HRchat Podcast
Listen to the HRchat Podcast by HR Gazette to get insights and tips from HR leaders, influencers and tech experts. Topics covered include HR Tech, HR, AI, Leadership, Talent, Recruitment, Employee Engagement, Recognition, Wellness, DEI, and Company Culture.
Hosted by Bill Banham, Bob Goodwin, Pauline James, and other HR enthusiasts, the HRchat show publishes interviews with influencers, leaders, analysts, and those in the HR trenches 2-4 times each week.
The show is approaching 1000 episodes and past guests are from organizations including ADP, SAP, Ceridian, IBM, UPS, Deloitte Consulting LLP, Simon Sinek Inc, NASA, Gartner, SHRM, Government of Canada, Hacking HR, McLean & Company, UPS, Microsoft, Shopify, DisruptHR, McKinsey and Co, Virgin Pulse, Salesforce, Make-A-Wish Foundation, and Coca-Cola Beverages Company.
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Podcast Music Credit"Funky One"Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
HRchat Podcast
SHRM, Balancing Technology and Human Connection with Lila Nazef
"AI is not going to replace workers – it's going to create super workers." This powerful insight from Lila Nazef, VP of Sales and Marketing North America at Neocase and attendee at this week's SHRM Annual Conference and Expo, sets the tone for a fascinating exploration of how artificial intelligence is transforming HR service delivery while addressing common concerns about this rapidly evolving technology.
The conversation delves into the most pressing worries HR professionals express about AI implementation: data privacy, job displacement, and the potential loss of human connection. Lila offers reassurance by explaining how modern platforms like Neocase maintain data security by keeping information within closed systems while leveraging AI's capabilities. She articulates the importance of understanding different generational preferences – while seasoned employees might value face-to-face interactions, younger generations often prefer immediate digital solutions without human intervention.
Perhaps most compelling is the discussion around when AI should replace processes versus when human touch remains essential. For routine transactions like timesheet corrections, automation creates efficiency. However, for sensitive matters involving harassment or employee relations concerns, human judgment and empathy remain irreplaceable. This balanced approach allows organizations to deploy their human resources strategically while improving overall service delivery. The metrics supporting this strategy are impressive: up to 95% time reduction for information searches, 81% fewer HR help desk tickets, and 90% improvement in transaction processing times.
Lila advocates for a measured implementation approach that begins with AI assistants for meeting summaries and information retrieval before advancing to more complex transaction automation. Throughout this journey, communication remains paramount – employees need to understand how AI will enhance their experience rather than threaten their roles. When implemented thoughtfully, AI creates what Lila describes as "super workers" – professionals whose capabilities are enhanced rather than replaced by technology.
Lila and Bill also discuss SHRM25 and other upcoming events for HR pros.
Ready to transform your HR operations with AI that respects both efficiency and human connection? Subscribe to the HR Chat Show for more insights, and connect with Lila Nazef on Lin
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Welcome to the HR Chat Show, one of the world's most downloaded and shared podcasts designed for HR pros, talent execs, tech enthusiasts and business leaders. For hundreds more episodes and what's new in the world of work, subscribe to the show, follow us on social media and visit hrgazettecom. And visit hrgazettecom.
Speaker 2:Welcome to another episode of the HR Chat Show. Hello listeners, this is your host today, bill Bannam, and in this episode, my amazing, fabulous, wonderful returning guest today is Lila Nazef, vice President of Sales and Marketing North America at Neocase, a pioneering SaaS platform for automating HR service delivery. Leela has been on the show before. She's one of my favorite humans in the world of workspace and, leela, it's my pleasure to welcome you back to the HR Chat Show.
Speaker 3:Hi, bill, always a pleasure talking to you and thank you for having me back.
Speaker 2:Beyond my wee introduction just a moment ago, why don't you start by taking a couple of minutes and telling our listeners all about yourself and what you get up to over at Neocase?
Speaker 3:Amazing. Maybe not all about myself, but at least at Neocase. So I've been working in the HR space for the last almost 20 years, from HR transformation and lately, sales, so anything and everything around the employee experience, employee centrics and the software.
Speaker 2:Thanks for listening to this episode of the HR Chat Podcast. If you enjoy the audio content we produce, you'll love our articles on the HR Gazette. Learn more at hrgazettecom. And now back to the show. So the focus of today's conversation is AI and HR, because it's a conversation that's on everybody's lips at the moment. I am currently myself trying to learn a whole bunch of new GPTs to remain relevant. What are you hearing? You have lots of conversations with lots of people. What are you hearing are top concerns when it comes to AI and HR?
Speaker 3:I talk to my clients all the time and partners and it is always the same thing. Everyone has an AI strategy and then, when you ask them, they say, well, we have some to communicate with our employees, that we're going to use AI. They think that robots are everywhere, they're coming, they're taking their jobs and data privacy a robot, my data are going to be accessible anywhere, everywhere. So, with all the hypes that we heard about the AI and how is going to be my experience? I used to go and talk with Jennifer or with Daphne and then she solved my HR problems, and now am I going to talk to a bot and is it really compliant? It's mainly that A lot of concerns.
Speaker 2:They have a roadmap, but really it's just a ai roadmap without anything um coming after that before solving all these concerns okay, so you mentioned just a moment ago, you know, uh, the concern about will I still be able to go and see Jenny to have a real human conversation? How important is it to have real people that you can have conversations with? Or, actually, is AI better because it's more objective?
Speaker 3:Good point. Well, I think depends on whom you're asking the question to. If you're asking the question to the people who've been working in the workforce for the last 20, 30 years, they're more resistant to change and they appreciate going to Jenny have a coffee, have a chat about the kids and get their HR answer answered their HR question answered. But if you're talking to the new generation, the millennials, the Gen Z or Gen X is even worse. They want everything available to them on their phone without having to talk to Jenny, without even needing to know that there is a Jenny that they need to talk to. The truth is, within corporates, you have a mix of all of these people. So how do you define or find something that is a good middle ground for all of them, making the tech savvy people happy, but also the people who like human touch also happy, and keeping them engaged because they are also part of the workforce and they have their value add?
Speaker 2:Well, I like that. Thank you very much. So in your previous answer, you mentioned some of those challenges that we are facing at the moment. So you mentioned job displacement. You mentioned lack of human touch. Compliance, employment laws and regulations are important too. How does Neocase address some of these challenges?
Speaker 3:Let's start with the most critical one based on the conversation with customers, which is the data. Can anyone and everyone access my data? Well, at NeoCase, we use OpenAI, we use AI, but we keep it in a closed circle, so your data are always within your company and, with or without AI, it's still the same people accessing your data. Nothing changes. Your data are never exposed outside of what they were before, so we have to reassure when it comes to that. And the second the human touch.
Speaker 3:Well, I'm having an issue with my payslip. I'm missing three hours because I didn't clock my time. Do I really need a human touch there? No, it's really black and white. I'm missing the three hours. My manager approves it and says, yeah, she was there, Just goes to payroll. But if I'm having more employee relation concerns or I'm having harassment issues, I'm having difficulties. This is where I need to talk to someone. This is where I need the human touch. So I think a smart system to be able to recognize and to appreciate the sentiment where the employee is, and if we detect the sentiment that there is distress, there is employee relation concerns or there is this type of things, we should switch to a human. So AI should not replace the human, but it should replace the task with no added value where a human touch is not needed, and then be smart enough to push it back to human when we need to have these human conversations.
Speaker 2:Okay, so since the last time that you and I spoke on the HR chat pod around AI, have you heard of any changes or advancements, or got any other feedback from the market?
Speaker 3:The market is still going to the same direction, but the things are getting more clear. They're getting more used to what AI can do, what AI should do. I was reading that report from the Josh Persson company and talking about the super workers we're not replacing the workers, we're making them super workers and the different stages of adoptions of AI. So maybe instead of saying AI is going to come and take my job, well, how can AI help me? Well, the first use of AI like first steps, we have to crawl before we run AI assistant. I use AI assistant, so someone who types and takes the notes and does a summary for you while you're talking, while you're in a meeting. Meeting that is known to help between 15% to 30% improvement or time gain for the employees. So, after a meeting of an hour or two hours, I'm not spending half an hour summarizing the meeting. The AI did it for me.
Speaker 3:And then we get to a second stage, which is the agent's improvement, which is the steps where I can give AI all their tasks to do. I get a document. I need to extract the data and put them in my payroll system, for instance, my W-9, my doctor's note. Well, ai assistant or the agent assistant can extract the data on my behalf and put them in the system. So he's not really replacing me, but he's replacing a task where there is no added value to me to do it. And AI has an added value because there is more control and more security in terms of data. So what changed on the market is, instead of people going blind and saying we want AI without really knowing what it is, now the roadmap is becoming more clear, saying let's crawl first, let's get the assistant, then let's go to the automation and then let's have a phase three, phase four and all that, and let's go as the market grows the phase three, phase four and all that, and let's go as the market grows.
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Speaker 2:This idea of a super worker sounds great. You know, we often talk on this show about augmenting your workers. The role of AI is to help folks and to enhance what they're already able to do. My concern is for the more junior knowledge workers, the ones who are coming into a particular job. They don't really know particularly what they're doing, yet they don. Coming into a particular job, they don't really know particularly what they're doing, yet they don't have. They don't have that knowledge. They don't have that expertise, that experience in place. Where do they fit? What? What are the hopes for them?
Speaker 2:I I get the the more experienced, more senior folks. You know you can augment their work, you can help their work, they can become those super workers. But what about the more junior people, nila? How how do they fit into a system where ai is augmenting a lot of the basic work anyway, a lot of the work that maybe they would have been doing at a more junior level? And, and certainly, how, how do they get to rise up to being that experienced person that that is being augmented, that is being a super worker?
Speaker 3:That is a great question. When we think about these more junior people, we usually think about the Gen Z. Well, these people are already super workers, are born super workers because they use AI in their day-to-day activities and life or anything and everything. So for them it is expected to find or to use AI when they start working. So if you compare the more experienced people, you have to train them to use AI to be super workers. But the new ones, they're almost born with it. They're born with a cell phone. Therefore, they're born with the technology and they're this technology saving. They're expecting that. So I think these people will learn the job faster and you don't have to do the change management for them to learn ai or to learn ai because they come with it. Does that make sense?
Speaker 2:yes, it does. I've got my old man uh perspective on this, haven't I that's. I think that's the problem there's me coming at it as a guy in his, in his 40s, but actually these youngins today they already get it, so it's probably not going to be an issue for them. Okay, thank you that that helps. Um, what? What metrics or kpis should hr leaders track to measure the real impact of ai tools on on the employee experience, which is something you and I have spoken about quite a lot before, and productivity?
Speaker 3:The metrics should be based on where you apply AI, because AI is not blind and you apply it anywhere, you have to define. Am I applying it just for information search? Assistant as an assistant? Am I applying it to define the skills for employee interviews? Am I applying it for compensation and planning? So, wherever you apply it, you should check the market KPIs, for instance, the one that I'm very familiar with.
Speaker 3:If you apply just as phase one as an assistant, the studies showed up to 95% time reduction for employees for information search. Up to 81% time reductions for HR operations with HR help tickets. This is what is commonly called the tier zero, so where the employees self-serve themselves if they go directly using a self-service of some sort, and the 81% going to the HR reduction or the HR help ticket reduction is less tickets getting to these people. But even the HR agents, they can use AI to be more efficient um in the ticket that they are receiving. So all of that um equals cost reduction.
Speaker 3:Next one the transactions. We're getting to the stage two, which is the ai agent. For that one um, the report shows 90% time reductions for employee transactions. Why? Because we are securing the transaction with AI, saying, instead of sending a blank email with whatever is in there and then take care of my transaction. Now it's formatted with AI, it's pre-matched with AI. That says well for this type of transaction. Mr Employee, I need that information so we make sure that the collection of data for transactions where people spend most of the time is already correct. So less back and forth, and then we have automate these transactions. So up to 90% time reduction for employee transactions, up to 81% time reductions for HR operations in their head desk tickets. So it's a huge time saving and money savings.
Speaker 3:Now let's go to something that is completely different from my area of expertise what NeoCase does, but I think that the numbers are impressive. Project assignments and creations they show 90% time reductions in managing project creations. Ai does it. In a second, 30% increase in skill watch matching. 25% bias reduction in project candidate decisions just because of AI. And reports go on and on on the different areas of expertise.
Speaker 2:Very good. I feel like every time we have these conversations, your answers get better and you're throwing in more and more stats, so well done to you In terms of garnering employee feedback and then putting that back into the way that AI is working. In your opinion, from the conversations that you've had, what role does employee feedback play in shaping the way AI is integrated into HR processes, and how can we gather that effectively?
Speaker 3:Employee feedback is critical. It is critical. So imagine you are a restaurant owner and then you're serving a meal. Well, getting a feedback on the meal is important for you to have the people stay, eat your meal and come back. So imagine the same thing for a company. You want the employees to stay to work and to be happy. Well, you get their feedback and you understand the challenges and the changes and adjustments that you have to make. So AI, it's not a once and done, it's a constant adjustment, Constant adjustments to make sure that the experience and the effectiveness that you're expecting are there.
Speaker 2:Okay, and as AI tools become more predictive, how should HR approach the balance between proactive support and potential overreach? People are worried about their jobs. They're worried about AI permeating into all aspects of their jobs and into their personal lives. So where's that balance? Give us an idea around that.
Speaker 3:I think the secret is the same. That was working 10 years ago, 20 years ago, even 50 years ago communication, change management and communication. Wherever you introduce a change, it's AI now. It was something else 10 years ago and something else before. You have to communicate. You have to let people know what to expect what the company is expecting from it, but also what the employee should expect from it, how it's going to work, make it collaborative and have champions, and always keep the transparency.
Speaker 3:This is where you find a balance, because something that you know that you see is not that you're not afraid anymore because you see it, or you're less afraid. It's not that monster that you imagine without never seeing. So you create this image in your head. No, it says I'm expecting to use AI in this area. We're expecting to have this. We invite you to be part of the journey. So now it becomes a journey that we take together and we give examples of usage. For instance, we say this manager has 10 meetings in a week and how much time he spends doing the summaries, sending the recaps, how many times he's still in front of his computer instead of being at home with his loved ones, because he's catching up after the meetings, doing all the summaries. Well, he still does the same meetings, but the summaries are done for him, so he has that time back for himself. By giving this real example, real life, it's reassuring the employees that AI is there for a better work-life balance.
Speaker 2:Which is great. Lead on to my next question. You mentioned it just there and you also mentioned earlier on in one of your previous answers that you use note-taking AI tech for your meetings. I use Otter AI. This show is not sponsored by Otter AI. I just think it's very good. What else? What are the tools that you're using AI generated tools that you're using in your day-to-day, and how have those been helping you?
Speaker 3:The main two tools that I use. I use the summary generator for every meeting that I do. It's amazing. So I don't have to be sitting there wondering do I remember what that person said? Am I sure I'm taking the notes right? So that's amazing. That's a lifesaver. And the other thing that I use, even in my personal life ChatGPT. I don't use the basic Google like search anymore, because I'm the one who has to do the search and then to have to combine all the references.
Speaker 3:Ai is more like a conversation with a friend. Say, hey, well, the other day I was looking into changing the decor of my house. I said, well, I'm looking for a mid-century modern and can you give me some notes about it? And then I got an entire text from AI saying well, mid-century modern, you need to use these earth tones, you need to use that, you need to use this. And this is how you combine it. Which room are you interested into? Do you need more references? Should I send you to other links to find the information? If I had to do the same thing the old-fashioned way, it would take me forever, but this is more like having a personal assistant who is powered by all this information online. It's amazing.
Speaker 2:I was doom-scrolling on LinkedIn earlier and I found this amazing post actually by this person who was suggesting a whole bunch of new GPTs to check out. I will share that with you after our conversation today and you can have a look. Okay, we are about to wrap up. Before we do, lila, what's coming up for you? So, beyond SHRM, what else is coming up for you?
Speaker 3:The SHRM is a major event for me in the United States, and then we go into local shows. We'll make sure to keep you posted. We have them all published in our LinkedIn page. We have them also published on our website. Recently, we were in an HR take in Canada. It was snowing. We had an amazing time. It was beautiful. Now looking forward to the next one in San Diego, and in the meantime or meanwhile, we'll be having a lot of online events with our customers. I think the upcoming one this week or next week is with one of our customers, a major bank, bnp or BNP Paribas, if I say it the French way, it's not sponsored by them. They will be sharing their experience using NeoCase AI and the feedback they collected from their employees. We already have hundreds of people registered. Don't hesitate to register or get the download. It is amazing to hear it firsthand from the customer using it.
Speaker 2:Excellent. And then, just finally, how can folks connect with you, lila? So, linkedin, email, whatever you want to share there and anything else you want to mention about NeoCase in terms of what people should check out, what they should learn. It sounds like you're doing lots of cool webinars and all the rest of it. Anything else you want to share there?
Speaker 3:Thank you, bill. Always happy to connect to LinkedIn, don't hesitate to drop me a message. My contacts are available on LinkedIn. I will be at Sherman, san Diego. Come, drop me a LinkedIn, let's have a chat over there, or just come to my LinkedIn and book my time. More than happy to share. We have a lot of things coming on. We have our employee relation topics coming, we talk about AI, we have our document management a lot of exciting things. And if you want to talk about the mid-century decor too, I will be happy.
Speaker 2:Leela, thank you very much for being my guest.
Speaker 1:Thanks for listening to the HR Chat Show. If you enjoyed this episode, why not subscribe and listen to some of the hundreds of episodes published by HR Gazette and remember for what's new in the world of work? Subscribe to the show, follow us on social media and visit hrgazettecom.
