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Take a look at the industry professionals that attended last year - you can expect to see similar people this year! Don’t miss your opportunity to meet face-to-face with these decision-makers.

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We want to help you get the thumbs up to attend IA in HR 2019!

We’re back and more excited than ever! And we know you are too. We get that management sometimes says that they don’t understand the importance of attending “yet another IA conference” or attending the same event you went to the year prior.

So we’re here to help explain why we’re hardly “another IA conference,” and how this year’s IA in HR conference is so different from last year, so we put together some details to help you receive approval from your manager. Download the Word document we’ve prepared to help you justify your trip. Simply fill in the missing areas to personalize the letter, and you’re all set!

Almost every month, we come across a study that talks about automation displacing human workers and causing massive job losses. That being said, the world has had concerns about automation since the first industrial revolution in the early 1900's. It’s time that we shift gears and move away from this endless analysis of ‘job loss of millions’ and ‘displacement,’ and instead focus on a more pertinent topic: that of ‘workforce skilling’ and ‘empowerment.’

Flex recently studied and addressed the social impact of automation across their sites. Here are some of their core findings from their study:

There is no such thing as sudden displacement of human labor by machines. Flex is a large manufacturing company with 200,000 employees across 100 sites in 30 countries. State-of-the-art manufacturing, particularly in electronics, requires extraordinarily lean processes and high efficiency. Therefore, automation has always been an integral part of our operations. Machines that offer better precision and speed perform small, redundant tasks. Now with advancements in robotics and IoT, we move to the next level. We are creating more software-controlled environments, that need higher human-machine interface across the entire supply chain. But this is not an overnight process. It goes beyond substitution of tasks and requires that we identify key points of human intervention, set up a collaborative interface across machines and supply chain, marry the product to legacy infrastructure, architect data collection from machines, and so on.

Understanding cross-skilling and upskilling requirements for this scenario is critical for sustained success in business. Over reliance on automation without planned, appropriate human intervention can lead to expensive mistakes (as admitted by even Tesla’s Elon Musk).

Profitability assumptions around automation without measuring social impact on HR is flawed. Automation evangelists simplify the correlation between productivity and profit; sometimes, they use the words interchangeably. Every proposal around intelligent automation includes a financial model analyzing Return On Invested Capital -- often linking massive substitution of labor with machines. The bottom line, stated by consultants, is something like “imagine the cost savings and profitability as you can replace 100 people with this product.”

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The cloud. It’s not a relatively new concept for the world, but for HR, the benefits of cloud computing are still catching on. Supporters of the technology claim it boosts performance, helps recruit the best talent, increases employee engagement, betters innovation, and organizes data. It’s also said that cloud computing has helped close the communication gap that exists between HR teams, employees, and management. 

There are a plethora of technologies out there meant to help the HR professional in their daily job activities. Artificial intelligence, machine learning, and virtual reality are just a few that are on the very long list. Cloud computing is certainly among some of the top attention-grabbing technologies. So, that begs the question:  what are the benefits of cloud computing in HR?

Simply read the entire article to find out six major benefits of cloud computing!

HR employees are usually buried in transactional work that involves data entry and simple math calculations. This type of work can be done faster, cheaper and more accurately using automation. Intelligent process automation, which includes artificial intelligence and related new technology advances, can help deliver consistent people processes – something that has helped many HR operations teams to track and understand returns more effectively. With this in mind, we took a look at the five largest HR processes that you should be automating.

There's no doubt that a more automated future is coming. Employers predict 17 percent of work will be automated by 2020, compared to about 5 percent in 2014, according to Willis Towers Watson. Automation is also increasingly affecting workforce strategy as it vastly expands the potential of (and expectations for) HR analytics. IA is transforming traditional HR functions such as hiring, training and benefits administration; and the execution of all this change demands a strong HR role.The understanding and use of the power of automation may prove to be the dividing line between those who advance in the field and those who are marginalized and, eventually, automated out of their HR jobs.

As automation takes hold, HR professionals will need to re-examine their organizations' workforces and the mixture of full-time employees, part-time employees, contractors and machines. Recent research suggests that automation has not led to significant reductions in headcount at their organizations, but rather it's being used to expand the ability of existing team members to deliver value. In many cases, it will be a major step forward for HR employees to join or begin the conversation on these workforce-shaping topics, in conjunction with IT, operations and other stakeholders.

Building the employee experience is the next competitive frontier for the majority of companies.  In the U.S. alone, employees are quitting their jobs in record numbers and studies have shown the voluntary turnover rate is hovering above 15%. Streamlining work and enhancing the employee experience has become a fundamental imperative for companies as they struggle to maintain a competitive workforce. This article discusses employee experience enrichment through:

• On-boarding with robotic process automation
• Implementing artificial Intelligence in various areas (job candidate interviews, on-boarding with chat bots, learning and development)
  
• And much more!
  
  
  

Modern companies use social media not only to entertain the target audience and build brand loyalty, but also to recruit new employees. Today, with the help of the chatbots available at Facebook Messenger and other platforms, it’s possible to find and hire perfect candidates faster than ever before.

If you want to take your social media recruitment strategy to the next level, take a look at this article to find out why you should build your own chatbot!

It’s a headline all too familiar to HR professionals:  workers fear robots will take their jobs. While there is some genuine fear to be accepted, new research finds many want to start leveraging artificial intelligence in their day-to-day job activities.

HR professionals are also looking to AI to help with Learning and Development, performance management, compensation and payroll, recruiting, and employee benefits. But are they ready for it? HR leaders at Unilever say yes.

In preparation for Intelligent Automation HR, we wanted to exclusively share these presentations with you. Below you will find expert content on: 

• Starting the RPA Journey: Anoop Srivastava, Robotic Process Automation Specialist, Wiley
• Why IA Implementations Fail & How Yours Can Succeed: Will Tyler, Sr. RPA Developer, Change Healthcare
• Rise of the Machine: From Process Mapping, to RPA at the World Bank: Monika Tripathi, Sr. HR Specialist, The World Bank

For HR professionals, this is an exciting time. Chatbots, or computer algorithms designed to simulate human conversations, are recruiting employees, answering general HR questions and personalizing learning experiences. The massive amounts of data being collected can be quickly, efficiently and accurately translated into actionable analytics. The meeting of big data and AI could be the tipping point for HR – the point where the benefits clearly outweigh the concerns.