AI for HR and L&D: Start Small, Think Big

Forget the hype around massive AI transformations and budget-busting implementations. What HR and L&D professionals truly need are practical, accessible solutions that address everyday challenges without requiring a computer science degree or extensive resources.

TL;DR:

• Start with simple AI applications focusing on employment lifecycle pain points
• Job descriptions can be enhanced with AI while maintaining your organizational voice
• Technical terms and fear of the unknown often create barriers to AI adoption
• Map your team's activities to identify where AI can add most value
• The goal isn't just efficiency but reinvesting saved time into meaningful work
• Developing good prompting skills is essential for quality AI outputs
• With minimal training, you can save significant time while improving work quality

This candid conversation cuts through the noise to reveal how AI can enhance the entire employment lifecycle with minimal investment. From crafting more engaging job descriptions to revolutionizing performance management, we explore tangible applications that save time while improving quality. Imagine having an AI assistant that helps generate meaningful performance metrics or provides real-time feedback during difficult conversations – these aren't futuristic concepts but accessible tools available right now.

We tackle the elephant in the room: the fear factor that prevents many HR professionals from embracing AI. Technical jargon and constant innovation can be intimidating, but the solution lies in focusing on specific business problems rather than the technology itself. By mapping team activities and identifying bottlenecks, you can pinpoint where AI delivers genuine value. Most importantly, we emphasize that successful implementation isn't just about efficiency – it's about what you do with the time you save. Instead of piling on more tasks, reinvest those hours into meaningful work that leverages uniquely human skills.

Ready to start your AI journey? Begin with accessible tools like ChatGPT or Microsoft Copilot, focus on developing strong prompting skills, and apply critical thinking to the results. With our approach of "start small, think big," you'll quickly develop the confidence to transform your HR and L&D practices. Join our upcoming course where you'll gain practical skills guaranteed to save at least 10 hours monthly – because AI adoption doesn't need to be complicated to be revolutionary.

Exciting New HI for HR and L&D Professionals Course:

Ready to move beyond theory and develop practical AI skills for your HR or L&D role? We're excited to announce our upcoming two-day workshop specifically designed for HR and L&D professionals who want to confidently lead AI implementation in their organizations. 

Join us in November at the beautiful MCS Group offices in Belfast for hands-on learning that will transform how you approach AI strategy. 

Check here details on how to register for this limited-capacity event - https://kierangilmurray.com/hrevent/ or chat https://calendly.com/kierangilmurray/hrldai-leadership-and-development

Chapters

• 0:00 Practical AI vs Theoretical Projects
• 1:30 AI Throughout the Employment Lifecycle
• 3:24 Human Touch vs AI Integration
• 6:00 Balancing Fear with Excitement in HR
• 9:06 Finding Value in Freed-up Time
• 12:24 Building Digital Muscle with Simple Tools
• 15:13 Getting Started with AI in HR

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:04

Everyone talks about big AI theory and big budgets, but HR and L&D professionals need practical examples Claire and affordable AI, not pie-in-the-sky numbers and forever projects. So what can simple HR and L&D AI tasks or work actually look like?

Speaker 2: 0:24

and D AI tasks or work actually look like. I think they need to stop looking at the big blue sky and that big idea, like you said, of these wonderful applications that they can use and integrate. That all takes time and sometimes, like you say, a big budget, starting really simple with a subscription to an LLM or a conversational AI application, can actually start to help them deal with the nitty gritty that they're dealing with day in, day out. So if you think even about the employment life cycle in HR, that's starting with recruitment. So your first impression that you're putting out to those potential applicants is in how you present your organization and the job descriptions that you generate, and I think job descriptions is something that has been talked about since AI first launched itself in the likes of ChatGPT. Oh, it's wonderful for creating these really creative job descriptions, but I think it's about using it more practically.

Speaker 2: 1:22

So think about the difficult decisions or conversations that HR and L&D have to have. So maybe they do need to develop new job descriptions that accurately reflect what employees do in an organisation, and I think sometimes it's best place to do that where you're giving it instruction. That is clear. You're talking to it from an appropriate point in the organisation. You're giving it all the background information to generate something that's going to be useful and then you are putting your spin on it. If you think about other examples in that employment life cycle as well, performance management, I think, is probably one of my favourite ones to utilise AI with, and it's about trying to do things differently to make us more effective and more efficient.

Speaker 2: 2:09

So a significant amount of time is spent when you're looking at the overall strategy, for example, in an organization and trying to translate that into operational plans with individual strategic goals and and what their KPIs or metrics are going to be. Ai can be that research assistant that can help you generate meaningful metrics that accurately reflect performance. But not only that. I've seen some applications that can give managers real-time, real-life time feedback on difficult conversations. So actually measuring what their tone is, how they speak in a difficult conversation, what language they're using, what the likely outcome of that conversation can be something like that's not overly difficult to train and build and those things will actually save HR a lot of time. But it also enriches the quality of work and I like some of those fun examples too. You know, get creative with how you measure your organizational success, because your people are your success, but sometimes HR and LD find it very, very difficult to demonstrate that value and show how that's going to come through.

Speaker 1: 3:25

Yeah, it's difficult though, isn't it? Because if we go back to the top end of what you're saying, you know a lot of people put AI into the workflow for the sake of putting AI in, and that's classic. You know you can write a job description using AI because it's one of the exercises that I actually deliver in some of my learning courses. But, as you mentioned, put in your personality and tone, because the last time I mentioned AI to a business is that, oh, brilliant, we find it really boring. You know, taking people through the induction process, could we give them some AI or a headset that they could use for the two days and you're sort of going?

Speaker 1: 3:57

Well, that doesn't quite feel like the very first key moment of truth where you're experiencing an organization once you physically land. So if you are writing your job description, fine, as long as it doesn't look like a robot, you can actually hold your camera up to your screen and, for 20, use ai to help you take a video of yourself, fix your eyes, fix your speech to make that. You know, in a world of sameness, identical, identicalness. You know, change it a little, but don't use a headset folks to, because your induction process is boring. I think I'll forgive many things. So I love what you're saying there, but there's so many uses as long as it's in the context of what they're first seeing. But what are you seeing is the reaction of HR and learning and development professionals when they see AI being really purposeful for their work, as opposed to a black box or a virtual headset that even they hate and can't understand why they're giving it to people to induct for a couple of days whilst locked in a cupboard.

Speaker 2: 4:55

I think there is a degree of excitement around it because it's changing how we as humans structure our work and that, for me, that is one of the most significant changes in the world of work in a very, very long time. And, bear in mind, I was still around when you received paper-based application forms in the post from applicants, so that to me actually doesn't feel too long ago. But now we're in a space where we can actually hand over what part of what we do to an application that's been trained in our organizational tone, that understands our culture, that understands the structure and style we want information from, and I'm basing this mostly on large language models. You know the simplest forms of AI. That's before you're even layering in a decision making agent that you've trained to look at a workflow process.

Speaker 2: 5:48

I think the excitement is there, but there's still apprehension, ciarán, I think it's a fear, still a degree of fear, because, bear in mind, hr and LLD professionals aren't IT experts and some of the creative applications that you use can get a little bit technical. You know you do have to upskill and understand what it's doing, what it's looking at. Are you using open source code? Is it something you've purchased? That's just within your own environment. There's a whole host of things to think about and I think that degree of fear and apprehension still holds some organizations back from experimenting, and I think we need to.

Speaker 1: 6:28

Yeah, I was going to say I see that fear everywhere, you know. But even when we words like LLMs and small language models and workflow and processes, let's be honest, it isn't really the language of HR and L&D teams, nor is it the language of most teams outside of technology, so I'm kind of not surprised yeah, where their fear is there.

Speaker 2: 6:49

I think I get fearful every time I hear something new in the news about the latest in AI and I suppose agentics has been one of those big rollouts recently and that it still scares me because I'm still getting to grips with. You know how can I use this better in my business as well, because I still own a business. I'm a business owner. I want to do things more efficiently and more effectively.

Speaker 1: 7:12

I still have to learn.

Speaker 2: 7:13

I still have to understand it. I still have to know where is it going to create value? And I think, if you strip it back to basics, this is not about bringing in technology to replace everything that you do. This is about deciding where your bottlenecks are, where are your inefficiencies and where could technology enhance and, suppose, bring the value to HR and L&D. I think one of the simplest ways I can describe this is in an era where people used to request annual leave and it was written down on a piece of card and signed off by their manager and then sent to the HR department at the end of the leave year.

Speaker 2: 7:52

There are systems that automate that food process now, and that's not even AI. That that is the way HR and L&D, I think, need to approach this. Sit down and map out what their teams do, what do they spend their times on, what brings value and what doesn't, and could potentially be replaced by a degree of AI with human oversight, and try to blend the two together, because we know the human mind is that infinite intelligence that we do want to keep in those processes. But leverage these, the artificial intelligence you know. Get it to do the heavy lifting for you, so it will bring some value and bring some return I suppose that's that hi.

Speaker 1: 8:36

Human intelligence and ai combined together should make a better story. And I wonder as well. We drive a lot of efficiencies. You know we talk about doing things quicker, freeing people up. That's the bit that excites me. You know, nobody wants to basically be doing mundane stuff. It might be vital, but you know, rinse repeat, rinse repeat, rinse repeat. After you've typed the same thing in a thousand times it does get a little bit boring. So tech can help that all the better. But I think the real success here is what you actually do with the time that you've suddenly freed because, rather than going home at two o'clock in the afternoon, unless, of course, you work part-time, and then good luck.

Speaker 1: 9:10

You know you really want to reinvest that time and things that really matter, you know and that may include not necessarily, as I call it, job enlargement.

Speaker 1: 9:19

Here's just more work well done for saving time. We'll give you more to do, but it is that job enrichment piece that we need to get people very comfortable with. So how do we teach them basic prompting to allow them to do amazing things? How do we then get into workflow thinking? How do we then add on applications that, as you quite rightly said, may or may not be AI infused or enabled or helping, because that's the danger I see. I see, as soon as you've got AI or an AI hammer, you whack everything with AI and it may not be appropriate. It might be the person key moment of truth that's important, not the technology. So, again, I'd love us to see you know what is it that we should be doing with another, claire, dare I say, 10 hours free the month.

Speaker 2: 10:05

Well, take your course first of all you know that's going to free up 10 hours a week, but in all honesty, um, I do.

Speaker 2: 10:17

I do see this as about as creating a culture of innovators and I I'd actually see it with with normal there I say normal digital transformation in my business, where we bring on a client when you know we go through the motions, you know we, we deliver a roadmap of transformation and we come to the end of that roadmap and start to embed as the new normal and provide support.

Speaker 2: 10:42

When that's done right.

Speaker 2: 10:44

It's then the client and their team that come to me with the suggestions they actually get excited about this time that's now available, the value that they can show, the instant metrics that they have at the touch of a button because they've laid the groundwork.

Speaker 2: 11:00

So I do find that AI is going to probably layer and expedite that a little bit faster, is going to probably layer and expedite that a little bit faster. So as they start to introduce maybe a pilot and scale that they'll see the return, they'll understand how it feels to not do that mundane task anymore and then all of a sudden their brain starts expanding to what else can I use this for? So I do a genuine thing once you kind of get that first pilot released and you see and feel that return. That's when it opens up that innovative creative space and the time that SAFE can be reinvested into learning how to do in-depth prompts or create research assistance or your own GPT for your organisation. You know, whatever you want to explore, I I think it's about us, as humans, developing that further once we get a handle on the basics.

Speaker 1: 11:51

And I think that is the key but get a little bit of digital muscle. You know, I sort of say start small but think big, because this is transformative, and then run hard in between. And if we give people that time back, then it's not about layering on more work and more work and more work and more work. It's actually about just optimizing your time to do, you know, dare I say, better work or the work why you signed up to be HR or L&D professional in the first place. So before we go, claire, what's your favorite tool that you think that anybody could pick up tomorrow morning? Start small, build a bit of confidence, grab some momentum. What do you think we should? What do you? What would you recommend? What do you think we should say to people?

Speaker 2: 12:31

honestly.

Speaker 2: 12:31

I would say just start with a GPT, you know. Start with Microsoft Copilot or ChatGPT or Lama any of those programs and start to build out the competence of your own prompting. So how you prompt the rules that you use, the language that you use. You need to and this is one of the critical skills and you'll see across all of the research from Gartner, mckinsey, everyone that creative thinking and understanding how to prompt and the right questions is actually what's going to give you quality answers. So if you set it to, if you put rubbish questions in, you're going to give you quality answers. So if you set it to you, if you put rubbish questions in, you're going to still get rubbish out. So you need to learn to develop that and have that creative thinking but also critical analysis. Make sure you're reviewing what's coming out the other end and is it something that you've asked for or has it gone a little bit off? But just have fun with it.

Speaker 2: 13:24

I think the tension that's around it when it comes to the workplace is obviously more significant than if you're using it in your personal life. But I think if you can start somewhere that you can actually have fun, that is going to bring a lot of value and save a lot of time. You will feel the difference whenever you do introduce that into the organization. Probably one of my favorite things to do, as I said, is that performance management. If you can put together your organizational strategy, your existing appraisal policy, even your appraisal documents as a HR professional, pull that all together and start to get creative with AI about how you can measure the metrics that come from that and actually have meaningful conversations with employees about performance, you'd be surprised what you could actually develop.

Speaker 1: 14:10

I think you said it there. It's about feeling that difference and the good news is, you know, with very little training in terms of time, you can ask a really great question and then, of course, just like we do in the real world, better questions usually get better answers. And even when we get an answer from some of our team, the advice, as ever, is trust but check. You know natural human skills, and again, we repeat the same thing when it comes to a GPT like Copilot. You know Gemini or ChatGPT or whatever your particular flavor or poison actually is, and the good news is you and I are putting on a course where everybody can learn these skills over a couple of days, so you move literally from potentially zero knowledge to hero knowledge, and if you can't get back 10 hours after the two days in a month, then I would challenge you. I think you can. So look, watch this space. Have more podcasts coming out. We'll have more details about the courses coming out as well.

Speaker 1: 15:09

This doesn't need to be complicated. It doesn't need big budgets. It doesn't need big strategy and big thinking to get yourself started. A little bit of knowledge, as someone once said, goes a very long way If you have a little bit of French. You can have a shower and eat an hamburger, as opposed to being a little bit smelly and starving, and AI is much the same. With myself and Clare's help, we will make sure you eat and we make sure that you enjoy your time in France, or, in this instance, northern Ireland. Clare, until next time. We'll chat soon.