The Impact of Conversational AI in Improving the Employee Experience

Saharsh Buxy
Saharsh Buxy • 3 Jun, 2022 • 3 min. read

Conversational AI has primarily been used to improve customer experience services in the corporate sector, but recently the same technology is being used to improve the employee experience in the corporate sector as well. 

What does "employee experience" mean?

Employee experience refers to an employee's journey with the company, from the time they apply for a job to the time they receive their termination notice. It's characterized by the interactions and experiences that employees have along the journey, which center around roles, teams, supervisors, the workplace, and employee well-being.

Employee experience in a mixed-mode workplace

Teams are more physically dispersed, more remote, and more adaptable than ever before. This has changed the employee experience with the company, which now spans several touch points and varies contextually depending on where your employees are and what they do, just like the customer experience.

As a result, HR systems can no longer be considered as a single, segregated process that works in unison to create positive employee experiences for the company. Rather, HR brains behind the operation, coordinating with other internal procedures to provide a more uniform and comprehensive employee experience.

From remote onboarding/off-boarding to compensation administration, businesses have adapted to a variety of tools and point solutions that address immediate use-case requirements. Employees' minds have been flooded with the need to switch between many portals and SPOCs to resolve a single query, leaving them disengaged from systems and processes.

In the present hybrid environment, employees' expectations have grown to include how firms can provide them with convenient access to tools and resources to help them put their best foot forward. Employees demand smooth operations that provide them with the right information at their fingertips.

Selecting an integrated solution for the workplace

Human resources leaders around the world are rethinking their current set of tools and technologies to integrate them into an integrated solution that can serve employees from start to finish. A well-integrated workplace solution can improve the employee experience -

  • Employee queries are successfully resolved through their preferred channel at any time, without delay or human interaction.
  • Reduce HR administrative expenditures by 30% by reducing reliance on HR representatives to respond to unnecessary and repetitive questions.
  • Ability to delegate key responsibilities to the HR Team in relation to employee grievances and misbehavior concerns
  • In a hybrid workplace, use employee listening surveys and campaign management tools to boost engagement and make it easier to share organization-level communication with employees on a frequent basis.
  • Integrate L&D modules with performance management solutions to design employees' career advancement with the company based on their professional and personal interests.

In the Conversational AI workplace

To build an omni-channel experience, brands have used conversational AI across consumer-facing channels such as messenger apps and mobile/web-based apps. AI-powered chatbots with natural language processing (NLP) skills have demonstrated their ability to understand customer intent and address inquiries in seconds, thereby engaging and satisfying customers throughout the process.

Building conversational AI on top of your existing array of tools to extend consumer-like experiences, i.e. seamless and simplified, on an organizational level will show to be a win-win for both employees and businesses.

Reduce the number of silos in your internal operations.

Conversational AI-based solutions can assist enterprises to consolidate their current tech suite by bypassing the employee portal or website touchpoints and presenting just in humanoid form, capable of conversing and resolving employee inquiries in seconds.

Answer questions instantly

Conversational AI-based workplace solutions respond quickly to inquiries submitted by employees via their preferred channels and at their convenience. Employees can focus on business deliverables instead of wasting time on several systems/access points to handle their inquiries.

Investigate the pulse of your company.

Moving beyond day-to-day issues, the same platform can be used to constantly check in on employees to see how they're doing. Are their current goals and responsibilities meeting expectations? Are they happy with their current working environment, from tools to team interactions? Do they want to upskill, and to gauge the pulse of your company? All of these questions can be easily answered with an enhanced Omni-channel experience.

Apply what you've learned.

HR professionals may use the built-in analytics capacity to strategize how current systems can be enhanced to improve the overall employee experience by analyzing employee sentiment, the kind of questions, the frequency of searches by days/month, and which channels are often used.

Good EX and a positive business impact are inextricably linked

According to a Forrester survey, 78% of HR leaders believe that employee experience would be the most critical factor in achieving corporate goals. Improving employee engagement over the lifecycle influences their overall experience, aligning with employee expectations of growing and developing with the organization while also creating a productive environment for both employees and the business.

Conversational AI has a simple and intuitive interface that your employees are acquainted with, as well as built-in natural language processing (NLP) capabilities that can understand the employee's intent and answer to requests empathically. The best part of conversational AI is that it's not a one-size-fits-all solution; instead, it learns and re-learns from the best - you and your employees - to keep answering employee-related questions.