Canadian HR Reporter

CANADIAN HR REPORTER JUNE 2018 26 FEATURES R BC receives roughly one million job applications every year, with recruiters obliged to review each of them manually. So, as a solution, the financial institution recently deployed machine learning to scan resumés at a rate of 2,000 per hour. "It speeds up our ability to identify talent. It also removes any potential unconscious biases that recruiters may have, and it actually gives us a short list of candidates," says Jenny Poulos, senior vice-president of workforce strategy and employee experience in HR at RBC in Toronto. "Recruiters are excited because they don't need to do the administrative tasks anymore and they can spend more time getting to know and speaking to the candidates that have been shortlisted. And hiring managers like that be- cause we're coming to them faster with potential candi- dates for them to consider, and we've done a better job assessing them more holistically." In 2017, RBC introduced a new job exploration site that uses machine learning to get to know internal and external candidates and match them with opportunities based on their skills and experience. "It is a little bit of what you see in LinkedIn but… the AI is a lot more refined," she says. "It allows us to really get a look at individuals, their skills, serve up what they need — it is very much that Amazon-like experience for job search." But in evaluating the potential for automation and AI, cost is not a top consideration, says Poulos. "It's really starting off with 'How do we need to continue to deliver the products and services that we need for our clients given this age of disruption?' And knowing that, in order to do that, automation helps us move quicker. We need to invest in new models and some — through that approach — will be finding the cost efficiencies to do that. But it definitely is not a focus on cost efficiencies and pull- ing out headcount to enable that." Because of the speed of change, and the unknown, she says, "we need to make sure we are stepping into this quite systematically. But we are not seeing the impact to people losing their jobs — nowhere near what over a couple of years ago people were projecting. We're excited about the new opportunities that will be available." While technology, digital, AI and machine learning are all going to enable extensive automation, human skills will still be crucial, according to Poulos. "e human skills are going to be the skills that continue to be really important, so focusing on that will help the population," says Poulos. "What we have always done and continue to do is make sure as work is changing, that we are upskilling our employees for the future work." "We're at the start of what's been called a fourth indus- trial revolution, and with lots of technology, we do see that there will be opportunity that lies ahead, so several new jobs will still be created that don't exist today," she says. "It actually frees up capacity for people to focus on the work they thoroughly enjoy doing, versus the administrative tasks." e organization also introduced a feedback app in De- cember. It's about focusing more on people's growth and enablement, and coaching each other, instead of following a process around performance management, she says. "We use an app that helps them provide that quick, real- time, in-the-moment feedback that then can be followed up with a chat face-to-face or voice-to-voice," says Poulos, noting leaders are also getting involved. "We're trying to break down the hierarchy which exists in many organizations." RBC is also improving its support to employee devel- opment by deploying AI to serve up learning solutions in bite-size pieces, when they need it. "RBC Learn" is a self-serve portal with curated content based on employees' needs and interests, she says. "It is a learning place that people will go to and help each other but then, as an organization, we will be serving up content that's important to them." RBC is also looking at digitizing in areas around advice and mentorship, for more work across teams and a less siloed experience, says Poulos. "We want to make sure it's a multi-channel experience, so to speak. So you have digital, face-to-face — it's very relationship-focused still." For all the changes, RBC is still a people business, says Poulos. "at won't change… We've evolved over the years, and the speed of automation will create change even faster, but we do see that as creating new and exciting op- portunities for people, and the human skills will still be, if not probably, even more important." T he University of Winnipeg is constantly look- ing at things like automation and AI as it works to streamline its processes, according to Bryan Ward, manager of HR information systems at the post- secondary institution in Manitoba. "While labour costs and service expectations of students and staff have continued to increase — yet governments typically have kept budgets flat — we look to automation and other tools like AI as a way to do more with less," he says. "As staff have turned over or maybe transitioned into new roles, we often look at that as an opportunity to transition those repetitive tasks into an automated solution." Training is a big part of it, says Ward. "We're pretty strategic about when we bring in automa- tion, and we try to do it in a way that's the least disruptive to staff as possible. And usually it's done with staff as partner, so we don't switch whole tasks to automation, but often we have staff who come and say, 'We think there's a better way to do something about this. How can we engage or how can we redevelop this?' at's where automation comes in." Of course, there's also fear about the impending disrup- tion, but history speaks otherwise, he says. "When sewing machines replaced manual sewing, the jobs didn't go away, they just changed. So, I kind of look at AI and automation the same way — the work that's being done may change, but the work is still there," says Ward. "Once you demonstrate some value in automation, re- ally the potential, the way people look at it changes quite a bit. So there's less fear once they've seen that it's not the work that's going away." e cost savings of automation may take some time to be realized, he says. "You can't anticipate that suddenly, by introducing automation, you're going to be saving tons of money up front. Sometimes you can but it also depends on strategy and what you're doing and what you're automating, so to speak. And I think AI will be the same way — it's not that tomorrow AI will exist and suddenly we're going to save half our budget. It's going to be you're going to learn how to incorporate aspects of AI into your process and into the services you offer and then, over time, you'll see savings there as your priorities are realigned." It's also important to identify the emerging skills re- quired with automation, says Ward. "What we've often seen is that automation has played a key role in — and in some cases, has taken over — roles or tasks that were done by entry-level positions or formerly entry-level positions," he says. "Suddenly, that opportunity for learning on the job and moving into higher-level roles has also decreased. So when we're now looking for new employees, they need to have a higher skill set already coming in the door... Now that that lower level is being performed by automation, they already need to have a higher level of skill when they're joining the institution." e university has not really delved into AI at this point, but it's being considered for the future, says Ward. "It's an area where there still needs to be more develop- ment to see how it would really apply to an institution like us, or our workflows." e area of employee benefits has potential, he says. "We really see that as something in the future that could be handled by AI because it would know who's ask- ing questions and it would know what those benefits are and could answer a lot of those questions on its own. But, certainly, that's the future — we're obviously not there yet." And with HR sitting in between people and business, it's well-placed to facilitate how automation impacts organi- zations, says Ward. "As a sector, HR generally is still working on learning how automation can fit into the services we offer. But I also know HR people are resilient and creative people so I know it wouldn't take much to incorporate that into the services they're thinking about." Jenny Poulos senior vice-president of workforce strategy and employee experience in HR at RBC in Toronto The financial institution has about 60,000 employees in Canada Bryan Ward manager of HR information systems in HR at the University of Winnipeg The school has 850 regular employees and 1,900 casual staff Technology's effect on HR is unmistakable. We spoke with four HR leaders about their approach to new tools. HR LEADERS TALK

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