Human Resources is rich in data but often struggles to make it accessible and actionable. As a profession we also live in the ‘grey’ – of course recognizing that People are by very definition different, unique and often require individual approach. Much of the employee life-cycle, now being digital, has meant the rise and relevance of People Analytics has grown hugely in the last few years, but there is still a huge amount of untapped potential in the unstructured data created by, as well as consumed by the workforce.
Qlik Answers – the generative AI solution from Qlik – changes this by allowing HR teams, managers, and employees to ask questions in plain language and receive clear, contextual insights instantly.
In this new age of AI, data literacy is continuing to morph, from needing to have the skills and capability to navigate, create and edit Analytics Dashboards, to simply asking the right questions. Now, access to and intelligence from your data can be directly at hand. Instead of waiting for reports to be created or relying on analysts, HR professionals can use conversational AI to explore workforce data – both structured and unstructured – in real time.
This makes HR more agile, proactive, and impactful form strategic business planning, through tactical execution, as well as every aspect of the employee life-cycle, though there are pitfalls, discussed later. In short, at minimum impact, Qlik Answers is a game-changer.
We keep hearing the statistic (exact percentages vary) that AI implementations are failing, and the investments made are falling far short of the expected return. Of course, we all have to start somewhere, so Qlik approached the situation with their best initiative: 3 implementations driving efficiency and speed here at Qlik, with many more exciting implementations coming in the next few months.
Let’s look at where Qlik is seeing success:
Initially, they focused on their unstructured datasets and developed some extremely helpful tools that have been able to accelerate the time to insights within the HR function at Qlik. These include:
- Employee Survey, sentiment analysis
- HR ‘All Hands’ meetings.
- “Ask Adam” – Qlik’s Eight-fold implementation partner.
In each use case, a set of documents was created and indexed to build a knowledge base, which was then connected to a front-end, user-facing assistant. This process is alarmingly straightforward, meaning the time to gain insights – depending on the size of your document set – can truly be just a few minutes, allowing you to interact conversationally with your data very quickly.
Let’s look a little deeper at each use case to understand what we are doing and the value we are bringing to the organization:
- Employee Survey, sentiment analysis
- Use Case: For each round of Qlik’s semi-annual Employee Engagement survey (delivered through Peakon), they received between 8,000 and 10,000 comments – clearly showing that Qlik employees are engaged, which is wonderful to see.
- While each leader has a very informative AI-generated summary directly from Peakon, it was still not possible to query that huge volume of comments to understand cross-functional sentiment regarding business transformation, progress, and attitudes toward specific initiatives.
- The ability to query comments provides a major advantage in the time spent identifying and acting on suggestions for improvement, as well as knowing where and what is being done well, so that these activities can continue to be prioritized correctly.
- HR ‘All Hands’ meetings.
- If you work in a truly global business, organizing and hosting meetings that fit everyone’s time zones is impossible. While everyone uses some of the AI summary tools available in popular conferencing applications like Zoom, these are still only effective for quickly catching up on a single meeting.
- For Qlik employees, Qlik Answers provides an extended GenAI function over meeting transcripts, agendas, and summaries – so that any member of the HR team, at any time, can simply request a summary of a topic discussed during meetings – and, in many cases, across multiple meetings – where projects span over time.
- A short summary of the topic can be generated in minutes, and best of all, the source of these summaries is always provided – note: 7 sources at the bottom of the answer, showing both the date and timestamp in the transcript – so if more information is needed, you know exactly where to look in which meeting recordings the topic was discussed.
- Ask Adam, our Eightfold implementation partner.
- A similar step was also taken to ensure that all implementation calls for Qlik’s new Talent Management and Talent Acquisition tool, Eightfold.ai, were recorded and transcribed.
- There is now a very detailed set of reference documents that can be used internally as we continue to navigate, configure, and learn about this new platform. Again, topics span multiple calls, and a summary of all this information can be generated with reference to specific dates and timestamps for easy consultation.
- This tool, in particular, is fully available to Qlik’s HR function as the new system is learned and adopted, and all training materials and calls are also made available to all employees via an embedded agent on Qlik’s Intranet site, enabling natural language Q&A with the documentation designed to maximize productivity.
So what’s next?
Qlik continues to test and develop tools to drive efficiencies in HR through Qlik, including:
- Global and local benefits;
- Event FAQs – for example, Compensation Review, Talent Review, Open Enrollment;
- Policy references;
- System use guides.
Qlik is also in the testing phase of the next version of Qlik Answers, which will allow both structured and unstructured data to be examined and used to answer questions. This tool gives Qlik’s HR team the opportunity to act faster “on the fly” and with confidence in the background data, turning insights into conversations.
As with any AI solution, Qlik Answers is not intended to replace the human side of HR – but to amplify it, providing smarter, faster, and more accessible insights.
Article sourcel: Qlik blog.
For information about Qlik™, click here: qlik.com.
For specific and specialized solutions from QQinfo, click here: QQsolutions.
In order to be in touch with the latest news in the field, unique solutions explained, but also with our personal perspectives regarding the world of management, data and analytics, click here: QQblog !