AI tools aim to support staff without judgment

{"text":[[{"start":6.76,"text":"When thousands of managers at Merck meet their team members for year-end performance reviews in the coming months, many should be better prepared than usual."}],[{"start":15.84,"text":"The US pharmaceutical company is giving about 5,000 employees early access to an AI coaching tool and is encouraging them to use it for advice on how to approach these sometimes tricky conversations before rolling the service out next year. Betty Larson, chief HR officer, says: “It can provide support to find the right words, the right sentiment . . . and help build empathy when preparing for these high-stakes discussions.”"}],[{"start":40.76,"text":"The Nadia coaching tool provided by US AI company Valence is one of many AI-powered products Merck is offering staff in an attempt to improve their physical, emotional and financial health."}],[{"start":52.56,"text":"Such initiatives are an example of how employers are broadening the use of AI beyond basic productivity tools such as writing emails and summarising meetings, into areas such as employee wellbeing and development."}],[{"start":65.56,"text":"Engagement tools offered by technology companies such as Workday, Microsoft, Culture Amp and smaller AI specialists like Remesh are helping employers communicate with their staff and providing them with a sense of how happy or stressed workers are and whether any part of the business is going off track. Data-gathering tools are compiling dossiers of employees’ work to ease performance reviews. And AI coaching is guiding managers through difficult situations and helping them provide more constructive feedback."}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":94.96,"text":"Corporate access to AI is gradually improving — a study published in August by Gartner, the business research and advisory group, shows that in the second quarter this year, 53 per cent of global workers were expected to use AI in their roles, up from 51 per cent in the first. Of those not using it, 84 per cent said they would use corporate tools if offered."}],[{"start":116.6,"text":"But while many users see value in the way AI can help to identify workplace problems and offer advice, employers and technology providers acknowledge there is a fine line between assisting staff and making them feel threatened."}],[{"start":128.96,"text":"“If it feels like surveillance, people will stop being honest,” says Caroline Rawlinson, chief executive of Culture Amp. “They will lose trust in both the employer and the platform that they use.”"}],[{"start":139.56,"text":"One benefit of AI is speed. Used in engagement surveys, the technology will quickly analyse results, distil key themes and present those to managers, a process that used to take weeks."}],[{"start":153.68,"text":"“Within five to 10 minutes of the survey closing, every single leader could have analysed the results, drafted a communication plan, drafted an action plan,” adds Rawlinson."}],[{"start":164.64,"text":"But employers need to tread carefully to ensure data gained through coaching or sentiment surveys cannot be used to identify poor or disengaged workers."}],[{"start":174.2,"text":"“It’s the analyst, not the judge,” adds Rawlinson. “‘Is this person performing’ is inherently a human judgment call and not something that our AI will answer.”"}],[{"start":184.04,"text":"Similar safeguards are needed for coaching tools. “Some people will trust AI, some won’t,” says Valence chief executive Parker Mitchell. “If you know someone who lost their job because of an AI-based redundancy . . . it could be quite polarising.”"}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":198.4,"text":"But he adds that some users of Nadia have said they are more comfortable speaking to AI than a human manager because they do not feel judged."}],[{"start":207,"text":"Coaching tools can help workers through difficult situations or sensitive conversations such as asking for a pay rise. For some, they are simply a way to calm down after a bad day: “We had a lot of people at the beginning say Nadia is trying to solve my problem too quickly. I actually just need to vent,” says Mitchell."}],[{"start":225.8,"text":"Workday this month released Sana Coach, an AI agent that aims to tie together employee feedback and performance reviews, sentiment and coaching."}],[{"start":234.72,"text":"The aim is to “help people perform at their highest potential . . . not some way to control or manage them [or] catch them doing something,” says Nicole Helmer, vice-president for product, talent management and insights at Workday."}],[{"start":247.64,"text":"Workplace analysts stress caution is needed around AI coaching because it may struggle to pick up on subtle body language or miss the nuance of human conversations."}],[{"start":257.04,"text":"“There are a lot of great uses for AI — coaching, development, wellbeing. But it can’t replace real interaction,” says Daniel Ravid, assistant professor at the University of New Mexico, whose research focuses on the implications of workplace monitoring."}],[{"start":270.8,"text":"Lydia Wu, an analyst at Gartner, says it is crucial that information gathered by AI is passed back to people. “[AI] is very good at detecting [problems] without addressing the root cause, which can be very dangerous,” she says. “Gathering data is easy . . . [but] who is accountable for that data . . . to make sure it is used in a positive manner?”"}],[{"start":295.2,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1793369730_5948.mp3"}