COVID-19 has drastically changed the process of communication for businesses, employees, and consumers alike. Although isolation caused by COVID-19 has decreased, a preference towards immediate, virtual communication techniques has remained with the use of chatbots. 57% of businesses agree that chatbots provide large ROI with minimum effort, and 90% of businesses report faster resolution to complaints with the use of Chatbots.
While nearly every business process could benefit from the use of chatbots, many companies are looking to chatbot technology to enhance Human Resources practices specifically. Below, we’ll discuss the benefits of using chatbots like PeopleSoft PICASO for Human Resources, highlighting their contribution to enhanced employee experiences and HR productivity.
How can PeopleSoft PICASO be used in HR?
PeopleSoft PICASO digital assistant is a programmed utility that conducts a natural language conversation with a user, providing immediate information to help users complete tasks. Not only have chatbots created a new standard of communication for consumers to business, but they can also provide a streamlined communication channel for employees and HR staff.
Leveraging conversational AI in PICASO for HR functions can boost productivity in HR departments, freeing up time for HR staff to focus on more valuable tasks. Today’s workforce is becoming increasingly demanding, making it difficult for HR teams to balance the needs of employees with the needs of the business. Human resource professionals must shift their focus from tasks like payroll management to more strategic tasks like shaping the experience of potential and current employees and brand building. These more strategic tasks take more time and effort, but the support of HR chatbots can re-allocate repetitive tasks and take tasks off the plates of HR staff so they can focus on more valuable work.
Chat assistants tailored for HR functions are trained and designed to replicate the tasks of HR staff. For example, before chatbots, an employee who requested a document would seek out HR staff, who would then have to take time to find the document. Using a chat assistant, employees would request the document and get an immediate response, freeing up HR staff from the task of hunting for the document.
In essence, conversational HR chatbots enhance productivity by taking over repeatable, high-volume tasks for HR staff, and instead allow them to focus on more valuable, strategic tasks. Not only do chatbots benefit HR staff, but they also enhance the overall employee experience.
With chatbots like PeopleSoft’s PICASO, employees have more accessible support, as chatbots offer 24/7 support. For example, employees can manage absence requests or have questions about available absence answered using the PeopleSoft Absence Assistant chatbot. Here, employees can uncover current absence balance, request or cancel absence, and make absence requests using status, absence type, or by time period. Using the Benefits Skill Assistant, employees can ask questions about benefits, view or update employee’s benefits enrollments.
If employees wish to find contact information for team members, they can use the Employee Directory Assistant, which allows access to employee general profile information, job title, business and email address, phone, direct reports, and manager information.
Other PICASO functions include the Expenses Skill Assistant, which allows employees to perform expense report inquiries and make Wallet transactions, and the Payroll Skill Assistant, where employees can quickly ask questions about paychecks, or perform self-service transactions like updating direct deposit information.
Chatbots provide the benefit of facilitating streamlined communication between employees and HR, but they also act as a solution to concerns over employee confidentiality. Using chatbots, organizations can promote privacy and confidentiality by giving employees complete control over the data shared with a chatbot. If your organization decides to promote the use of chatbots, you should make sure to highlight the fact that all data shared with a chat assistant remains private and confidential. Doing so will encourage trust between employees and chatbots, and address privacy concerns that HR departments are responsible for.
Chatbots aren’t limited to internal communications within your HR departments and team members. Leveraging chatbots for HR can also help enhance productivity in hiring activities.
For talent acquisition, chatbots can guide new employees through the talent acquisition process, alleviating the burden of high-volume recruiting tasks for Human Resources. For job seekers, AI chatbots can provide instant answers to questions about career positions or any questions that a potential applicant may have. Further, chatbots can take over initial screening tasks and schedule interviews for potential employees. Not only does this enhance the user experience for applicants, but it also helps Recruiters free time to focus on more valuable or difficult tasks, like finding applicants for niche roles or negotiating job offers with candidates.
Using PeopleSoft’s PICASO Digital Assistants for HR functions can greatly enhance the overall productivity of employees and HR staff, but navigating the updates required for PICASO can be tricky. Elire can help your organization leverage the benefits of PICASO. Reach out to [email protected] to discuss PeopleSoft Image updates, and visit our PeopleSoft Services Page to learn more about how we can help optimize your PeopleSoft applications.