Despite spending a pretty penny on AI technology, many companies aren’t having much luck getting their workforce to use it.
After discovering that its own employees were timid about using AI in the workplace, enterprise software giant Workday spearheaded a program to encourage adoption. Ashley Goldsmith, Workday’s chief people officer, recently spoke with HR Brew about that initiative, and how her own team is using AI.
Adoption boost. Internal research revealed that Workday employees weren’t using AI tools because they weren’t clear on the appropriate use cases. So Workday launched a program called “Everyday AI,” through which it encouraged employees to use and experiment with AI, and learn how it’s already being used within the organization.
To start, Workday held a company-wide meeting in April that CEO Carl Eschenbach opened by discussing his own AI use. Then, Goldsmith said he gave the floor to employees, who shared how they use different AI tools. Workday intentionally focused the event on employee experiences, as they thought these would do more to engage and inspire than a more general training.
“With that, we saw this huge adoption and real enthusiasm,” Goldsmith told HR Brew. The company has also encouraged adoption in other ways, including leveraging a peer recognition tool for AI use, and providing managers with resources (such as prompt cards) to help them gamify AI use within their teams.
As of June, 79% of Workday employees were using the technology, exceeding the goal the company set for itself earlier this year. It aims to further increase adoption rates and mandated that every employee set a goal for AI use, whether that be doubling their usage or leveraging it to reduce hours spent on mundane tasks. Goldsmith hopes Workday’s recently announced AI tools and acquisitions will encourage more use as well.
“We want to take full advantage of and maximize all the efficiency and productivity and assistance that we can gain from within those tools,” she said.
AI in HR. Goldsmith’s team has adopted AI more quickly than the rest of the company, and has seen several successful use cases.
Workday’s recruiting agent, for example, has helped streamline the process of sourcing and selecting candidates. Recruiters saw a 12% decrease in their workloads after the agent was introduced, allowing them more time for critical tasks that were otherwise neglected, including post-interview debriefs.
“That 12% was really quickly redeployed into making sure we had these thoughtful, well-facilitated conversations,” Goldsmith said. “We’re hiring faster, we’re getting really good quality candidates. Everybody feels like it was a great use of their time to interview, because they were really heard and their thoughts were heard.”
The team has also used AI to analyze employee feedback gathered through Workday’s employee sentiment tool, Peakon. The technology analyzes thousands of comments and provides insights and trends, giving Goldsmith’s team actionable insights without having to read every individual piece of feedback. The result: initiatives like Workday’s “work from almost anywhere” program.
“It’s truly game-changing in terms of how you constantly listen to employees,” Goldsmith said. “I think, in the world today, where we know trust is critical and changes at breakneck speed, it’s harder to continue to stay in touch with your employees. To build [and] keep trust at that speed, listening is so incredibly important.”
When spearheading workforce-wide initiatives related to L&D or AI transformation, HR leaders tend to neglect their own employees’ needs, according to Goldsmith. To ensure her team engages with AI, Goldsmith incorporated the technology into a Shark Tank-style competition, during which HR staff present how they’re using AI for a chance to win $1,000. While the competition is unique to her team, it mirrors the broader push her team has spearheaded to encourage more AI use throughout the company.
“I think if we follow the advice we give others, it really does work,” she said.
This report was originally published by HR Brew.
