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Have you ever been in a tense situation during a performance review?
Better question: Who hasn’t?
The way companies handle reviews plays a key part in workplace culture, which is the glue that helps keep workers staying put in the company while helping to attract top talent as well. It’s a competitive advantage that small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) desperately need to focus on when competing with much larger organizations for talent acquisition.
Pithy question: Can artificial intelligence help build a stronger culture to help improve culture?
The answer is yes.
Let’s Review the Reviews First
Performance reviews are pretty much ubiquitous in today’s workplace. Most companies perform some sort of check-in, at least annually, to give employees feedback on how well they’ve done and to discuss areas of improvement.
Sometimes, if necessary, action plans are put into place. Compensation, of course, almost always factors into the equation.
The practice has been around for over a century as its origins are probably based off a merit system established by the U.S. military during World War I. And, to help move things along, the Performance Rating Act of 1950 established a system for evaluating government employees through ratings.
When it comes to performance reviews, especially when coaching or constructive criticism is in play, an apprehensive “fight-or-flight” instinct naturally kicks in, sort of like bracing yourself before getting hit by a pitch in baseball.
A recent Forbes article explained it this way: “When you tell someone ‘Can I give you some feedback?’ their nervous system responds the same way as if they’re being followed in a dark alley. That biological fact—not bad software or unclear goals—is why performance management has never worked as intended.”
But steeling yourself during the performance review as a defense mechanism can also steal away the effectiveness of the feedback and cause unnecessary friction between employee and manager. So who wins in that situation?
As Psychology Today wrote: “Performance cycles come under criticism for being time-consuming (if you’re a manager), biased (if you’re the employee), and generally an unpleasant experience (if you’re either).”
AI can help eliminate psychological barriers that make honest feedback less of an honest-to-goodness pain for manager and employee alike. Being mindful of potential AI biases, of course.
It can also be used much more frequently to produce strategic feedback that is almost instantaneous. Discussing an incident, problem or anything else that happened six months ago as part of an annual review doesn’t help much. Being able to give immediate feedback not only takes the burden off the manager but also gives the employee guidance when they need it most.
“AI doesn’t just deliver feedback better,” according to the Forbes article. “It creates psychological safety that makes human honesty possible. When the fear of judgment disappears, truth becomes the default.”
How true.
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No wonder how only 2% of chief human resources officers from Fortune 500 companies say their feedback system “inspires their employees to improve.”
And, guess what? This all ties into workplace culture, which is a key factor in employee retention and recruiting for your SMB clients in a time when only 2 out of 10 employees say they feel connected to their company’s culture.
As Gallup reports, employees who buy into the culture are:
- 4.3x as likely to be engaged at work.
- 5.3x as likely to recommend their company as a great place to work.
- 62% less likely to feel burned out.
- 47% less likely to be looking for other jobs.
Improving culture is simply that important, and AI could be a key part of the solution.
AI and Workplace Culture
In the past few years, AI has been in the news every single day with advances popping up seemingly faster than the time it takes for a needle to pop a balloon.
In today’s marketplace, AI can be found just about everywhere from toy design to space exploration to, of course, many areas of workforce management.
But can AI help improve workplace culture? Absolutely.
What AI does best is improve productivity. It can whip up an email draft in seconds or answer a customer’s question quickly so they can be on their way through self-service. In other words, it gives workers back a precious commodity: time.
Here are some other examples of how AI can help workplace culture:
- Personalized Learning & Growth Plans: AI can help suggest learning opportunities for employees to help them in their career growth.
- Burnout Detection: In today’s workplace where employees are sometimes answering texts, emails and other messages well into the evening, AI can help alert managers that their employees might be on a charted course to Burnout City.
- Recognition: Managers cannot possibly stay on top of everything that employees do, so AI can fill the information gap to flag outstanding efforts that might otherwise go unnoticed.
Don’t get us wrong: AI does not replace human judgment, nor should it. It’s a tool like any other piece of technology to help make life easier for workers. It also needs to be fed accurate information to provide accurate responses.
Meet Pax
PrismHR has already begun integrating AI into some of our products, including our new Applicant Tracking Software and Communication Hub with much more to come.
Additionally, PrismHR is about to roll out an AI chatbot assistant in our products to help support work in the product. It connects to our knowledge base to assist with doing functions within the product.
Look for the PrismHR Pax logo on your favorite solutions soon for places where you and your clients can get AI-generated guidance.
Workplace culture cannot be changed overnight, but AI can help speed up the process.
