How to implement AI into your HR processes + a free takeaway you can use today.
By: Dan Ringen
December 17, 2024
Doesn't it feel like everywhere you look today, AI seems to be impacting everything we do? If you're like me, it can be overwhelming at times but you also don't want to miss out on everything it can help us do. I'm curious, do you use it in your personal life? What about professionally? Are you scared to try it? Whatever your answer is to those questions, I wanted to provide some thought starters and ways you can think about implementing AI into your HR processes as well as something you can start doing today, for free! Let's get started...
1. Smart Onboarding and Orientation Programs
Challenge: Once you’ve hired someone, integrating them quickly and effectively into your workforce—especially in complex construction environments—can be tough.
AI Advantage: AI chatbots and interactive guides can automate large portions of the onboarding process, delivering crucial information about safety protocols, equipment usage, and site-specific regulations. By offering new hires on-demand answers to frequently asked questions, your HR team can focus on more strategic tasks rather than repeating the same orientation sessions.
Quick Win: Implement an AI-driven onboarding platform that offers personalized learning modules, ensuring new employees get up to speed more rapidly and retain vital compliance and safety information.
2. Predictive Workforce Planning
Challenge: The construction industry is project-based and cyclical, making it challenging to maintain balanced staffing levels over time. Without clear insight into future labor needs, you risk either being short-handed or overstaffed.
AI Advantage: Using historical project data and current resource allocations, AI predictive analytics can forecast future headcount needs. Rather than guessing how many foremen, welders, or surveyors you’ll need next quarter, AI will provide actionable insights so you can proactively plan training, redistribute workloads, and mobilize internal talent to where it’s needed most.
Quick Win: Start small by examining a single project’s workforce trends, then gradually apply AI’s predictive insights across your entire operation, from equipment operators to project managers.
3. Continuous Learning & Skills Development
Challenge: Construction methodologies, safety regulations, and technology tools evolve rapidly. Ensuring your existing workforce remains up-to-date is essential for maintaining competitive advantage and compliance.
AI Advantage: AI-driven learning management systems (LMS) can personalize training paths based on an employee’s role, experience level, and performance data. These systems recommend relevant courses, how-to videos, or micro-learning modules—keeping your teams on the cutting edge without unnecessary classroom sessions.
Quick Win: Adopt an AI-powered LMS that identifies skill gaps in your workforce and automatically suggests training content, ensuring your crew always has the right mix of expertise for upcoming projects.
4. Performance Management & Retention Analytics
Challenge: Construction work is often measured in clear-cut metrics—project timelines, safety incidents, cost overruns. But understanding individual and team performance goes beyond basic data points and can be laborious.
AI Advantage: Using machine learning to analyze performance data, feedback loops, and peer reviews, HR teams can identify top performers, highlight areas where additional support is needed, and even predict which employees might be at risk of leaving. This allows managers to intervene early, offering additional training, mentorship, or career development opportunities.
Quick Win: Integrate performance metrics from your time-tracking, safety logs, and project management software with an AI-driven HR platform. The system can then provide actionable recommendations for improving team efficiency and reducing turnover.
5. AI-Powered Resume Screening
Challenge: Finding the right candidates among countless resumes is often the most time-intensive part of the hiring process.
AI Advantage: With an AI-enabled Applicant Tracking System (ATS) designed specifically for the construction industry, you can quickly identify candidates with the right certifications, safety training, and project experience. Better yet, you can start using these tools right now, dramatically reducing the hours spent on manual resume reviews.
Quick Win: Implement Propel People, an AI-Powered ATS designed specifically for construction, that will help automate parts of your hiring process so you can focus on talking to top matched candidates and not reading through resumes.
6. Compliance & Safety Monitoring
Challenge: Construction sites must adhere to numerous health, safety, and environmental regulations. Tracking certifications, ensuring everyone is following safety protocols, and maintaining compliance documentation is a complex, ongoing task.
AI Advantage: AI tools can scan and track compliance records, monitor safety training completion, and even analyze site data (such as incident reports and equipment usage) to predict potential safety risks. Armed with these insights, HR and safety managers can proactively address issues before they escalate—saving time, money, and potentially lives.
Quick Win: Deploy an AI-enabled compliance dashboard that sends alerts when certifications are near expiration, tracks which teams need refresher courses, and identifies patterns in safety incidents that warrant preemptive action.
BONUS: Something You Can Do Today - Personalized career development paths
Challenge: As we continue to see the workforce shift, employees will want more personalized career development paths that align with their goals and ambitions. However, taking the time to write out individual paths for every person in the company just isn't feasible.
AI Advantage: Using tools like ChatGPT, you can provide a prompt with specific inputs that make it personalized and it will help you build a custom career path for that individual. Of course, make sure you read it over and adjust as necessary before sending to the employee but this is a great way to get some thoughts rolling and get something useful to them.
Quick Win: We're going to walk you through how to do this!
First, log into your ChatGPT or similar products (Claude, Gemini, etc.), account
If you don't have one, you can sign up for free on most of these platforms!
Below is the prompt for you to enter, the aspects in brackets are the custom things you'll need to change to make it personalized. NOTE: Do not put any PII into these systems, check with your IT team if you have any questions on what you should and shouldn't enter.
"I am an HR manager at a mid-sized construction company. I want to develop a personalized career development plan for an employee. Please create a comprehensive and practical career plan tailored to the employee’s current role, aspirations, and the company’s structure.
Employee Details:
• Current Position/Title: [CURRENT POSITION]
• Years with Company: [NUMBER OF YEARS]
• Key Responsibilities: [LIST MAIN RESPONSIBILITIES]
• Known Strengths: [LIST TOP STRENGTHS, E.G., STRONG COMMUNICATION, RELIABLE WORK ETHIC]
• Areas for Improvement: [LIST AREAS TO DEVELOP, E.G., ADVANCED PROJECT MANAGEMENT SKILLS, SOFTWARE PROFICIENCY]
• Stated Career Goals: [DESCRIBE THE EMPLOYEE’S SHORT- AND LONG-TERM CAREER GOALS, E.G., TRANSITION TO PROJECT MANAGER, SPECIALIZE IN ESTIMATION, IMPROVE SAFETY COMPLIANCE EXPERTISE]
Company Structure & Potential Paths:
• Possible Career Paths within the Company:
• [PATH 1: e.g., Project Management track]
• [PATH 2: e.g., Estimation/Scheduling track]
• [PATH 3: e.g., Safety/Compliance track]
• (Feel free to suggest other paths if relevant.)
What I’d Like From You (ChatGPT):
1. Identify which career paths align best with the employee’s goals and strengths.
2. For each relevant path, outline the key skills and competencies needed to advance.
3. Suggest practical steps the employee can take to develop these skills, including training programs, certifications, mentorship opportunities, stretch assignments, or online learning resources.
4. Provide a recommended timeline for skill development, including short-term (3-6 months), mid-term (6-12 months), and longer-term (1-2 years) milestones.
5. Suggest how we can measure progress and success over time (e.g., certifications earned, successful completion of certain projects, leadership roles on small teams).
Tone & Format:
• Present the plan in a clear, structured format.
• Provide actionable, detailed, and realistic recommendations.
• Assume unlimited access to typical development resources (e.g., common training platforms, mentorship opportunities within the company)."
Take a look at it, review it, and adjust as needed!
New To Prompt Writing?
We recommend this class from Coursera (It's free!!) to get started on best way to write prompts! Try it out and experiment with writing your own.
https://www.coursera.org/learn/prompt-engineering
Reinventing HR in Construction with AI
At Propel People, we want to be a resource for you whether you use our product or not. So if you have any questions, want to bounce ideas around, or need help getting started on your AI journey, please don't hesitate to reach out to me at dan@propelpeopleco.com. and I'd love to help you however I can!