Canadian HR Reporter

CANADIAN HR REPORTER JANUARY 2018 8 NEWS — a willingness, I think it looks promising going forward," he said. "We're probably five to 10 years away from this becoming the norm. I think we're about 10 years away from seeing a signifi- cant jump in adoption, and what I mean by that is it's still around the 50 per cent mark, because you're going to have those companies that are too small to implement this kind of stuff anyway." Financial barriers are one of the major restrictions keeping HR from implementing AI as a wider tool, said Allinson. At issue with AI's rapid devel- opment is the resulting "pacing problem" in terms of a lack of pub- lic policy and appropriate govern- ment oversight, said Kobti. "ere's the danger of that lack of policies," he said. "You basically have to police yourself. There should be some sort of standards or policies, but not to limit the cre- ative process and what else we can do with AI and data collections." "Let's not prevent innovation, but rather foster ethical standards and guidelines. at's something we lack." Government oversight should come when products such as HR systems reach the commer- cial stage, in an effort to provide oversight on what features can be used and how it should be controlled prior to it being made public, said Kobti. Legislation needs to keep pace to protect both employers and employees — especially during the early adoption period, said Allinson. "Government's got to keep an eye on this and make sure that leg- islation and laws keep up to date to make sure that we do have the privacy part of it protected." Future of work What's complex right now is nobody knows exactly what the future will hold, said Manon Po- irier, general manager of the Or- dre des conseillers en ressources humaines agréés (CRHA) in Montreal. AI is associated with both job loss and added value, and will be implemented quicker than ex- perts think, she said. "We need, as a profession, to understand how it's going to im- pact the whole of the organiza- tion, and actually be the one tell- ing other functions — finance, marketing, whatever — that this is what's coming up; these kinds of tasks will be automated," said Poirier. "We need to prepare our staff in order to be ready, grow their skills, understand that people are not going to communicate in the same way. So HR needs to go be- yond their function." In order for HR professionals to successfully lead the transition, "sufficient technology literacy" is a necessity, said Poirier. "We so much strongly believe that we as a profession need to make that change or transfor- mation, that we're saying to our members and to HR: 'HR will be about AI and it will be about technology, and our professionals need to be able to help organiza- tions facilitate those innovation processes, over and above every- thing else we do,'" she said. "We need to make that change now." It's not that AI is going to re- place the HR function, said Allin- son. "ere is a perfect match of HR professionals and AI working together." "AI will allow HR profession- als to start focusing more on the strategic side of the organization, reducing their administrative bur- dens," he said. "You should not be afraid of this. Don't let the tool overrun you; the tool is there to help you do your job better." Cost-benefit analyses should also be conducted to gauge the viability of implementing AI ap- plications for HR support in every organization, said Allison. e technology is expected to grow in use as it becomes more reliable and affordable, he said. Laying the foundation e opportunity is there for HR to take the lead on this issue, said Daneal Charney, director of tal- ent at MaRS Venture Services in Toronto. "HR practitioners need to be in the driver's seat," she said. "ey need to understand that this is a co-worker for them, that it's go- ing to help them perform better. ey need to fundamentally shift their thinking to 'How is this go- ing to help me and my workforce perform better? What are the out- comes and what are we trying to achieve as an organization, and how can this help us do that?'" "We've just scratched the sur- face in terms of what AI could do for our workplaces," said Charney. "We can really think more broad- ly about the whole employee life cycle and experience… There's an amazing opportunity to co- design how this technology can help bring a better experience for the employee." "Organizations have to inte- grate learning deeply into our processes so we're continually reskilling all the time." HR's role in representing empa- thy and upholding organizational values and culture is needed to help understand the outcome AI will have in the world of work, she said. "ey're an incredibly impor- tant stakeholder in defining how we use AI in organizations and what we want the outcomes to be," said Charney. "We need to be at the table." But HR departments should collectively conduct a needs and risk assessment before commit- ting to an AI system, said Kobti. "ere's the potential there for risk," he said. "Just like it can help people, it can also be a risk if they don't know what the features are." Employers must also be diligent in terms of data collection and storage, and transparent about its usage, said Allinson. "e sooner companies have policies in place to both utilize employee data to keep them satis- fied, while maintaining oversight and personal policy, the better it will be to ensure the use of AI is being maximized to strengthen the HR profession," he said. Technology literacy a necessity for HR: CRHA AI < pg. 1 "AI will allow HR professionals to start focusing more on the strategic side of the organization, reducing their administrative burdens." 2018 HR Conferences and Training . Our Organizational Performance team delivers opportunities for you to learn, network, and share best practices to enhance your HR function. Use the discount code PRM23 to save $100 when registering for the following: Public Sector HR 2018 February 27–28 • Ottawa HR Transformation: Adapting in the Digital Economy April 30–May 1 • Toronto Leading Mentally Healthy Workplaces Various dates and cities nationwide For more details and to register, go to www.conferenceboard.ca.

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