How AI Identifies Flight Risk and Helps Retain High-Value Employees

High attrition can lead to massive organizational costs, not to mention interruptions in productivity and loss of valuable proprietary information. In an exclusive interview with Sanja Licina, Ph.D., Future of Organizations at Globant, we consider AI as the answer to this challenge. In this article, we talk about: 

• How AI helps in identifying flight-risk employees
• Three AI-led retention techniques
• Technology providers making strides in this space

In a competitive hiring marketplace, organizations cannot afford high attritionOpens a new window , especially when it comes to their top talent. These employees are hard to replace, employers lose team members with essential product knowledge, and productivity is disrupted. This calls for the development of a retention strategy that leverages the latest technologies, such as Artificial Intelligence (AI). We spoke to Sanja Licina, Ph.D., Future of Organizations, GlobantOpens a new window , to explore how AI can play a role in identifying flight-risk employees and candidates. 

Learn more: How to Use Data Science to Retain Top-Tier TalentOpens a new window

How AI Helps You Identify Flight-Risk Employees

Team leaders and HR managers are responsible for identifying disengaged employeesOpens a new window and assessing flight risk. However, in large organizations with a diverse workforce, it can be difficult to spot warning signs and initiate a retention strategy on time. This is where AI comes in.

An AI-powered analytics engine can automatically scan massive data repositories – employee communications, performance records, the participation rate in HR initiatives, time and attendance, and so on – to identify employees who may be looking for greener pastures. 

“AI is used to aggregate and sort through employee interactions and engagements via a shared platform, giving managers deeper insight into organizational dynamics,” Licina explains. “By monitoring employees’ daily interactions with their peers, organizations can leverage AI to sort through these instances and assess patterns to determine how engaged employees are in the organization.”

The biggest benefit is that data analysis occurs in real-time, allowing employers to preempt employees’ movements away from the organization. No longer do managers and HR have to wait for annual reviews or monthly discussions to first discover poor engagement and then identify flight risksOpens a new window . 

“By examining subtle cues and relying on AI to identify shifts in employee behavior, managers can act on attrition and work one-on-one with employees who are at risk of leaving the company. This allows managers to intervene before it’s too late,” says Licina.

For instance, IBM’s patented Predictive Attrition ProgramOpens a new window built on Watson AI can anticipate attrition with 95% accuracy, saving the company US $300 million in retention costs.

Do these massive savings motivate you to employ AI to retain your high-value employees?

Learn more: 3 Ways AI can Improve Employee SatisfactionOpens a new window

Three Other Ways AI Aids Employee Retention

AI isn’t just useful for highlighting disengaged – and consequently flight-risk – employees. Organizations can proactively integrate AI technologies in various facets of workforce interactions. Here are three ideas for AI implementation that can lead to higher retention rates: 

1. AI can help in career progression planning

Career progression and new growth opportunities are among the top reasons why employees choose to stay on at a company. Instead of monotonous 9-to-5 routines, they are looking to solve problems and meaningfully contribute to organizational success. AI can be used for career progression planningOpens a new window through an AI engine that can monitor employee performance to highlight stagnation. This can guide managers toward introducing learning and development (L&D) programs and suggest new areas of growth. 

2. AI can improve work-life balance

The use of AI in improving work-life balanceOpens a new window may seem far-fetched, but it is a rather obvious application of AI. Inconvenient work hours and poor work-life balance are commonly cited reasons for voluntary attrition. AI-based task scheduling can help to align workloads to individual employee preferences, without hindering productivity. At the fundamental level, AI bots can be applied to automatically screen and approve attendance, leave, and work-from-home requests, giving employees greater flexibility. 

3. AI can detect poor culture-fit at the hiring stage

Often, a candidate’s personality, perspectives, and professional desires are fundamentally not aligned to the company’s culture. AI-based recruitment platforms can assess culture fitOpens a new window as part of the recruitment process, ensuring only those candidates with a strong chance of staying with the company, in the long run, are onboarded. 

Learn more: 4 Ways AI Can Help Redesign Employee EngagementOpens a new window

Realizing AI’s Potential for Employee Retention: Promising Innovations 

During the interview, Licina outlined the various ways in which AI is making it easier to find and retain about-to-quit talent. “AI can identify when employees are on the verge of quitting based on the behaviors of past workers who have left the company,” she said. “Additionally, AI can be used to build teams that boost employee engagement and happiness in individual roles. By analyzing soft and hard skills, as well as performance on past projects, AI can help managers build collaborative teams where employees are more likely to work well together.”

In this regard, several HR tech providers are already making strides. For example, AssessFirstOpens a new window brings AI-based predictive hiringOpens a new window to the retail sector. Recruiters can predict which candidates’ interests are in-sync with their company, enabling a longer tenure. Workforce management leader Kronos takes a different routeOpens a new window , offering an AI engine called AIMEEOpens a new window , which can predict flight-risk and preempt employee fatigue. 

Learn More: 

What Is Employee Retention? Definition, Strategies, and Ideas, With ExamplesOpens a new window

Innovations like these mark the first steps into a new segment. As unemployment rates fall and the skills gap widens, employers will be under immense pressure to retain top talent. AI is a significant technology that can aid your employee retention efforts, right from an employee’s first day in the organization. 

Have you implemented AI technology to improve retention rates in your organization? Share your insights with us on FacebookOpens a new window , LinkedInOpens a new window , or TwitterOpens a new window . We are always listening!