BY ESTHER BRAND

Digital assistance – more than just chatting

For employees, the use of chatbots represents the biggest advantage of personalised support. Employees obtain the answers they want to their specific questions and requests quickly and easily, without having to spend ages looking for information, and are therefore able to concentrate on more important tasks. This way of working has been used in the customer service sector for some years, where chatbots have helped website visitors in the form of a pop-up chat. 

The technology has progressed. Whilst chatbots are there primarily to answer enquiries and to interact, modern digital assistants are designed to perform tasks for the user and to help with the day-to-day work. Familiar examples include the AI Chatbot ChatGPT from OpenAI launched in 2022 and voice-activated digital assistants Siri from Apple and Alexa from Amazon. ChatGPT is a chatbot that simulates natural speech and answers questions. Siri and Alexa also answer questions. Furthermore, as digital assistants, they can perform actions such as controlling smart home devices, playing music, making calls or creating memories. 

By automating repetitive and tedious tasks, digital assistants let employees concentrate on more important tasks. This can lead to an improved employee experience and increase the sense that one's own role is meaningful. Another advantage of digital assistants is that they are available 24/7, i.e. they can also assist employees when they are not in the office. This is particularly helpful for employees who travel a lot or work flexitime.

Modern employee support

Sophie – your little HR friend is our digital HR assistant. With Sophie, you are offering employees personal support, automating mundane tasks and facilitating access to company resources such as policies and forms or personal information such as holiday periods or social service benefits. Embedded in Microsoft Teams, it is available at any time and can be used in your web browser, on your smartphone or in the desktop app.
It can exchange information via interfaces with any contemporary HR system and therefore helps employees with their day-to-day work. By connecting to UKG HR service delivery it can, for example, synchronise the UKG knowledge database articles with your repertoire of answers or fill out forms in the employee's name. Approval processes, such as applications for assistance with CPD, are simplified: line managers are notified of their tasks, see at a glance which employee has submitted which application and can directly approve or reject this, without ever having to leave the chat. Additional functions that are not possible with UKG HRSD per se are made possible via the interface. In this way, employees can generate and download an employment certificate within 10 seconds with just a click. In the background, the document that has been generated is duly automatically saved to the employee's digital personnel file. 

Employee experience excellence

There are many software solutions nowadays that have their own app or even their own chatbot. Given the plethora of different systems that are in use in order to cover the entire employee lifecycle, it can quickly become confusing. Sophie is integrated into the HR Campus Suite, which is where the full potential of a digital assistant really comes into its own. Employees no longer have to think about which tool to use to make their request or to find the correct answer. They can use Sophie as the central point of contact instead. Employees have a central location for all HR matters, which produces an integrated HR experience, or even employee experience.
Starting with a friendly greeting when you embark on a job, the digital HR assistant accompanies employees throughout the whole employee lifecycle. It answers automated questions about HR topics, shows where staff regulations are filed, sends birthday reminders, completes forms, launches processes, helps with recording expenses and lists requests for approval, as well as other HR tasks that can be handled directly. Technologically, there is virtually no limit to Sophie's connections and possibilities. An absolute dream of a user experience.

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