How AI Can Support the Mental Well-Being of the Global Workforce
AI has come a far way since it first arrived on the scene, now promising support to HR in managing employees’ mental well-being. Here’s how.
The workplace we know is a far cry from the workplace we knew. As four out of five workers report that the pandemic has negatively affected their mental well-being, new AI-powered platforms represent an extra set of eyes and ears for HR, writes Alejandro Martínez Agenjo, CEO and co-founder of Erudit AI.
This is a trying moment for companies, with four out of five workers reporting that the pandemic has negatively affected their mental well-being. At the same time, those meant to support workers – HR leaders – are navigating furloughs, layoffs, reductions in force, and adjusting to mass remote work. Today clearly presents new challenges, and these new challenges require new tools to support global workers’ mental well-being.
It is in the context of social distancing and dispersed offices that new AI-powered platforms represent an extra set of eyes and ears for HR. AI powers multiple forms of mental well-being assistance in the workplace, including self-service access to health resources and on-demand counseling services. Moreover, new sentiment analysis technology enables HR professionals to understand the evolution of employees’ feelings better and depict trends.
HR leaders need to prioritize employees’ mental well-being and provide them with tools for improving remote communication, maintaining focus, and preventing burnout. Mental well-being must be an employer priority now more than ever, and AI offers a way for HR to provide this support from near or far.
Learn More: With or Without a Global Pandemic, Prioritize Employee Mental Health
Mental Well-Being at This Moment
There is a reason “unprecedented” is regularly used to describe the start of this new decade. Life as we know it is a far cry from life in February, and this is taking a toll on workers juggling remote demands in the face of a global health threat.
70% of people report having had more stress and anxiety at work this year than any other previous year, with no small part of this strain arising from the added difficulties virtual teams face when resolving traditional teamwork problems like conflict and coordination. As a result, 76% of those surveyed in Oracle’s global study say companies should be doing more to support their workforce’s mental health.
HR leaders, in response, are working around the clock to try and keep their employees safe. Unfortunately, however, the traditional methods of tracking employee well-being are no longer sufficient in the remote age. Traditionally, HR teams track employee engagement through absenteeism, meeting participation, employee surveys, and email feedback campaigns. These methods are simply not enough as it is significantly harder to pick up on visual and physical cues that something may not be right while workers are remote.
Learn More: Is Employee Resilience an Indicator of Mental Wellness? Google Offers Resilience Training to Employees
What AI Looks Like in HR’s Mental Well-Being Efforts
With HR stretching to navigate an increasingly digitized workplace, AI is quickly becoming an integral tool to safeguard employee mental well-being. The tech is currently being unlocked by HR to power multiple forms of mental well-being assistance in the workplace – including self-service access to health resources, on-demand counselling services, proactive health monitoring tools, access to wellness or meditation apps, and chatbots to answer health-related questions – to succinctly support workers through whatever they are feeling as they are feeling it.
Further, deeper integrations like sentiment analysis alert HR to things which might have otherwise gone unnoticed. This tech was previously used by businesses to get a sense of how their target audience felt towards their brand by analyzing social media streams. Recent algorithm advances mean that sentiment analysis can now be put to use in the workplace, allowing HR managers to better understand their workforce. These AI tools integrate with workplace communication platforms such as Slack, Microsoft Teams, and Gmail and derive insights on employee mood, stress levels, friction between coworkers, and potential for burnout.
This real-time solution – also known as people analytics – accurately graphs employee engagement without employee surveys and email feedback, both of which frequently offer insincere feedback. Over time, sentiment analysis enables HR professionals to understand the evolution of employees’ feelings and depict trends over days, weeks, months, and years.
An important caveat to mention here is privacy. A sentiment analysis platform like the one described does not display anything related to the content of people’s conversations. It would be used only with the consent of everyone in the organization. The employee communications data pass through a neural network, and only the semantic interpretation is presented to managers using analytics graphs. For HR, this solution privately measures something subjective (emotion) objectively (long-term individual KPIs) to best inform decision making.
Learn More: 5 Crucial Elements of a Workplace Mental Health Platform to Support Managers and Mental Health Success
The Rise of the Robots for Mental Well-Being
The discussion of privacy brings up another pertinent question in the future application of AI for HR: Is the workforce ready for automated tools to support their mental well-being?
Perhaps surprisingly, the answer is an overwhelming yes. A study by Oracle reports that employees actually prefer automated tools more than humans to support their mental well-being. 82% of people believe robots can support their mental health better than humans can since robots provide a judgement-free zone, an unbiased outlet to share problems, and quick answers to health-related questions. And with almost nine in ten global companies already using AI in some way for HR, one can expect employees to only further work alongside these technological tools into the future.
Far from invading employee privacy or facing workforce rejection, analytics tools, and other AI platforms empower HR leaders to be more empathetic and tailored in their approach. It is also an investment that studies show to impact positively upon the company bottom line, with every $1 invested in scaling up treatment for depression and anxiety leading to a return of $4 in better health and ability to work.
As the pandemic shapes up to be a much longer-term reality than many originally expected, mental well-being support will be an ongoing challenge for HR departments. This is why AI tools are so important as they deliver data-backed insights gathered directly from employees to guide companies through this toughest of years.
How do you think data insights support mental well-being during the toughest of years? Share your thoughts with us on LinkedIn, Twitter, or Facebook.
