I had a fascinating conversation recently with the CEO of Humley, Adam Harrold, about the potential for a conversational AI platform to support HR teams in helping to manage employees’ mental wellness and engagement – especially when dealing with distributed teams.
We know that virtual working is here to stay. With that comes an increasing need for employees to feel connected to each other and to their employers. And it means employers have a responsibility to support their teams’ mental wellness and to ensure they don’t feel disengaged from their workplace.
AI and automation can really help here, from simple task management such as booking holidays (and ensuring employees take enough downtime) to really complex issues such as flagging when an employee might be struggling. Of course, there are ethical considerations here, too. Tracking employee sentiment of employees needs a pre-existing relationship of trust between the employer and its employees and clear communication around the benefits of using AI to assist with mental wellness programs at work.
Keeping virtual teams connected, engaged and well
Let’s look at the context. Research by Humley found that 91% of employees want to work from home permanently, but at the same time, 69% said they’d been moderately or severely impacted by remote working since the pandemic.
There’s a big difference between working from home in normal times and working from home in the middle of a global pandemic, of course, and some people will naturally have a harder time working from home, despite the benefits.
As someone who is used to traveling all over the place for work, I’ve felt the sudden restrictiveness of working from home in lockdown – even though I generally have no problem working from home. What we all need to feel connected is a layer of human interaction across our virtual teams.
Using conversational AI as a support to the HR team
There are a number of practical applications of conversational AI for HR teams. Firstly, there’s the back office or administrative support element. Employees could use a conversational AI tool to help them with simple queries and tasks like booking annual leave. It could also act as a self-service platform, allowing employees to find information and solve problems for themselves. (We know from research that one of the difficulties that virtual workers have found during the pandemic is being able to find information easily.)
A tool like this could also connect the team and help people keep track of their development objectives, ensuring that they feel connected to their goals, and are contributing to the business and their career advancement. It could also be used to recognise and reward the great work people are doing.
Employers could use it to send mental wellness materials to employees, and collect insights via survey data.
Using sentiment analysis to understand employee wellbeing
Arguably the most interesting potential for conversational AI, though, is to use sentiment analysis to spot signs that employees may be struggling, flagging concerns to HR so that they can provide individual, personalised support where it’s needed most.
It’s almost a reflex to say you’re okay when someone asks how you are. Sometimes we will even convince ourselves that we’re fine when we’re not. And even if we realise we’re not doing well, it can be hard to pinpoint exactly what’s wrong, so we probably will opt not to ‘make a fuss’. That can be dangerous (and costly to business): it can lead to burnout, or extended periods of leave.
Conversational AI is now at a stage where it can pick up on the nuances of the way we communicate. That could mean HR teams could intervene and help someone who might be struggling and get them help before things get too bad.
The ethical concerns
Now it starts to get tricky. There’s great positive potential here – HR teams would have the information they need to proactively support the team members who need it the most, for example, people who aren’t getting the support they need, or those who don’t realise that by working all year with no holiday, they’re on the road to burnout.
But businesses must be transparent about using sentiment analysis, and their purpose for doing so. That takes trust between the employer and employee, and a willingness to address employee concerns. This is not a surveillance tool, nor a stick to beat people with. Not everyone will be happy to discuss their mental wellness at work, and it will take trained personnel to deal with serious issues.
But it’s an interesting concept, and one that could – if used wisely – support mental wellness and reduce issues like burnout or long periods of sick leave. In a virtual working world, where our human contact is limited, technology like conversational AI could help us all work better, together.
