HR Evolution in the Age of Talent Intelligence

This article originally appeared in Forbes.

In a year defined by the stark contrast of looming layoffs and a continued skilled worker shortage, it’s likely that 2023 will highlight the importance of HR’s role in leveraging data-driven insights.

At the end of last year, recruiting was a top priority for 46% of HR leaders, with enterprises revamping sourcing strategies to meet the demand. At the same time, 61% of business leaders were predicting layoffs at their companies. None of that slowed the nation’s quit rate, which landed at 4.1 million workers for the month of December 2022, the same time Robert Half’s “Job Optimism Survey” reported that 46% of professionals were looking, or planning to look for, a new job in 2023.

Such contradictory data can make an HR leader’s head spin. Figuring out how to manage it all on budgets tightened by economic instability is the icing on a very bitter cake. The answer?

In 2023, organizations need to be creative and efficient in their approach to achieving HR goals when using data-driven insights.

HR leaders need to synchronize talent acquisition, talent management and organizational skills mapping to create an agile and continuously growing workforce. By acting on AI-fueled, data-driven insights, enterprises can gain a better understanding of their organization’s job and skills architecture and plan for future skills demand—that is, if HR approaches talent intelligence properly.

HR’s Role In Talent Intelligence

Here are some tips for HR leaders on how to approach talent intelligence:

  1. Avoid the DRIP Problem

To compete within the volume, speed and disruption of today’s talent landscape, data is king—but actionable information and knowledge are the castle. Amassing data for data’s sake holds little value and can often lead to a DRIP problem: being data rich, information poor. Conversely, organizing, analyzing and interpreting data can provide rich knowledge and actionable insights needed to fuel better business decisions.

Given the continued talent shortage, expedited skills identification can be a great differentiator for high-performing recruiting teams. To source, screen, hire and retain the right employees with the in-demand skills needed for business success, enterprises should focus on harnessing the true value of data. By actively converting insights into strategies, HR leaders can proactively address skills gaps, plan for future skill needs and develop a more engaged workforce.

  1. Consider starting with job architecture and skills mapping.

To remain competitive and future-proofed, HR innovators should evaluate the skills their employees have, those they need and those that will likely become critical in the future.

More HR leaders are starting with job architecture, building a skills framework using unified skills language to better understand their people and spot hidden talent, diverse capabilities and skills gaps. They can then deploy talent efficiently during times of rapid change, scaling teams up or down as needed. Given the economic uncertainty, knowing where the risks lie can empower HR innovators to upskill, reskill and redeploy—rather than lose—good people.

  1. Don’t fall victim to talent scarcity.

Today’s talent shortage has negatively impacted businesses for well over a year, with more than 77% of CEOs reporting the ability to hire and retain skilled talent as an important factor in achieving growth. Traditional sourcing strategies aren’t enough; HR leaders must be more targeted and efficient than ever to navigate inevitable shifts in the market.

HR leaders can aim to expedite time and labor-intensive tasks—like scanning CVs for skills—so talent acquisition leaders can focus on more complex work. The goal is to find the right people quickly and accurately. In working alongside talent intelligence, HR leaders should focus on skills-based candidate profiling to revive past candidates as additional potential hires.

  1. Focus on internal mobility for talent retention.

Pursuit of the right talent doesn’t end once HR leaders hire people into open roles. Enterprises must proactively “recruit” their employees throughout their tenure via professional growth opportunities. Employees without a clear vision of their future within their organization are statistically more likely to leave.

Career development for today’s workers means learning and evolving within a multidirectional framework, with space to explore open roles, projects, gigs or mentorships, and with access to learning opportunities to reach them. As such, HR innovators can identify hidden talent within their workforce and visualize internal mobility pathways through skills development, increasing the likelihood that their best people will look for their next opportunity within the organization rather than leave to seek out other options.

Learning Curves And Challenges With Talent Intelligence

As HR leaders continue to define their role in the age of talent intelligence, it’s important to note the current limitations, challenges and learning curves associated with the technology.

Regulations And Responsible AI

As AI becomes more embedded in HR processes, so does the responsibility placed on enterprise leaders to manage the potential implications of AI adoption and to implement responsible AI principles. Responsible AI sources and screens applicants based on capabilities, masking demographics or other factors that can introduce unintended bias.

Regulations mandating bias audits, fairness algorithms and explainability to ensure responsible AI compliance are already on the rise. Regulations take shape from municipalities to states and globally, with compliance guidelines being defined in real time. Enterprises must continue tracking these developments to ensure their responsible AI parameters are in place.

HR Tech: What’s Working, What’s Not

Finally, the explosion of new technologies and AI-driven solutions in the HR space has put more data and automation in the hands of enterprises than ever before. HR leaders under pressure to make business decisions that fuel success, and to do so under tightening budget constraints, are taking a closer look at their HR tech stack to determine what’s adding value and what isn’t.

Overlap between HR tech solutions, or inefficiencies within them, represent an unnecessary expense that’s no longer considered the cost of business. Evaluate your tech stack to ensure there are no redundancies.

As 2023 continues to unfold, HR leaders can solidify their role in the age of talent intelligence.

 

retrain.ai is a talent intelligence platform designed to help enterprises hire, retain, and develop their workforce, intelligently. Leveraging Responsible AI and the industry’s largest skills taxonomy, enterprises unlock talent insights and optimize their workforce effectively to lower attrition, win the war for talent and the great resignation in one, data-driven solution.

To see it in action, request a demo.

 

Sources:

What Will HR Focus on in 2023? | Gartner | October 2022

When Does Your Salary Become a Threat to Your Job Security? | NASDAQ News | 2023

80% of workers who quit in the ‘great resignation’ have regrets, according to a new survey | CNBC make it | February 2023

Nearly Half of U.S. Workers Plan to Look for a New Position in the New Year | Robert Half | December 2022

 

The Responsible HR Forum Presented by retrain.ai

The conversation around responsible HR innovation and best practices has been growing steadily as enterprises look to ethically pursue equitable, diverse workforce growth. Its importance has further increased given the NYC AI Audit law taking effect in July 2023. 

Up to this point, much of the conversation has taken place disparately, with HR leaders, technologists and regulators operating in silos.

We are thrilled to announce that this May, we are hosting a first-of-its-kind event focused entirely on Responsible HR. We’re bringing together key stakeholders to form a community of HR leaders, technologists, educators, advocates and regulators to collaborate on our collective journey toward designing and adopting Responsible HR practices. 

The Responsible HR Forum

presented by retrain.ai

May 17, 2023

New York City

This full day of exploration and discussion will be kicked off by our esteemed keynote speaker, Commissioner Keith Sonderling of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).

Keith Sonderling, Vice Chair and Commissioner, EEOC

Commissioner Sonderling will discuss increasing Responsible AI regulation as well as what’s on the legislative horizon for enterprises and HR leaders implementing AI-based tech solutions. 

You’re invited to join us as we bring together CHROs, regulators, legal experts, analysts, academics, nonprofits and more for a day of invigorating discussions, shared ideas and key strategies to prepare for this next wave in the future of work.

 

retrain.ai is a talent intelligence platform designed to help enterprises hire, retain, and develop their workforce, intelligently. Leveraging Responsible AI and the industry’s largest skills taxonomy, enterprises unlock talent insights and optimize their workforce effectively to lower attrition, win the war for talent and the great resignation in one, data-driven solution. To see it in action, request a demo

White Box vs. Black Box HR Solutions: What’s the Difference

As AI becomes increasingly embedded in HR systems, enterprise leaders face growing accountability from regulators, their C-suite, applicants, and more to ensure their solutions use ethical, responsible systems to mitigate unintended bias. As a result, Responsible AI is becoming a business mandate, with increasing momentum around laws requiring audits to ensure all benchmarks of Responsible AI are in place.  

One key component of Responsible AI is explainability. Users of an AI-based system should understand how their AI gathers, organizes and interprets data, as well as how the platform produces outcomes.

White box = Explainability

The level of transparency needed to fully explain an AI solution can only be found in what is referred to as a white box solution. With this approach, a full end-to-end view of an AI system’s functionality enables system users to see the what of the system–its data output–while also being able to ask the why–the methodology behind the results.

Such interpretability also allows data scientists and analysts to test the design and internal structure of an AI system in order to authenticate the input and outflow, gauge for errors or inconsistencies, and optimize functionalities accordingly.

What White box Means for HR Leaders

A white box AI solution empowers users to question processes and challenge results, which is especially critical when using such technology within HR functions. Armed with a thorough understanding of their AI solution, an HR leader can be sure their system is performing critical functions, such as mitigating bias risk within its machine learning models. Assured of such mitigation, the organization can stand behind hiring practices that fully support their diversity and inclusion goals.

Black box = Blind Trust

Conversely, there are AI systems for which explanations are too difficult to understand–or aren’t available at all. These are often referred to as black box solutions. In certain settings, black box AI can be useful. The algorithmic complexities necessary in fraud prevention systems, for example, are not explainable in simple terms. 

But within HR functions, a black box system doesn’t allow users to understand how the AI arrives at its conclusions around hiring decision support. As such, there is no visibility to detect errors within the processes, including the presence of possible bias permeating the algorithms.

What Black box Means for HR Leaders

For these reasons, black box solutions represent a significant risk to HR innovators. In the larger sense, they demand a significant level of blind trust. More specifically, by masking information that can derail DEI hiring practices, they render an AI  solution non-compliant in the face of increasing Responsible AI regulation.

retrain.ai and Responsible AI

In providing end-to-end transparency for platform users, retrain.ai is a white box solution. In choosing this methodology, retrain.ai supports the rights of enterprises to know and understand how their HR platforms deliver critical information.

As part of our larger commitment to leading the forefront of Responsible AI innovation in the HR Tech space, retrain.ai works with the Responsible Artificial Intelligence Institute (RAII), a leading nonprofit organization building tangible governance tools for trustworthy, safe, and fair artificial intelligence. To see the retrain.ai difference book a demo

 

 

retrain.ai is a talent intelligence platform designed to help enterprises hire, retain, and develop their workforce, intelligently. Leveraging Responsible AI and the industry’s largest skills taxonomy, enterprises unlock talent insights and optimize their workforce effectively to lower attrition, win the war for talent and the great resignation in one, data-driven solution. To see it in action, request a demo

Disruption That’s Here to Stay: Skills Language & Talent Intelligence 

Across industries, the state of workforce management has been rocked by perpetual change over the last three years. If one truth has arisen from trends like the war for talent and the great resignation, it’s this: People are an organization’s greatest asset. 

Without the right people in best-fit roles, businesses risk obsolescence in a competitive landscape driven by new and evolving in-demand skills. So real is the challenge, a majority of CEOs have reported that the ability to hire and retain skilled talent is their most critical barrier to achieving growth.

Unified Language: The Importance of Skills

For HR leaders, the new world of work demands that talent have the specific capabilities needed in order to succeed in their role. Gone are the days of impressive titles or degrees; in-demand skills are what make or break recruiting efforts. Internal mobility is forever changed as well, with the upward professional ladder climb giving way to a more agile rock wall where skills-based opportunities can come from any direction in a myriad of forms. Roles, projects, gigs, mentorships, learning pathways–all are integral parts of today’s professional development spectrum.

AI: The Rise of Talent Intelligence

To break down every open role and job description into skills needed, or to scan every CV into skills language, would take a traditional HR team more hours than are even close to possible. Yet having a clear understanding of what skills they already have in their workforce, where the skill gaps are located, and which internal or external candidates can bring those skills to the table is critical to future-proofing their organization.

To both expedite the process, and to do so with granular precision, HR innovators are increasingly implementing talent intelligence solutions

What is Talent Intelligence?

Talent intelligence is AI-driven technology that unifies, organizes and interprets a company’s internal data, and combines it with external data on market trends,  emerging skills and labor statistics  in a way that informs and empowers HR leaders to make better workforce planning business decisions. Similar to the groundbreaking capabilities demonstrated by ChatGPT, talent intelligence uses generative AI with similar language processing technology, but expands on the model to provide a fully explainable enterprise-level solution. Built on ethical, Responsible AI means such solutions actively mitigate the risk of unintended bias seeping into machine learning cycles, which can derail DEI hiring practices. 

AI-driven Talent Intelligence and Skills Matching

Using talent intelligence to synthesize the combination of AI capabilities and skills-focused workforce development empowers HR leaders to make faster, better business decisions.

Skills Architecture

Making the best decisions around hiring and internal mobility means HR leaders need to have a clear, granular view of what capabilities their employees have, where the skills gaps lie, and how to future-proof their workforce through developing talent.

Using AI-driven talent intelligence to skills-map an enterprise workforce, HRs can establish unified skills language and an agreed-upon skills framework. Matching it with data insights, they can then align talent decisions with organizational goals.

Talent Acquisition

It’s estimated that in the U.S., it takes more than a month to fill an open position–and that on average, an HR leader must review more than 150 CVs for a single role. Multiply that across a large hiring initiative and there’s a very real cost to an enterprise, including recruiting expenses, time invested by departmental leaders and managers in supporting the hiring process, and the productivity disruption of a prolonged vacancy.

AI-driven talent intelligence helps HRs zero in on best-fit candidates more quickly by analyzing applicants at an atomic level, breaking down their talents into individual skills. Matching applicants with open opportunities, roles or projects based solely on skills means HR leaders can link candidates to best-fit roles with room to grow; and they support DEI goals by eliminating demographic or other information that can introduce unintended bias into the equation.

Talent Management 

As millions of workers quit their jobs during the Great Resignation, one reason continually showed up in the research: Lack of opportunity for advancement. Put simply, at a time when there are more open roles than there are candidates going after them, HR leaders must strategize how to provide employees with a vision for future opportunities that will utilize, challenge and develop a worker’s skills.

AI-driven talent intelligence gives HRs a watchtower view of their workforce, including a granular understanding of employees’ strengths, skills gaps, potential capabilities and hidden talents. Fueled by these insights, HR leaders can provide their talent with personalized career pathing, internal mobility opportunities including roles, projects, gigs and mentorships–providing the kind of positive, proactive employee engagement that’s more likely to retain valuable talent. 

 

retrain.ai is a talent intelligence platform designed to help enterprises hire, retain, and develop their workforce, intelligently. Leveraging Responsible AI and the industry’s largest skills taxonomy, enterprises unlock talent insights and optimize their workforce effectively to lower attrition, win the war for talent and the great resignation in one, data-driven solution. To see it in action, request a demo

VIDCAST: Keep Your Best People Longer with Opportunities to Thrive

Of the millions of workers who quit their jobs over the last two years during the Great Resignation, many cited lack of opportunity for advancement as a major factor. Employees saw investment in their professional development as validation that their contributions were valued and rewarded; its absence sent the opposite message.

Today’s HR leaders must strategize how to hang on to their best-fit hires so they become long-term employees. Much of this comes down to providing a vision for future opportunities in the form of roles, projects and gigs that will utilize, challenge and develop a worker’s skills.

In this session, retrain.ai Co-founder and CEO Dr. Shay David and Chief Research Officer Ben Eubanks of Lighthouse Research discuss how organizations can build a mutually beneficial path forward for valued talent. Their conversation covers:

  • How HR tech can counter today’s quit rates 
  • The connection between internal opportunities and worker retention
  • What we can learn from Great Resignation data
  • The DRIP Problem: Data Rich, Information Poor
  • Implications of the new employer-employee dynamic
  • How AI enhances the human experience at work
  • The importance of Responsible AI and explainability
  • Tips for HR leaders new to using AI-driven tech
  • Talent scarcity as a business problem, not just an HR problem
  • How HRs and hiring managers can align to optimize Responsible AI solutions

 

 

 

VIDCAST: Sourcing and Screening at a Time of Talent Scarcity

In the wake of the Great Resignation, the war for skilled workers rages on, with more open roles than there are job seekers to fill them. Candidates are willing to wait it out to find best-fit roles, demanding (and receiving) higher compensation, more flexibility, community, and an inclusive culture before accepting a full-time job at a traditional employer.

Meanwhile, an open role represents significant costs for an enterprise through both productivity and financial losses; numbers that only compound with each passing day. To avoid such pitfalls, a long-term strategy is needed to navigate today’s talent shortage. 


In the short term, there are immediate measures HR leaders can put in place to get the right people in the right places quickly. These include sourcing and attracting talent through creative recruitment, broadening the talent pool to include active and passive candidates, looking internally for employee mobility opportunities and focusing on skills-based hiring within all of these channels.

In this session, retrain.ai co-founder and COO Isabelle Bichler-Eliasaf and Chief Research Officer Ben Eubanks of Lighthouse Research discuss how AI can invigorate and expedite the sourcing and screening process to help HR leaders hone in on best-fit, diverse candidates faster. Their conversation covers:

  • The biggest hiring challenges today and how HRs are managing them
  • What factors have caused today’s talent shortage
  • The importance of career-pathing opportunities in attracting talent and keep employees engaged
  • How AI and skills-matching can build a talent marketplace to fuel internal mobility
  • How AI can enhance the human experience at work and strengthen DEI goals
  • What constitutes Responsible AI and how does HR tech balance automation and fairness
  • Ben’s 2023 predictions for HR

 

 

 

Update: Responsible AI and the NYC Audit Law Pushed to Q2

UPDATE: The Automated Employment Decision Tool (AEDT) Law (Local Law 144) slated to take effect in New York City, on April 15th will be delayed until May 6, 2023.

On Monday, December 12, 2022, the New York City’s Department of Consumer & Worker Protection (“DCWP”) announced the Automated Employment Decision Tool (AEDT) Law (Local Law 144) slated to take effect in New York City, on January 1st will be delayed until April 15, 2023.

Created to ensure organizations using automated / AI-based hiring tools proactively protect against potential or unintended bias in the processing of candidate information or hiring decisions, the law requires organizations using such tools to comply with mandatory independent audits of AI systems and transparency about their use with candidates. With only months to go, this means the time for enterprises to evaluate their systems for ethical, Responsible AI is now. 

Learn how this law impacts HR Leaders everywhere, not just in NYC >>

Despite its designation as a local law, HR leaders everywhere must remain engaged in tracking its evolution. New York City is the epicenter of the business world, if an enterprise operates and has employees or is hiring employees in NYC this regulation applies to them.

So why the delay? 

The New York City Department of Consumer and Worker Protection (DCWP) is overseeing the rollout of the law. They say the delay is due to the high volume of public comments generated by a public hearing held in November. A quick review of the department’s website shows well over 100 pages of feedback and inquiries stemming from that hearing, including comments submitted by retrain.ai. The DCWP aims to review all input before planning a second hearing.

What sort of questions came up? 

Numerous points were raised, ranging from what specifically defines an AEDT to how regulation can remain effective without stifling innovation. A few specifics included:

  • What sort of qualifications and certifications will be required to select and authorize an independent auditor? 
  • How will data size be figured into the equation, given that some businesses won’t possess the robust data set necessary to accurately determine bias?
  • What options are available to candidates who opt out of the AI-based systems, as is their choice? How will they be assured equal consideration in the hiring process?

A second public hearing will be planned for the first quarter of 2023. In the meantime, we’ll keep you updated in our Responsible AI Hub, where you can also learn what constitutes unbiased, Responsible AI, what to look for in an HR Tech vendor to ensure compliance, and how retrain.ai uses the five pillars of Responsible AI to support the growth of a skilled, diverse workforce.  

To experience a personalized walkthrough of how retrain.ai can help you reach your HR goals, visit us here.

Additional resources

  • Responsible AI and the NYC Audit Law: What You Need to Know Before 2023 – On-demand webinar
  • Responsible AI: Why It Matters and What HR Leaders Need to Know – On-demand webinar

Q&A: The NYC AI Audit Law

UPDATE: Local Law 144 will now go into effect on May 6, 2023.

For organizations using AI in their hiring processes, prepping for 2023 means evaluating compliance with a new law that will take effect in New York City in January, but which will impact millions of HR leaders and job candidates everywhere

Local Law 144, or the NYC AI Audit Law, issues updated guidelines for employers using AI in hiring. Part of a quickly growing practice, AI tools are in high demand for companies looking to speed up preliminary candidate screening and enable efficiency in the hiring process. To avoid introducing unintended bias into those actions, however, the AI must be responsible–meaning fully explainable machine learning systems structured to avoid biases that could skew results unfairly. 

With only weeks to go until the NYC AI Audit Law kicks in, there are still plenty of unanswered questions. In this vidcast, retrain.ai Co-founder and COO Isabelle Bichler-Eliasaf speaks with Rob Szyba, partner and employment attorney at Seyfarth Shaw about aspects of the law that aren’t quite clear yet, including:

  • What specifically defines an automated employment decision tool (AEDT)? How much weight is given to the AEDT as one part of a multi-level hiring process?  [Timestamp: 5:08]
  • Who is performing the mandatory AI bias audits required by the law?  [Timestamp: 10:01]
  • What accommodations are given to candidates who opt out of AEDT interview steps?  [Timestamp: 11:28]
  • How are candidates who opt out assured equal consideration?  [Timestamp: 12:38]
  • What happens to organizations in that are new to AI use in hiring and don’t necessarily have enough data to test their system by the time the law takes effect? Will they be considered in default?  [Timestamp 15:32]
  • The law applies in New York City, but what does that mean for businesses based outside of NYC who have offices or even remote workers based in the City?  [Timestamp 19:02]
  • How can those of us in the AI space convey the importance of ensuring that regulation helps the process without stifling innovation? That it protects AI’s ability to enhance the human workforce experience?  [Timestamp 25:06]

Additional Resources:

Not Headquartered in NYC? The New AI-based Hiring Regulations Will Likely Still Apply to You. Blog post

NYC AI Law Update – 4 Important Things You Need to Know Blog post

A New NYC Law Puts Pressure on Talent Intelligence: Will Your AI Solution Be Ready? Blog post

Responsible AI and the NYC Audit Law: What You Need to Know Before 2023 – On-demand webinar

Responsible AI: Why It Matters and What HR Leaders Need to Know – On-demand webinar

To experience a personalized walkthrough of how retrain.ai can help you reach your HR goals, visit us here.

Not Headquartered in NYC? The New AI-based Hiring Regulations Will Likely Still Apply to You

UPDATE: Local Law 144 will now go into effect on May 6, 2023.

Beginning on January 1, 2023, companies using AI in their hiring practices in New York City must comply with Local Law #144, the Automated Employment Decision Tool Law (AEDT), which mandates independent audits of AI systems and transparency about their use with candidates, among other specifics. 

At its core, the NYC Law–and the larger EEOC statement that preceded it–aim to ensure that AI and other emerging tools used in hiring and employment decisions don’t introduce or augment bias that can create discriminatory barriers to jobs. You can read more about the details of the law in our earlier blog post

While some may believe the new regulation is just a niche city law that only applies to enterprises within the boundaries of New York City, impacting a relatively small pool of employers and job candidates, the reality is that its reach goes well beyond the NYC metro area and even the state as a whole.

Who needs to pay attention to the NYC Law?

Pretty much EVERYONE.

New York City is the epicenter of the business world, with many corporate roads running through it. If an enterprise operates any element of its business through NYC, and if they hire staff for that function, the law applies. 

Enterprises don’t need to be that expansive. Organizations using AI in hiring and promotions practices will need to ensure compliance with the new law if:

  • They have any sort of office or presence in NYC
  • They are based elsewhere but have open positions based in NYC
  • They have open remote positions that may attract candidates residing in NYC

But what if a company has only a single NYC employee, working remotely from their apartment in the City? Or if a global company has just one position to hire in Manhattan–which may be filled by a candidate living in New Jersey or Connecticut? 

It ALL counts. And reaches just about EVERYWHERE.

The geographic reach of the NYC law stretches far beyond the U.S. as well. New York City is a major hub for companies based all over the world and global companies who operate any part of their business–from a US Headquarters to a sales office, to a warehouse team and everything in between–fall under the requirements of the new legislation.

Strategize now for compliance next year.

Add up all the scenarios and you’ve got a massive number of companies that will be under the microscope come January. In today’s competitive landscape, stopping to retrofit HR systems for compliance presents a loss of momentum. Likewise accommodating multiple solutions across geographies or business functions. 

If you’re not sure whether your HR systems are using Responsible unbiased AI, now is the time to find a partner who can integrate with your HR tech stack, forming a unified system of intelligence that actively targets and eliminates unintended bias.

The retrain.ai Talent Intelligence Platform is built on the five pillars of Responsible AI to provide our customers with a transparent and bias-audited system. Our Talent Acquisition and Talent Management solutions help HR leaders hire faster and retain longer, while actively supporting a skilled and diverse workforce. 

To experience a personalized walkthrough of how retrain.ai can help you reach your HR goals, visit us here.

 

Additional resources

  • Responsible AI and the NYC Audit Law: What You Need to Know Before 2023 – On-demand webinar
  • Responsible AI: Why It Matters and What HR Leaders Need to Know – On-demand webinar