HR leaders’ best bet at AI-driven workforce transformation: Think smaller

Announcements of AI solutions are daily news now — approaching the point of being downright de rigueur for organizations’ workforce strategy. And as the pace of AI integration accelerates, so does the pressure for organizations that haven’t figured it out yet.

But as grand as the opportunity and challenge feel, the best bet for HR leaders to really get started on AI-driven transformation starts at the lowest altitude: the task level. 

“A job is what you hoped to do plus a series of tasks you didn’t sign up for… AI is coming for those tasks,” says Nichol Bradford, the AI+HI executive in residence at SHRM.

Think of the workforce’s daily tasks as increments through which AI will introduce change — task by task — from augmentation to full automation that’s customized to meet business needs. Similarly, new skills (gained continuously) will then be the means through which real workforce evolution unfolds. If these things can be done routinely and in step with one another, the wheels will be set in motion not just for AI-driven workforce transformation, but also for the organization to become more dynamic and agile for the future of work. 

Evolving tasks and learning new skills will both thread, and move, the needle 

The old view of AI displacing workers or taking jobs? It’s evidence of rigid thinking instead of creative integration. The category of “jobs” itself is a way of pigeonholing the people comprising your workforce and holds the organization back from dynamic progress. 

“If you think about it, ‘job’ is kind of a weird construct,” says Chandler Koglmeier, Vice President, Head of Product Expansion at Guild. “It’s really just a collection of actions that an individual does to drive outcomes for the business.”

Instead, Koglmeier advises dropping down to the task level to think much more dynamically about how those activities fit together to achieve the outcomes required in an organization. 

“Think about the transformation opportunity across the business. At the end of the day, the atomic unit of tasks was deeply productive as a way to think about AI-driven transformation,” he said.

The work of identifying your workforce’s tasks

When HR leaders have wanted to dramatically transform their workforce, they’ve had to do it the hard way: by rolling up their sleeves and studying the different tasks that their workforce does, job by job, function by function — a highly manual process. 

“It’s an overwhelming thing to start with, regardless of the size of the organization,” says Stephanie Quillen, former HR transformation leader for Tyson. She describes standing behind workers on the line in Tyson plants, observing what they did on a daily basis, and asking questions in workshops. This information then guided the transformation strategy. 

Manual, yes, but what’s the alternative? 

With the AI solutions we’re seeing emerge, start expecting AI to not only transform your workforce through tasks that are tedious and manual — but to also transform how HR leaders themselves do manual work like identifying their workforce’s tasks. 

Tasks are a starting place, and skilling follows

In an age when transformations come down the pike at a faster pace, it’s critical that organizations figure out how to move quickly, transform constantly. 

While understanding the tasks across your organization is an important first step, ensuring your workforce is prepared for how their tasks will change or grow should be a fast-follow. 

“[We] have transformation after transformation, and with the speed that, for example, AI is moving, the organization has to be much more agile. And from a skills and talent perspective, much more dynamic,” says Kathi Enderes, SVP and Global Industry Analyst at The Josh Bersin Company.  

Yet, the latest research from The Josh Bersin Company reveals that just 7% of companies today have this “dynamic organization” status. These dynamic organizations put people at the center (rather than the job), and they invest in skills development in their workforce so that their people can consistently hone new skills and the work itself can continuously improve.  

For those that do reach “dynamic organization” status, the research shows that the payoff is real. Among other markers of success, dynamic organizations are 3x more likely to exceed financial targets, 31x more likely to engage and retain employees, and 7x more likely to innovate effectively.

So, what’s your best bet for AI-driven workforce transformation? Start by looking closely at your most precious resource — your people — and double down on opportunities to evolve the work they do, task by task, skill by skill, brick by brick. Eventually, it’ll be the hum of how your business operates and will propel you at a steady clip into the future of work. 

About Kelli Billstein

Kelli Billstein is a senior content marketing manager at Guild, writing about topics ranging from talent strategy to education and skilling. She has experience working in higher education and innovative startups, and she enjoys bringing a journalist lens to bold new ideas in workforce development and career growth.