You're applying for a job; is it ethical for an artificial intelligence bot to review your resume before it gets to a real person? What about your human resources department using a computer bot to track productivity? And is it acceptable to have AI monitor and analyze employee engagement, satisfaction and sentiment without the employees' awareness?
Questions like these are what HR executive-turned-academic Salvatore Falletta examines in his research on ethical and privacy concerns in HR, people analytics and evidence-based decision-making.
"My research, teaching and professional interests lie at the intersection of education, psychology and business," said Falletta, professor of the practice in the Department of Human and Organizational Development and Leadership, Policy and Organizations at Peabody College of education and human development.
PEOPLE ANALYTICS
One of Falletta's areas of expertise ties AI directly into HR with people analytics-using data and analysis to gain insights into an organization's workforce to, hopefully, make more informed business decisions.
Falletta believes people or workforce analytics has tremendous potential to help organizations gain the insights they need to form creative HR strategies. These include tools that measure employee experiences, performance and workforce trends.
But there's a crucial caveat.
"Many organizations will run out and embrace AI-driven solutions, such as resume screening tools and predictive people analytics, in the context of HR. But they do all this without fully considering or understanding the ethical, legal and workforce implications," he said.
"A key to any AI tool is that you always have to keep humans at the center. You should never let AI make a workforce decision all by itself."
Among Falletta's favorite new AI tools are those that can listen to and measure employee feedback and engagement-so long as they do so ethically and transparently.
"This gives employees a voice in real time if organizations do more than just listen and take action," he said.
He said AI tools can also be great for augmenting a recruiter's work, such as helping scan thousands of resumes, as long as the company understands the data used to train the AI tool.
AVOIDING "CREEPY ANALYTICS"
Gathering data on employees and their work also has a dark side, such as organizations pushing the envelope with AI-driven interviewing tools that monitor facial expressions or surveillance tools that take pictures of a worker's desktop movement.
But Falletta still believes people analytics can remain a force for good, if handled correctly. He combined his latest research in a book called Creepy Analytics: Avoid Crossing the Line and Establish Ethical HR Analytics for Smarter Workforce Decisions.
"We're seeing a gradual erosion of workplace privacy due to these pervasive data collection tools, so I tried to offer research and expertise on how companies and organizations in any sector or industry can develop robust people analytics capabilities without crossing the line," he said.
FUTURE RESEARCH
Beyond his continuing work with AI, Falletta's research will analyze employee and leader engagement.
"I'm convinced that the drivers that matter most for a leader differ from employees as a whole, and I want to examine what happens as a result of that," he said.
Vanderbilt is the ideal place for this type of research, he said, in part because of the uniqueness and interdisciplinary nature of human and organizational development.
"We have faculty that come out of the schools of psychology, education, adult learning, technology, leadership and business. So the HOD program sits at this very practical intersection. I'm looking forward to a rewarding career here," he said.
