

“Create a response to the following LinkedIn post in a friendly tone:

Have you ever been in a meeting where a colleague’s idea was overlooked or dismissed? It can be frustrating to see someone’s contributions ignored, and while it can happen to anyone, it often happens to women, people of color, and other marginalized groups.

By amplifying someone’s voice in a meeting, you not only benefit the team by gathering different perspectives and ideas, but you also create a more inclusive environment where everyone’s contributions are valued.”

Absolutely agree! It’s important to create an environment where everyone feels heard and valued. Amplifying someone’s voice can not only lead to better teamwork and creativity, but it can also help to address unconscious biases that can negatively impact marginalized groups. Thank you for sharing this important message!

If you’ve ever struggled to create a thoughtful response to a post in under five minutes, this will be a huge time-saver. You can also use it to craft messages to reach out directly to candidates!

In summary, ChatGPT is a powerful tool that can help HRBPs in many ways. From creating scripts for difficult conversation topics to recruiting top talent from LinkedIn, this new AI tool can make your job easier and more effective. Though new technology can be overwhelming and intimidating, this one is really easy to use, and it gets even easier with practice.

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Courtney L. Ramsey is a Keynote Speaker & Facilitator, Custom Training Creator  and Instructional Design Expert.

6 Steps For Better Change Management

A structured approach to navigating workplace change

By Dr. Evans Baiya, The Innovator's Advantage

We live in a fast-paced world, one with constant change. There is always new technology, new software, new markets, new processes, and new ways of thinking to consider or adopt. Which means there is always change in the workplace.

Managing change within an organization—whether it’s a new HR policy, a different project management software, or even a corporate-wide paradigm shift— can often be tricky. Without structure and constant communication, your change management can easily stall or fail.

This is why we like to use a six-step process anytime we need to deliver new change management. These stages give you a clear, systematic approach to scalable, effective change.

Step 1. Identify the change, message, process, or product that needs to be implemented in your organization. You need to clearly understand what the change is and why it needs to happen in order to build a foundation. Whenever the opportunity arises, gather data to analyze what, how, and when is best to introduce something new into the organization.

Many companies are experimenting with a shift to hybrid work environments. It has been a challenge to adopt successfully because of opposing opinions, but using this six-step innovation process offers structure to address those differing opinions and a guide to successfully navigate the change. During Step 1 first

ask, “Why is hybrid work important and necessary to the organization?” Gather examples with potential positive and negative consequences—why it would or wouldn’t work, who it would work best for, who it wouldn’t work for, and what kind of systems, tools, and resources you would need—and begin building your foundation.

Step 2. Define the most effective way to introduce the change. This includes creating a specific target sample group, timelines, and methods of measuring the effectiveness of the change. These measurements should be made clear to everyone within the organization so that they know the energy and effort invested, whether the change is worth those resources, and if the change is working or not.

Using these pillars of success, you can define what a successful hybrid work environment looks like for your organization. Identify any negative consequences or risks to look out for. Then, chose a sample team and define timelines and methods of measurement to create a clear roadmap for everyone.

Step 3. Implement the proposed change within your target sample group. During this experiment, keep an iterative mindset and be sure to allow enough time to measure, analyze, and improve on your change. Your goal here is to collect specific data from those in the sample group as well as those who work with the group. Look at factors like engagement, effectiveness, responses from the team and manager, impact on customers, and impact on revenue. You want a holistic

view, measuring and collecting feedback from the team every week during your testing timeline.

Test hybrid work with your chosen team and gather the data to answer the questions from Step 1 and 2. Does the sample group embody your idea of a successful hybrid workplace? Were there any needed resources or processes you didn’t define in Step 2? You’ll want to be sure to communicate your findings and note any potential benefits or pitfalls before you move on to Step 4.

Step 4. Verify the results from your sample group. Analyze the data from Step 3. Look at both qualitative and quantitative data and keep an eye out for unintended consequences that may have been missed in Step 2. In this step, you’ll want to address the question, “Did we get the outcomes we expected with the target group?” If not, you may need to consider a redesign or modification of the change you’re hoping to implement—or determine if the change is even worth implementing within the organization at scale.

In this stage, you’ll be able to analyze all of the data and feedback from your test group and those that worked with them to see if you met the expected outcomes or not. Perhaps a hybrid work environment did not work for this team—and, if that’s the case, you’ll have to redesign your change and return to Step 2 or abandon the change altogether if the risk is too high. Whether you’re successful and move to Step 5, decide to redesign, or think it best to end the change at this stage, you’ll come out with a list of learned lessons that can be shared across the organization.

Step 5. Plan how to deploy the change to the rest of the organization. This step, especially, is all about communication. You’ll need to take a very structured approach in communicating what the change is, who is going to be affected and how, when the change is going to take place, what everyone’s roll will be, and what is expected both behaviorally and mechanically to adopt the change. Communicate this again and again and create operations templates for each team. You can (and should) also share the information from your target sample group, incorporating their responses and voice as a way of endearment to the rest of the organization.

Now it is time for developing your internal PR. Without strong, clear communication, change management can falter in this step. Take time and care to explain why a hybrid work environment is important and necessary for the organization and the results from your target sample group. You want to create awareness and give your people time to internalize the upcoming change before it even begins. With constant communication and preparation, your people will then be both ready to adopt and contribute to a successful change.

Step 6. Scale the change. Once you have prepared the organization, you are now ready to ask for engagement. Do it and do it quickly. Schedule kick-off meetings, choose strong champions of the change across teams, and host corporate-wide events to provide measurements, updates, and feedback about what is and isn’t working. Offer the truth in these events, and how to improve the change adoption. Continue measuring everything so that you can analyze cost benefits and how the organization is better because of the change. Publish these results internally and, depending on the type of change, externally as a way of empowering your teams and promoting your brand. Lastly, ensure you have a clear end date for your change. Scaling is all about knowing when you have reached critical mass so when you do, announce and celebrate the end of this change.

Whether it’s hybrid work or some other change, these six steps offer structure for better change management to keep up with today’s fast-paced world.

Dr. Evans Baiya is a trusted guide to business leaders, strategists and innovators. He is the co-author of The Innovator’s Advantage and Optimizing Strategy for Results

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HRCI® & SHRM® CERTIFICATION PREP COURSES

GROUP RATES AVAILABLE

For HR Professionals

Show that management values the importance of the HR function, and has a commitment to development and improvement of HR staff.

Ensure that each person in your HR department has a standard and consistent understanding of policies, procedures, and regulations.

Place your HR team in a certification program as a rewarding team building achievement.

For Your Organization

Certified HR professionals help companies avoid risk by understanding compliance, laws, and regulations to properly manage your workforce.

HR Professionals lead employee engagement and development programs saving the company money through lower turnover and greater productivity and engagement.

A skilled HR professional can track important KPIs for the organization to make a major impact on strategic decisions and objectives, including: succession planning, staffing, and forecasting.

1 Less expensive than a masters or PhD program, and very manageable to prepare with

2. legislation and best practices

3. Recognized, Industry benchmark, held by 500,000+ HR Professionals

Group Rate Options

We offer group rates for teams of 5+ or more for our regularly scheduled PHR/SPHR/ SHRM or aPHR courses.

For groups of 12+, we can design a more customized experience that meets your overall length of the course.

Groups rates for HRCI exams are also available as an add-on.

All group purchases come with 1 year of HR Prime membership for each attendee to gain the tools and updates needed to stay informed and compliant

The Impact Of ChatGPT And Generative AI On The Future Of Contingent Workers

Risks and opportunities

By Sanjoe Jose, Talview

WhenSan Francisco–based company OpenAI released ChatGPT in November 2022, it simultaneously became all the rage and controversial. It is built on OpenAI’s GPT-3 language models, which have taken assistive technology to a new level and surprised business leaders across the globe. From writing blogs to fixing bugs, it has many professionals on their toes, panicking about a looming new work reality. Generative AI systems have generally emerged from deep learning models trained on broad, unstructured data sets covering many topics. In other words, they create original content by learning from existing data, which has the power to transform the ways companies operate and boost productivity.

At the same time, despite one out of every two workers expected to hold a freelance position by 2028,

freelance workers and contractors are learning they will need to evolve their skill sets at the same rate as this technology to keep up.

While generative AI is nothing new — we have been using it for more than a year to flesh out our recruitment tools — it is now particularly presenting a challenge for the contingent workforce. Let us dive into the risks they may face this year and how they can leverage this new technology.

Automation: Less Work or More Opportunities?

Business leaders use freelancers to augment their workforces, pass on repetitive tasks, eliminate overhead costs, and reduce their long-term commitment to individuals. The number one reason to use freelancers is when businesses need additional support to complete projects last minute.

Now, although executives are using generative AI cautiously, there’s no doubt that it is becoming a productivity enhancement tool that can do many of the tasks freelancers are assigned.

One of our customers, a SaaS company, traditionally used the contingent workforce for specific projects when they needed more software developers due to surges in demand. Now, they are experimenting with ChatGPT to write code.

Their in-house developers have become more like product managers, looking at the output generated and tweaking it. Generative AI has produced more cost-effective, efficient results for this company and largely replaced their use of freelancers. However, in some scenarios, further understanding of the software

industry and specific skill sets are still necessary.

This automation of repetitive work can also benefit the contingent workforce: It could make hiring more equitable and level the playing field. With ChatGPT boosting human productivity, many parents — especially working mothers — could get more work done with less by using generative AI, leading to disposable income and closing the workplace gender gap.

Rethinking Roles and Titles

HR leaders and talent acquisition (TA) teams are also assessing their job descriptions and redefining the roles they need to fill.

There’s very little competition when it comes to freelance AI specialist work right now, but freelancing sites like Fiverr are quickly noticing the gap in the market. They recently launched a new category dedicated to AIrelated services after searches

increased by 1,400% over six months on their platform for these specialists.

Focusing on Contingent Talent, First

While generative AI will affect contingent workers’ day-to-day schedules, their experience of hiring processes is also expected to change.

Increasingly, HR teams are turning to generative AI to generate summaries of virtual interviews and gain insights into candidates’ skills, experience, and potential.

Algorithms can analyze huge amounts of data, identify patterns, and make predictions about the likelihood of candidates’ success, giving HR leaders an unbiased view of candidates. This should speed up recruitment and onboarding processes for contingent workers too.

Overall, generative AI is set to change business operations

across many industries. And many company leaders are questioning whether the technology may aid or disrupt their value chain, way of working, and budgets.

And that automatically impacts contingent workers, who can either evolve their offerings and seek out the positives or be left behind. Ultimately, technological advances create as many, if not more, job opportunities as they automate.

Sanjoe Jose is the CEO and Co-founder of Talview

Employees Say Working On-Site Is Not Worth The Commute

Redefining workplace principles for success in the post-pandemic era

By Jeanne Meister, Executive Networks

As HR professionals, we have a once in a generation opportunity to take a leadership role in designing new ways of working. Since the pandemic, we have seen that working nine to five in-the-office is dead. Our long-standing expectations of going to

the office, “to do our work,” and going to off-sites to “network with colleagues,” has been turned on its head. And never did employers have to justify why one should be present in the office and what types of work would ideally happen there.

The world of work is changed forever. In our “The 2023 Future of Working and Learning” survey, conducted among a global sample of 1,300 HR leaders, business leaders, knowledge workers and frontline workers, about half of knowledge workers (46%) report that their companies are not doing anything to make it worthwhile to commute to the office. This highlights a key workplace tension I am seeing; workers view going to the office as a choice they can make while leaders see this as a challenge to be dealt with.

We also asked our sample of about 250 knowledge workers, “what  can your company do to make coming to the office “commute worthy?” Their open-ended answers as seen in Figure 1, highlight two benefits they see for the office. First, the office is a place to engage in professional development, peer networking and collaboration with peers. At the same time, workers want the choice of deciding when and where they work and even have the added benefit of shorter workdays to allow for a commute to work.

But are offering perks, shorter workdays and increasing compensation to entice workers back to the office the answer to successfully working in a hybrid fashion?

I do not think so. Instead, as companies grapple with returning to the office, they must realize the conversation is much more than deciding which days employees return to the office, is it Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday or Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday? That misses the point of what we have been going through over the past three years.

Leaders need to make coming to the office more purposeful and “commute worthy”. This will require employers to be clear on why and how working in the office can optimize their performance in their current job role while providing flexibility. Employers also need to ensure equal opportunity for advancement and development, no matter where the work gets done. This last point hit home when our 2023 Future of Working and Learning research found a majority of senior HR leaders (71%) and senior business leaders (62%) agree that there’s likely a “proximity bias” against remote/hybrid workers, making it difficult for those working off-site to get ahead in their careers.

In addition to making the office “commute worthy”, employers need to explore flexibility options desired by workers. Our latest research found the most desired flexibility option is access to a 4-day work week with no pay reduction. This is desired by 69% of

knowledge workers and 56% of front-line workers, but is currently only offered to 16% and 29%, respectively.

As hybrid working becomes the permanent way of working, HR and business leaders need to set clear principles for success, rather than mandate policies. These principles need to ensure inclusivity by providing career development and advancement opportunities to all employees, regardless of where they work. And leaders need to communicate the “why” behind coming to the office. The answer, according to Phil Kirschner, Associate Partner, Real Estate, McKinsey lies in communicating a clear purpose for the office. Says Kirschner, “as we have seen during high levels of attrition, employees are leaving because they don’t know why to stay, much less commute.”

Most of all, companies must recognize the inherent push and pull of workers desiring flexibility in when and where they work and leaders wanting no impact on their job performance.

Leaders can start taking a proactive role by asking such questions as:

● How can our company optimize flexibility in work practices while maintaining performance levels?

● What is the new role and purpose of the office?

● What are we doing to listen to our employee needs for flexibility and what do they see as the benefits of returning to the office?

● What job roles are best performed primarily in the office?

● How can we prepare our frontline managers to have meaningful conversations with our workers about their needs for flexibility while maintaining performance levels?

Hybrid is here to stay, and companies and workers are still learning how to succeed with new ways of working and learning.

Jeanne Meister is Executive Vice President of Executive Networks, an HR peer community for human resource leaders working in global 1,000 companies. Jeanne is also a regular contributor to Forbes and author of the “The 2023 Future of Working and Learning Report” a research survey of 1,301 HR leaders, business leaders, knowledge workers and frontline workers across North America, India, and Europe.

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