HR and AI – Where the focus is, and where it should be

Dr. Harold Hardaway, founder of strategic communications and narrative firm Voix House, believes human resource leaders should focus first on job design when adopting artificial intelligence (AI). 

“Most AI mandates and guidance are handed down at the macro level, and HR has a real opportunity to help leaders translate that strategy into something tactical,” said Hardaway, who has over 16 years leading communications, executive messaging, and organizational narrative work. 

“The first place to focus is job design at the employee level: articulating the difference between today and tomorrow for an actual role. What parts of the job can and should be transitioned to AI, and how. That gives employees the clarity they are looking for, and it creates small wins that individuals, teams, and the organization can celebrate along the way. 

“The second place HR should focus is general AI education. Access to a system doesn’t mean anyone knows how to use it or use it well. Giving me access to create agents doesn’t mean I know what an agent is, how to build one, or how to tell when it’s working. Training that establishes a baseline understanding of the technology, and a common vocabulary for talking about it, is critical,” added Hardaway. 

Voix House marks Hardaway’s return to entrepreneurship. He previously co-founded Cardigan, a research-driven culture and employer brand consultancy. Prior to founding Voix House, Hardaway was executive director of Internal Communications at athenahealth and spent a decade at H-E-B, where he led corporate communication and culture initiatives for over 145,000 employees. 

Having spent nearly two decades leading communications inside organizations such as H-E-B and athenahealth, Hardaway has taken his experience to his Texas-based Voix House, which partners with CEOs, executive teams, nonprofit leaders, and event producers. 

Voix House specializes in speechwriting, internal communications, executive communications, event narrative development, and strategic advisory services. The firm serves organizations ranging from nonprofits and startups to enterprise-level companies. 

Hardaway spoke of the strategies that can help business leaders make confident workforce decisions. 

“First, understand what good looks like, so everyone understands the why and the how,” he said. “Too often we take up a cause or pick a path before we actually know what good looks like, in measurable terms, not just emotional ones. If you want to be the premier, most sought-after option in your space, what would the metrics look like if that were already true? Define the benchmarks and baselines you would need to hit, and it becomes far easier for teams to build strategies to get there. It gives the organization a north star to rally around, and it creates alignment all the way down. 

“Second, ask good questions, and don’t shortchange the discovery phase. As people, we lean on heuristics to make decisions, but confident workforce decisions come from testing your assumptions, asking the people closest to the work, not just the people closest to the leader. I have seen many times where the loudest voice, or the person with a direct line to the leader, shapes the leader’s view while the data points in the opposite direction. A quick gut check through focus groups or interviews adds the context and nuance that makes both the decision and the rollout stronger,” stated Hardaway. 

Executive communications, organizational culture, employee engagement, leadership messaging, speechwriting, and large-scale change communication are all part of Hardaway’s experience. He also holds a PhD in Organizational Leadership and has taught as an adjunct faculty at three Texas universities. 

In the Perspectives section of the Voix House website, Hardaway explores topics that include the evolving role of AI in communication, workplace culture, organizational trust, and leadership. 

Hardaway addressed the aligning of analytics with business outcomes to achieve a desired goal. 

“Align on the metrics with the business in advance, before you start measuring, so you’re clear on the desired outcome itself,” he said. “Too often analytics defaults to reporting out on activity: how many, how often, how fast. Activity is easy to count, but it doesn’t tell you whether you’re moving the business. 

“The discipline is to track the indicators and predictors of the outcome you actually want, and only the numbers you can and intend to act on. If you’re not going to do anything differently because of a metric, it’s noise, not insight. That takes a more mature analytics function, and it takes the business and HR agreeing up front on what they’re trying to achieve, so the data has something real to align to,” said Hardaway.