Employee Engagement
Updated: December 8, 2024
Published: January 30, 2024
It’s no secret that artificial intelligence (AI) has been a game-changer for businesses. In fact, the global AI market is set to reach a valuation of over $500 billion by 2024. Companies are using AI to improve operations, cut costs, and enhance customer service.
As the use of AI continues to grow, it’s important for companies to keep their employees well-informed on how the technology will be used within their own organizations. In particular, Human Resources (HR) will play a critical role in preparing employees for AI’s impact.
So, how do you break the news that your company is jumping on the AI bandwagon? How do you get your employees to engage with AI? How do you address any concerns that they may have? This guide has the answers.
Ready to get your employees onboard and launch a successful rollout of AI? Let’s jump in.
When launching new technology that will impact employees, transparency is key. You need to communicate clearly to your employees why your company is embracing AI, especially when there are companies out there who aren’t embracing the technology. Explain how AI will specifically benefit your company along with the direct (and indirect) impact it will have on your employees’ roles and day-to-day tasks.
For example, perhaps AI will be used to automate repetitive tasks to free up teams to focus on more strategic work or to generate more actionable data-driven insights.
Source: Rezolve.ai
Being transparent about AI’s function within your company will foster stronger feelings of trust and reassurance with your employees, as opposed to a reactionary response (e.g., fear that AI will replace an employee’s position).
Once you communicate that your company will be using AI, it’s time to get your employees involved. By making them a part of the process, there will be less fear of the unknown.
Here are a couple of ways to get your employees hands-on with AI.
Empower your employees by allowing them to be a part of the AI implementation process. Have them test AI tools and provide feedback, including the impact that AI has on their day-to-day work. By actively engaging your employees in selecting, piloting, and integrating an AI tool, you’ll make them feel invested in AI’s success, not threatened by it.
Streamlining daily tasks can help free up your team for cross-training, taking on new projects, etc. Here’s where AI can help, especially if you’re looking to save time with content creation on social media.
GaggleAMP’s AI-powered paraphrasing tool can help supercharge your employee advocacy efforts. The tool not only streamlines the ideation and content creation process, but it transforms and re-words content to give your team unique and authentic content to share on your social media platforms.
Imagine the time your employees will save while still producing quality content that sets your company apart from the competition. That’s the power of using the collaborative efforts of AI and an employee advocacy program.
Not even CEOs are immune to the fear that AI could replace their own jobs. So, it’s crucial to emphasize to your employees that your company is using AI to help them, not undermine them.
Share concrete or prospective examples of how AI will be an asset to your team, augmenting them rather than replacing them. In particular, you’ll want to focus on your creatives and data experts, who are also growing more wary of AI’s growth and continued influence.
Communicate that you are aware of the risks of entrusting AI to conduct highly technical services requiring precision and skill. Remind your employees that complex services ranging from consultancy to penetration testing services will still require human oversight and input.
If you address these concerns head-on, you’ll be met with less hesitancy and rebuttal. Keeping a positive, enthusiastic tone while addressing primary worries will help ease the transition as you integrate AI into your company.
According to Salesforce, 54% of workers say generative AI will help advance their career, but 62% say they don’t have the skills to effectively and safely use it.
Provide your employees with a strong foundation of AI knowledge and skills so they can maximize the power of AI and ease their potential anxiety about AI’s role. Here are a couple of ways that you can help your employees build their AI knowledge and skills.
Make training your employees a top priority. Offer comprehensive training on the fundamentals of AI, followed by deep training on role-specific guidance for applying the AI tool(s). Also, consider using interactive training options like simulations to make learning more immersive and reinforce concepts. For example, Google Cloud offers an introduction to Generative AI to help people wrap their minds around the concept of AI, but there are plenty of specialized options to support employee's specific roles.
Source: Google Cloud Skills Boost
Once training is complete, continue to support your employees with checklists and downloadable templates. Consider creating a resources center on your company website (or employee web portal) where these reference documents can be housed for easy access.
Don’t forget to also revise performance metrics to account for AI-assisted work if needed and to develop new performance criteria that align with AI-supported human roles, tasks, and projects.
It’s clear that AI is here to stay (for the foreseeable future). However, AI isn’t meant to leave your business running on autopilot. Once implemented, it will need to be governed and continually optimized responsibly. By keeping your employees engaged with AI, and allowing them to give honest feedback on AI tools, adjustments can be made as needed.
If you’re ready to diversify your employee advocacy efforts with AI, consider using GaggleAMP’s AI-powered Paraphrase tool. Start your trial today!
Employee Engagement
Employee Engagement
Employee Engagement
