AI Gives HR More Time

[00:00:11] Welcome back, everyone, to another great episode of The Human Roll. So this one, we have a very special edition. Obviously, if you're my network, he needs no introduction. David Ngo, who is the HR and Brand Advocacy Manager at Payroll Partners, but also is a host of Speakeasy HR. He's a part of our work-defined community. So really glad to have him back again.

[00:00:36] I know you guys saw the last episode with him last year, but he has lots of things going on that he has been doing over the last year and more things that he is working on for the future. So I love David. Thank you so much for joining in again today. You guys, we got a great topic on AI and HR and giving us more time back in our day.

[00:00:57] But I'd love for David just to get into kind of like what he's been doing over the last year and also what he has upcoming in the future so that we can make sure we keep an eye out on things and check it out. Yeah, well, thanks for having me back. This is really exciting. And yeah, I've been really busy with the podcast the last year. I'm at episode 86 as of today.

[00:01:19] So just knocking out weekly episodes and doing new five, like five minute segment topic, one perspective kind of approach to so it's just me, no guests. So they're called Top Shelf Takes. I did one about how interviewing is a two way street and how culture and just all these different things that I feel like in this one, you know, why AI is going to give HR more time back in their day.

[00:01:47] So that's been a lot of fun doing some Disrupt HR events. I was at the Cincinnati Disrupt HR earlier this year. I presented on the seven F words that impact everything. So you can find that at Disrupt HR and was on a planning team for Northern Kentucky's Disrupt HR. So I've been involved in some events, our community outreach efforts with my role.

[00:02:12] So the HR and brand advocacy is a lot of a blend of HR and community involvement and being involved in the local chambers of commerce and doing some speaking engagements and trying to help hire people for our staff at Payroll Partners. We're continuing to grow and offer great service and technology. So just a lot of different things. Working on a book project. I don't know. I find time to sleep. So I was going to say, when are you sleeping? All the things.

[00:02:41] I feel like our head is relatable because we just repeatedly think about what to do next, how to help our community, how to continue to grow our own business and our own podcasting, getting the word out more. And then prepare for the future, right? Books are a big deal. And lots of surveys going out in our world. But then also, like, just ensuring we are able to get out our experiences to help the next generation, I feel like, is really critical from our side, too. Absolutely. Yep.

[00:03:11] Yep. All righty. Well, he mentioned his pointers, his five-minute pointers, talking about short snippets of very, very important topics, which this one, when I saw it pop up, really intrigued me because I'm always kind of trying to stay on top of the AI world. It is definitely a very helpful tool, especially in our space, having to keep up with laws and regulations. And if you're dealing with companies that are multi-state, that gets to be very, very intense at times.

[00:03:39] I am going to have the clip where David has his, you know, four or five-minute segment on his opinion around AI giving HR more time back in their day and those helpful suggestions. So please be sure to check that out and then come back here. And this is going to be more of a spinoff as I ask him some more questions that I was really curious about as we get into this topic. So I'd love to, one thing, David, that you mentioned was giving us more time back in the day.

[00:04:08] My mind automatically shifts to organizations, right? And even though that's more time back in our day, we would hope to have a better work-life balance, but we know that's easier said than done. But curious if doing that, if you think that in return, that increased efficiency will just become more of like an excuse to where we're giving HR more responsibilities, right? And just making sure if that does happen, we manage that well.

[00:04:33] But curious on why maybe we shouldn't automatically fill that time back with more work and how you think organizations will kind of better evaluate that. Yeah, I think it's going to be very situational in where you are in an organization from an HR standpoint. And one of the stats that I pulled out and talked about on my top shelf take was about 4,500 HR professionals were surveyed last year.

[00:04:57] It was 2026. And the survey had that 41% of these HR professionals were considering careers outside of HR. And that 55% said they had looked for another job in the last year. So what does that mean from an HR profession as a whole? You know, people are burned out. People are wanting to leave HR. They're getting more dumped on their plate.

[00:05:22] So I think in this time and where we are in our workplace changing with the AI and technology out there and becoming more and more prevalent that it's going to be around, it's really about how everyone can embrace AI and use it in their day-to-day functions to eliminate a lot of those repetitive tasks, which I think a lot of people have figured out. But if it really is giving time back in your day, you know, what are you going to do with that time?

[00:05:50] And I think a few things that people will need to figure out, and if they really want to do it, it's get away from their desk, get outside of their four walls at their office or at home and network, meet people, mentor, you know, be a mentor or find a mentor and really just use that time to be more intentional with where they want to take their career. You know, you brought up or we had talked about disrupt HR.

[00:06:17] You know, on top of that, you have SHRM and all these different events that go on. And some people go to the state conferences every year. National SHRM. They go to these state conferences and they have it in their annual conference schedule. But from a weekly, monthly perspective, being more human connection specific with your time versus just filling it with other work,

[00:06:41] I think it's really going to help differentiate people that will be successful versus people that may struggle, maybe burned out, maybe thinking about leaving HR. So we're at this kind of crossroads right now. And it's a really intriguing time to not only be in the workplace, but to be in HR as well. Yeah, I think, sorry, I did want to also pick your brain because you mentioned more human HR, right, in your clip.

[00:07:08] And it really did resonate with me just because if we are not doing these repetitive type of tasks, if we're not having to necessarily be stuck behind the computer for so many hours a day and just making sure we got proper documentation and we're studying the laws and making sure the handbook is updated properly, all that stuff. If we don't have to do that, even outside of just like networking, my thought process when it came to that was, what if we get in front of the employee population more?

[00:07:37] What if we just do more outreach? What if, you know, if you're, if you have employees that are at different site locations, could you travel and, you know, have breakfast, take them to lunch, sit and actually talk instead of just sending a survey link out and building that kind of cadence with them. And that way, hopefully they trust HR more. You know, so I was curious on what you truly meant about the more time in HR. So I do appreciate the networking, making sure you are surrounded by colleagues and having people that understand what you're going through

[00:08:07] and people that you can kind of lean on for advisory support. But what are your thoughts on maybe giving that back into the population a little bit more? Not that we want to put more and more hours in because we want a better work-life balance, but just curious on what your thoughts would be there too. Yeah, that is a great point. And I think if, you know, again, I think everyone has to look at their situation. When I was in healthcare and I was going out to primary care offices,

[00:08:33] every time people saw me, they assumed people were getting fired or written up. So I tried to make it a well-known fact that if you saw me, it might be good and it might be bad. Like I might be giving somebody a, you know, kudos for doing their job and giving them some kind of award or just meeting and trying to talk to the staff more.

[00:08:56] So anything you can do to increase human connection with your time that is going back in your day because you're using AI tools, whether it's in the office, at other locations, with the manager group, that is so critical and so important because you might not have time right now to do that and do check-ins with your managers. Like, hey, can we do a 10-minute check-in on a monthly basis? And put that into your day, into your week, into your month,

[00:09:25] and really help connect with those people who you are going to have to help navigate through conversations with their team. Uncomfortable conversations. And the situations where they may not feel comfortable doing on their own. So anything you can do to help build the respect and loyalty and connection with your managers that you are interacting with,

[00:09:51] I think that is another great example of what you can do with more time in your day, for sure. Yeah, absolutely. I agree. Just being more present in the business, right, is definitely a key factor. And a lot of times people don't really understand what we are dealing with behind the scenes. And to your point, I've had that. If I walked through a room, everyone would be like, what's HR doing here? You know, so you don't want to lose that touch. So that could also be a great benefit using AI for certain mundane tasks and making sure you're being more present there.

[00:10:21] And then, you know, one of the last questions I wanted to ask you, I also thought over the last few years or so as AI is coming about, I know that there's a lot of colleagues of mine that I've ran across that are nervous about AI and not sure what they are going to do as AI kind of like takes over. In my mind, it's this is going to be a tool and then you need to elevate yourself. You need to get your skill set up.

[00:10:47] But I'm curious on how you feel like could AI potentially really expose a skill gap in HR? So you mentioned like coaching instead of doing a task, if we need to coach our leaders, if leaders are pushing back on us and we don't know how to have those conversations, do you feel like there could be some exposing there and that might potentially be worrying, you know, people? And if so, any suggestions on where maybe they could potentially get some support in that way

[00:11:16] to maybe help help bridge that gap? Yeah, I think everybody that's put in a managerial role may not be fully equipped to being a great manager and leader. So whatever an organization can do to help elevate their skill set, if there is a gap there and they just they know that they're going to have to work with that individual, you know, figure out what industry they are in and what tools might be available to them.

[00:11:43] And it may not even really matter what industry they're in, but I think just what kind of environment they're in to, you know, really find the right tools to help them practice those conversations. I know there's tools out there where it's like a practicing, you know, it's like a simulation, right, where you're not necessarily talking to an individual on your team, but it's it's like a scenario where you have to go through a conversation and talk to somebody about their performance or their attendance or their errors they're making, whatever.

[00:12:13] And so then these tools will give them feedback after the conversation, like here's where you could have said this. Here's how you should have framed this question. So it's like giving real time feedback. So that's not necessarily the HR team doing it. It's a tool designed to help managers become better, better managers. There's also engagement tools where it can help predict who might be the next few people leaving and resigning because of their motivation levels and their engagement scores and their

[00:12:41] engagement is going down. When do you actually talk to them about what might be going on? Like, hey, you know, what's what's going on? I've seen you're missing work. You're making more mistakes. You know what's going on? Because let's face it, you can't expect people to come to work 100% every day. It just won't happen. And managers before I've heard them say, well, the employee should leave their problems at the door. It's not going to happen whether you want it or not.

[00:13:09] And so the more you can really connect to those people and know about them, but still have boundaries as a leader manager, you can find a way to create a better environment for that individual, for your team. So I think what tools we have now and what will be come in the future as a way to train a manager on those skill gaps, I think someone can become a better manager quicker, but they're going to want it. They're going to need to want it.

[00:13:38] And so it's necessarily not something that HR is going to have to like spend a lot of extra time doing if they don't want to. But you can still obviously coach and develop that manager or group of leaders to become better managers. But again, it's using those kinds of tools that we didn't have years ago to help with the predictability of someone's future at a company. Same with hiring, same with hiring. You know, there's, there's tools out there, assessments that you can really use to help

[00:14:06] predict what kind of success this person will have at the company. So pre-hire, what tools can help you during the involvement with the employees and the employee life cycle before they resign and quit and leave or get terminated. There are tools out there that can help you with that too. Yeah, I did love the mention of the simulation. So it's always really fun too. And I think, you know, my message to just to get it out there to everyone, I've been saying

[00:14:36] this over the last year or so. Just let's not be fearful. Let's just, it's here, AI's here. There's not much we can do about it at this point. But just accept how it can best support you in this field. And if you're unsure about what to do, if AI does take some mundane tasks, maybe you can ask AI. It will spit out, you know, some really good suggestions for you. And I do like what David also mentioned, networking events, getting out there to the conferences,

[00:15:03] just building your HR base, because those are going to be the people that you could really call when you're confused about something or unsure about something. And a lot of times I'll just get tidbits and emails from my other colleagues forwarding me more events going on saying, hey, you need to know this person, or, you know, they may be at lunch or dinner and they say, hey, you need to know Tiana. So that's really critical and very helpful within our industry. And I'm certain, David, like you understand that as well.

[00:15:33] It's just, it's really important to continue to have that relationship across the board. Yeah, definitely. When I say this, I'm pretty confident to say this in a way that will hopefully help ease the fearful individuals out there of AI. Companies, as long as they're hiring humans to do the business and the work to run a business, you're going to have to have people like HR. You're going to have to have people helping connect individuals and groups and teams.

[00:15:59] And HR is going to have a huge, they're going to have a huge role in all of that. So we're seeing all this disconnect and non-human connection that we have with AI and chatbots and technology. Even when you call a company and want to talk to a human, right? That is fewer and fewer times where you're going to talk to somebody, which is why for us and what we do on a daily basis at Payroll Partners, it's you're talking to humans. There's a human element.

[00:16:28] The human connection still exists. And when you have a problem, you're going to call us and we're going to help you. So again, it goes back to your situation and how can you create a customer experience that will be consistent using technology, but also staff to do it as well. And that's where HR is going to have a seat at the table for sure. Yes. HR always needs a seat at the table. Don't ever forget that. You guys out there. But David, it was great.

[00:16:56] I'm glad to at least have you give me some time from your busy, busy day. And great to know that there is a book coming. So you guys want to have David back on when his book is ready and just make sure we get that all purchased. But I really appreciate your insight. And it's really critical. You all just out there, just make sure we are not thinking that AI is going to take our jobs, but instead using it as a tool and figuring out how it can better help us in our day to day instead of getting angry and upset about it.

[00:17:25] So yeah, there we are. But David, thank you so much again. And to everyone out there, click the link to his five-minute clip on his insight on AI giving us more time back in our day. And I will see you back in another couple of weeks for another great episode.