AI in HR | An opportunity, a barrier and a skills gap

Macmillan Davies' 2023 HR Insights Survey which launched in January found that three quarters (78%) of senior HR specialists see artificial Intelligence (AI) and people metrics as central to a more data-driven future for the HR profession, but admit to significant gaps in digital adoption, technology, people analytics and data analysis skills.

Now, almost 6 months later with the adoption of AI gathering pace, our latest poll has found that 55% of HR professionals still feel they only have a little knowledge and understanding of AI. 9% of participants said they felt they were an expert, or they know a lot about the topic.

HR teams needed to build skills and invest in technology to make data-led decisions, which will only become more important for HR to be able to demonstrate ROI on initiatives to prove its commerciality.

To adapt to the future needs of our customers and people, businesses need a strong focus on the future of work, change management, data and analytics. Our research confirms the majority of HR professionals agree, and that AI and people metrics are highly important to the future of HR.

Work needs to be done to support HR professionals to develop and improve their technology skills so that businesses can take full advantage of the understandings possible from people analytics and data analysis. These can help reduce human bias, improve efficiency, increase predictive data decision-making, and drive results, as well as being a tactical and strategic asset to allow more ‘people time’ for HR.

A need to upskill

In 2022 we saw a flurry of Data Analytics roles, but that trend hasn’t continued into 2023. What we are seeing is an increase in requirements for HR Generalist positions to have a more metric/data and analytic skill set, and data literacy. These competency requirements extend beyond just being able to analysis sickness and absence data.

For candidates who are job searching, they need to emphasise on their CV what they do with AI and data - it’s not always about being a number cruncher, but about telling the story the data is giving and using it to make informed decisions.

For those organisations looking to hire into their HR teams, be prepared to invest in training and development. It is more important to find the candidate from a cultural fit perspective and look at how you can develop them. Technology and AI software development are moving quickly, and we now have more data at our fingertips than ever before, so as a relatively new requirement, both businesses, as well as the candidates themselves, need to be prepared to invest in developing these skills.

Get in touch

Should you wish to have a confidential chat with Kerry White to discuss the current HR market or your search for work/recruiting into your team, please contact her directly at kwhite@mdhr.co.uk

To ensure you don’t miss any updates from Macmillan Davies and to hear about our latest events click here to sign up to subscribe to our updates.