The HR checks the login and deducts a leave. “It may also cause future technology and automation aversion in the form of low adoption, increase in queries and grievances on other automated processes, and overall loss of reliability for the HR automation agenda,” Pujara says.Īn employee wants to log in but the biometric is not functioning and later in the course of the day, they forget about the issue. Yashmi Pujara, CHRO, Cactus Communications, opines that such an undesirable outcome of a positively intended automation system will not only cause a massive loss of credibility for HR automation but also for the team running these processes. Therefore, such malfunctions aren’t affordable. It is indeed surprising and unfavourable that such malfunctions have not only gone unnoticed but caused the serious ripple effect of employees being terminated. Ideally, such incidents are flagged by system logs and/or system maintenance teams promptly, thus allowing the process owner to alert users and factor in system downtime appropriately. And this whole Amazon fiasco has made us think: Should all HR processes be automated? Is there a need for closer interaction between the HR and Tech departments in the current age of increasing digitalization?Īnd on the flip side, with the growing automation of HR processes, will the accountability of the smooth functioning of the HR department and the overall employee experience shift towards the company’s technology leadership?Įxperts say all technology is vulnerable to system malfunctions. In recent months, we have come across a lot of HR horrors where employees were fired because of errors or malfunctioning in the automated attendance or HR systems. By the way, Amazon is still identifying the affected employees and paying them. Similarly, when an Amazon employee wrote an email to Jeff Bezos in frustration and revealed how she was being underpaid because of an HR system error, it led to a major internal investigation by Bezos. When Amazon’s contract employees revealed they were being fired just because Amazon’s tracking algorithm found them inappropriate, it was a shocker. Getting fired by a bot or being underpaid because of an HR robot is quite hysterical. For negative enforcement, automation data should be used to evaluate and assist decision making by skilled professionals.Well, HR automation horrors are no more hidden! Take the example of Amazon’s worst HR debacle. Automation should promote positive enforcement.
Ravi Maithani, Head of People and Culture, Tide (India), believes that employees are not a commodity and human behaviour or interaction is complex but desired.