How Is AI Really Impacting HR?

AI is already inside your HR workflow, whether you planned for it or not, and that can be a problem if nobody sets the rules. We sit down with Eric Schnitzenbaumer, HR Director at RDG Companies, to talk about what AI in human resources looks like when it is done responsibly: faster drafts, clearer policies, better trend analysis, and fewer repetitive questions, all without outsourcing judgment to a chatbot.

We get specific about the tools people actually use at work and at home, including ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot, Claude, and Gemini, and why “it knows me” can be both helpful and a little unsettling. Eric breaks down how he thinks about AI guardrails in HR, especially around privacy and compliance. Anything with personally identifiable information stays off-limits, and AI never gets to make the final call on employee relations, performance reviews, or other high-stakes decisions.

Then we dig into practical wins. Eric shares how an employee handbook agent in Microsoft Teams can answer PTO and policy questions in seconds while still pointing employees back to HR for nuance. We also talk AI in hiring, resume screening realities on platforms like Indeed and ZipRecruiter, and why candidates should learn to work with the system instead of pretending it is not there. Finally, we explore AI for HR analytics like retention trends and early turnover, plus what automation could look like next and why culture still has to be led by humans.

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Transcript

Welcome And Why AI Matters

Crystal 0:00

Hello, listeners, and welcome to Pro Talk Property Management. Today we're talking about AI and human resources, what's working, what's not, and where we need to be careful. And to better help us with this topic, our guest today is Eric Schnitzenbaumer, Human Resource Director of RDG Companies. Eric, this is such a great topic, and I'm so happy you're here to discuss it with us.

SPEAKER_02 0:22

Guest, thank you so much for allowing me to bring the knowledge that I have on this topic into the airways, and let's see what we can get into.

Crystal 0:32

Yeah, I'm I'm really excited to talk about this with you. And to get us started, tell us about your journey. How did you get into human resources and where you're at now?

SPEAKER_02 0:44

Yeah, so I've had a pretty funky journey into HR. Coming out of high school, I spent a couple years in college. I wanted to be a police officer ever since I was probably nine or ten when my brother became a cop. And that was my goal. And then when I got into college, I was like, yep, not for me at all. So I wound up meeting with a couple of recruiters, military recruiters, and I landed into the Navy office and you know they just took me, basically. I was very excited. I I spent 10 years in the Navy. When I first enlisted, I was on a submarine as a culinary specialist. I was a cook. So I did that for just under five years, two different deployments, 15 different countries, loved every second of it. When I was up for orders figuring out what I wanted to do next, I was like, do I get out, still become a police officer? I'm still young enough. But then I was like, no, I want to help people like me get into the military at that time. So I decided to go recruiting, which brought me into uh becoming a Navy counselor. I did that for just over five years, which was the natural transition to HR. I really didn't know what human resources was. I didn't know that's what I was doing until I started looking outside of the Navy. And I'm like, wow, I really enjoy helping people. I really love problem solving. I love helping organizations run better. So what a it was just a natural fit for me to to transition out. And after getting out of the Navy, I stayed in talent acquisition. I went into the education field. I did that for just under a year, but then I realized like leadership is where I wanted to be. So I took time away really trying to figure out what I wanted to do. And HR was still that path. So then I got into leadership in human resources as a manager for two years and then took this HR director role. That's my journey. It's pretty unique, but I love it.

Crystal 2:35

That is a wild journey. That is really it's very different and unique.

SPEAKER_02 2:40

Yes.

Crystal 2:41

I think that gives you such a unique perspective from other HR individuals.

SPEAKER_02 2:45

Absolutely does. Yeah. You're not the traditional going to college, going right into you know the workforce after that. I did the college thing, then I just joined the military instead, then I got out. And even in these leadership roles, I never had a degree up until now. The last three years, I've been going back to school full-time with having a newborn, out of everything that I was doing. I was like, college was never going to be for me, but you know, each step of the way towards my leadership, I I knew that a degree was going to be very helpful, and clearly it has.

Crystal 3:19

So you really just worked with people. You got along with people and you realized that's what you want to do and you wanted to help them and improve.

SPEAKER_02 3:25

Even when I was on the submarine, you know, on a on a sub, even on a ship, like there isn't much morale, minus getting a hot meal three times a day, and I was that morale for the ship, and then I just loved helping people, loved being around people. And even even buddies of mine that I've talked to since I've gotten out, they're like, it makes sense that you're still working with people. I sit at a desk every day, but I still walk around and talk to everybody. I can't just sit in one place, but that's just who I am. I'm a people person through and through.

Crystal 3:58

Right. That's amazing. It's a an amazing mindset to have, especially in HR. Not like people.

SPEAKER_02 4:04

I know, I know. I hate that stereo. I I tell everyone I'm not your stereotypical HR person, oh, like the Toby Flendersons from the office. That is definitely not me. I'm not sitting back there just getting all upset. I'm just, I just want to work with the people, build a good culture, and that that's what I do. That's what I bring to the table.

Crystal 4:22

Right. And I can tell just by looking at you, and I'm sure people can hear it that you have passion for this.

SPEAKER_02 4:28

Absolutely do. Yeah.

Crystal 4:29

I mean, I've only asked you like one question. Yeah. That's coming across.

SPEAKER_02 4:33

Yeah, no, it's great. It's great.

Eric’s Unusual Path Into HR

Crystal 4:35

So now let's get into AI.

SPEAKER_02 4:37

Yeah.

Crystal 4:37

A lot of people have AI assistants. Do you have one? And if so, what's its name and what does it do for you?

SPEAKER_02 4:44

Yeah, so it's I'll I'll I'll tell you a little backstory here right now. So I I went in and and I was going through a bunch of like what I want topics I wanted to talk about, this and that, and then I put in to my AI assistant what I wanted to talk about. A little bit about me, a little bit about just different questions that would come up in in AI with HR. And so I use ChatGPT predominantly. I've been trying to get away from it. I have the claw subscription, I use it regularly, but I just can't get away from Chat GPT. And it's because of my virtual assistant, Jax. So Jax named himself when I when I when I was going through and creating this persona. He's just a 20-year-old HR guy who knows everything about human resources. He makes me sound so smart. So that's my buddy Jax. Uh he's my you know digital HR teammate. He is super helpful when I'm trying to use organize ideas, draft communications, and think through policies. I've been really dabbling in the feature in Chat GPT where you can talk instead of typing everything out. Typing's fine. I do it all day, but I'm just like, I just want to have a conversation. And man, we go back and forth. I'm like, Jack, what are you doing here? Why are you lying to me? And I'll come back, hey, thanks for the right response. It's like I'm having a conversation with myself in my head. Like I tell myself, why are you lying to yourself? But it's just it's just a funny concept of how I can just talk with another professional and they're not real. It's like, it's awesome.

Crystal 6:18

That's incredible.

SPEAKER_02 6:19

Yeah. It's scary, but great.

Crystal 6:21

So I set up mine as Dennis Nedru from Jurassic Park, the guy who uh yeah, unlocks and left all the dinosaurs. When I ask him to do something, he says, Oh, you clever girl, or any kind of quotes from from the movie.

SPEAKER_02 6:36

That is so good. I mean, now I need to do something like that. Maybe I'll make a Toby Flenderson.

Crystal 6:40

It's not really the technical level that of yours. Yeah, absolutely. That's some comedy to my day.

SPEAKER_02 6:45

You need that for sure.

Crystal 6:46

Yeah, it tells me how the dinosaurs are doing after I do something.

SPEAKER_02 6:50

That's so great.

Crystal 6:51

I'm like, oh, I'll ask Dennis.

SPEAKER_02 6:53

Yep. My wife uh was asking me about this, about AI. Like, you use it every day? I'm like, yeah, of course. I'm like, yeah, Jax goes through it every day. She's like, oh, Jax, that one of your new team members. I said, yes. And then a week later I said, that's my AI assistant. And she just thought now I get text messages throughout the day. How's Jax doing? I'm like, I didn't use him yet, but I'll I'll ask him.

Crystal 7:15

Oh, that's so great. I'm same as you. Chat GPT is my go-to. And I think it's also one of those things where once you use it for so long, it's so integrated. Absolutely. Like I can ask it, you know, my mom wants birthday gift ideas for me. What should I get? Right. It become it knows you versus starting on a new platform and starting from the beginning and training and learning.

SPEAKER_02 7:37

Absolutely.

Crystal 7:37

So it becomes difficult to switch over.

SPEAKER_02 7:40

I can't. I I don't I don't see myself getting out of it until I really bring up Claude. But even there, I just use Chat GPT. I've been using it for years and it just knows me. It knows me. It literally knows me better than myself.

Crystal 7:53

Yeah, which is crazy. So you mentioned Cheppet, you mentioned Claude. Have you used any of the others? Gemini, Perplexity?

SPEAKER_02 8:01

Yeah, so I I use Gemini a lot on my personal phone when I'm trying to figure out what meals I want to prepare. You know, I do it a lot for my home life stuff. I take a picture of this outlet, I need a new cover. It tells me exactly the cover, the brings up the website, and I can uh and I say, you know, pick show me where it is on Amazon. Buy everything on Amazon. So it shows me on Amazon where this is, what it is. Literally last night my wife picked up this uh this toy from from a store and she's like, I don't really know what this is, but I think it connects to the iPad and it's for our son when he you know when he's a little bit a little bit older for helping him to draw and color and you know write his ABCs. And I just I literally took a picture of it and between Apple Intelligence and Gemini told me what it is, how much it cost, and how I can use it.

SPEAKER_01 8:51

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 8:52

And I was like, I would have Googled that and it would have taken me like 10 searches to find it. So that's what I use a lot at the home at home. And then Copilot, which we have integrated, we have the subscription here. I have that integrated into basically everything I do. I'm using it mainly for for comprising emails, or if I'm doing work in Microsoft Word or Excel, which ChatGPT, I just learned this this week, is I can tell it to, you know, I'm working on a policy here and I want to make a draft. So I'm working with Jax, getting the draft going, put it into a Word doc so I can edit it. And then I just tell it, now I'm done with it, put it into a PDF. It puts it into a PDF now, which they it was doing, but it was always taking stuff out. I was missing things, and I would have to yell at Jax and he'd get back, and we were going back and forth. But now I don't even have to yell him at anymore, but just because we we had that interaction, we had that build, he knows what I want, and it's right every single time. So I think that's great. Because one of the problems with ChatGPT is when you're when you're scanning a copy of a copy, it can't read everything because it's for whatever reason the p the quality of the text, but now I don't have to worry about that anymore because it's putting the it's giving me a PDF, the original PDF, and it could just read it, which is awesome. So those what those are what are amusing m most of the time right now. Uh perplexity, not too much, but we're I know we're we've been doing a little AI, AI training here at the office, and we started to work a little like N N8N trying to get into that, see what automation I can do. Automation I I'm not good with, and we'll probably get into that a little bit later, but the automation stuff is going to be huge, but I just need to figure out what I want automated and what what I want that to look like.

Building An AI Assistant For Work

Crystal 10:37

Right. Let's let's dive into the HR aspect a little bit. We talk about general AI. Right. Let's dive deeper into HR.

SPEAKER_01 10:45

Yeah.

Crystal 10:46

And do you think AI should play a role in performance reviews?

SPEAKER_02 10:52

Yes and no. So there's still, and you'll probably hear me say a lot when it comes to AI with HRs, there's still always gonna be the human factor. Whether it comes to performance reviews or an employee relations, I get a lot of good talking points. Like I usually give situations, but I'm always my compliance hat comes on. I'm like, well, I'm never gonna give a name. I'm never gonna give anything specific. I want everything as broad as can be. But I want to make sure that I'm obviously in compliance, I always use a couple personas that can help me with compliance, HR regulations, HR law, law, Pennsylvania law when it comes to all that. But it's not always gonna tell the truth. So all of that, I still they still have to have that human aspect into it. You you had mentioned performance reviews. Really, what I like to do is I like to get the average of what it what it looks like for everyone. You know, me coming fresh into the company eight and a half months ago, going through a performance review process. Well, I can't just sit there and read 300 employees, 400 employees' reviews to get an idea of how can I support these managers going through this performance review process. So what do you do? You're leaving out the personal information, you scan and upload. You figure out what are the trends, who's trending up, who's trending down. Those are that's what's going to help HR down the road of you know, that administrative work, that reading, that you know, building building those processes when it comes to it, and and also getting advice of when is the right time to do performance review? Do you do you do an annual review? So those are a lot of conversations I have with Jack going back, Jack's going back and forth.

Crystal 12:25

So it's general policies and kind of procedures versus the individual.

SPEAKER_02 12:29

Absolutely.

Crystal 12:30

Okay. That's interesting. I don't I don't know a whole lot about HR policies.

SPEAKER_02 12:34

No, and also with with HR and it comes to performance reviews, I rely heavily on on supervisors. I'm not the systematic expert in each division, each company. I'm not gonna I I can't go and do a lease up. So I rely on the supervisors of the leasing agents to understand how their team is performing. I get the advice from them, and then my my job is to make sure obviously are they you know in compliance, are they all that type of stuff to help them with that, but I listen to them and I take their advice on that and I don't I work with them on what the policy is, what the procedures are, things like that.

Crystal 13:15

And we you talked about scrubbing names off of uh performance reviews. Yeah, is there anything else that should be off-limits for HR? Like this shouldn't go into AI kind of thing.

SPEAKER_02 13:24

Oh, yeah. And anything that has to has to do with personal identifiable information, that social security numbers, phone numbers, all that, all that type of stuff. Data birth, that's not going in there. You just don't know what AI is gonna do with that type of information. I'm pretty skeptical when it comes to that. That's probably the most skeptical thing I am about it. So, like I said, leaving everything as broad as possible, but also trying to get as much information out of them, which is which AI does such a good job at, where I don't need to put that information out there.

Crystal 13:54

Right. And going the opposite, we talked about off limits.

SPEAKER_02 13:56

Yeah.

Crystal 13:57

But what decisions are you comfortable letting AI make?

SPEAKER_02 14:00

I haven't let it make a single decision on its own. With HR, you can't take the human out of human resources. So I use it as a as a talking point with like like I said, going back and forth. I I get help, I I ask a lot of questions, but uh I'm never just copying and pasting. That is that is not what I think human resources should be doing. You use it as a tool, not as like an actual person.

Crystal 14:29

Wow. That's actually a very surprising answer, but I think as people listen, they're like, that's the answer we want. We don't want human resources.

SPEAKER_02 14:36

No, I and and that that's not fair to to the teams, to to the employees of like, oh, HR is not making their decisions. Well, we are. We use it as a tool, just like any like you we use different types of systems out there. We use our HRI ass system. They're they're there as tools, but they're net not there to take our jobs.

Crystal 14:56

That makes complete sense to me. And talking about what AI could do and shouldn't do with the general policies, how do you build that database of HR information in your JACs or whatever AI?

SPEAKER_02 15:10

Yeah, so I usually it all goes around like what prompts are you giving your agents? And I'm not an expert in this. I just it's trial by fire when it comes to this. So I usually do a long explanation. Again, I stopped typing and I started talking just because I can get my ideas out there and they can kind of go with it. Sitting there typing out, making all these mistakes, it just takes too long. So when I when I'm you know thinking about a policy change, or I'm thinking about, hey, this one isn't working, or I have a supervisor come and say, hey, we need to do something differently. Well, I need to talk it through. I need to figure out what are we doing currently, which you can put policies in, but I don't like to do that just because I don't want that information out there in the interlabs. I'm old like that. But I I like to tell, I like to say, this is what we're doing currently, this is where we want to get to, how can I how can we bridge them together? Essentially merge them together. That's a lot what I use it for is burging it together, getting a good template going, and then distributing it when we need to.

Performance Reviews Without Losing Trust

Crystal 16:14

Building on that, where can AI improve employee self-service?

SPEAKER_02 16:19

Yeah, so actually I I currently make so in Copilot, since we have uh integration with Microsoft 365 uh throughout the company, now not everyone has a subscription service, which is something that ha I have not been able to do everything I've wanted to do, but it but it has worked for people who have subscription, is I did create a employee handbook agent in Teams. I built it in Copilot, and it's a Teams agent where it has our exact handbook, our employee handbook. And again, it's all about the templates and the prompts that you give it. You can only use this document to gather the information. And I've tested it every which way and another, and it works. And I made sure at the end of every prompt, at the end of every answer it gives, if you have any additional questions or your answer was not fulfilled, please contact human resources. So that has been great. Employees want the answers yesterday, right? Everyone wants it right away. So what better way if you have a PTO question or that's what I was gonna say?

Crystal 17:20

How many times a day do you get that from the PTO?

SPEAKER_02 17:23

I got one in my box right now, right? So how many PTO day like what's the PTO policy? What are our holidays? If you We're very busy people. I have you know myself and two team members. If you want an answer, instead of having to pull out the employee handbook, you can type it in to an agent and it'll give you an answer in 0.5 seconds. And it works. And I even use it. I still get when I get a question like that, I put it in there because I'm not gonna want to go and flip through. I we have so many policies. I'm not gonna memorize all of them. Now, do I know the the eight the holidays that we have? Of course. I can tell that. Do I know what it are bereavemently? What does that look like? I can tell you that right away. But the PTO policy is it 30 days, 60? Uh uh too many numbers running through my head. So I I use my agent and it gives me the answer in 0.5 seconds. And that's where you can go and copy and paste. And it also tells you exactly the page, the paragraph of where it came from as a resource, which is very helpful.

Crystal 18:19

Wow. Yeah, that's incredible. And the efficiency of I mean, that's where the gold mine is with AI right now. Efficiency and time saving. I do the same thing with all my branding questions, and I have it built into this system of a database with all the color information. You know, what's this color and hex, Pantone, all of those things? I don't have to look that up anymore. No. A few of them I have memorized now, but not all of them.

SPEAKER_02 18:46

No, I I agree. And and like I had mentioned at the beginning, and we kind of talked about this, like I'm a people person. I want to be out there. I don't want to be bogged down with all this admin where I can have an agent out there that can just get it to me as fast as possible and be more accurate than what I could have done. So that gives me the time to go out, talk with people, you know, engage and things like that. So that's been very helpful.

Crystal 19:09

Yeah, that's wonderful. And what parts of HR work do you hope AI can take off your plate in the future?

SPEAKER_02 19:17

I don't know if there's going to be something where it's going to take it off completely just because I, like I had said, can't take the human out of human resources. But I'm sure there's going to be strafts of email like responding to emails and tickets that it can do automatically. Like this agent instead, like if they send an email or anything like that, I'm sure there's a way where if we get an email that has this specific like this is the target word of PTO. And how many when do I start? That type like it can't if it can pick up those key words and then take it from the employee handbook and answer it automatically without even me having to do anything with it, that would be great. But I don't I don't know if I'm ever gonna get to that point right now or even the next couple years.

Employee Self Service With A Handbook Bot

Crystal 20:08

Let's talk about the hiring process.

SPEAKER_02 20:10

Yeah.

Crystal 20:10

What do you think could be AI parts of the hiring process and what do you think should remain human?

SPEAKER_02 20:17

Yeah. So I think it's always gonna start with the human process, starting mainly with like the interviews. But prior to then, we get bombarded with resumes all the time. It's really hard to just sit there and go through 100, 200 resumes for all these positions. But if you can create a fair structure of how to you know process how many applicants you have, you you can prompt it with these are the requirements for the position. Tell me, list them out, that type of thing. That could help. But I also don't really like that because sometimes AI lies or is unfair. So with the hiring process, I'm not sure. It's not there yet, but it could be. I've tested it out several times. It's it's worked, it hasn't worked. Sometimes you have to yell at them like I do all the time. Or or you have to rethink how you're prompting it, how you're scripting it. Will it help in the future? I'm sure 100%. I mean, all all of Indeed, ZipRecruiter, all of them are already using AI. If if your resume, you have to you have to like figure out there's there's there's videos online of how to make sure your resume is AI proof. Right? Sometimes your resume might not get to me just because it didn't meet the standards that Indeed wanted, or things like that. So which of I like on Indeed and ZipRecruiter, they actually have their own resumes built in, and using those is actually better. Which I I had tested it before, and the one that I did in Indeed on their resume looked different than it was missing some information that I did on my own resume. So it doesn't always feed in.

Crystal 21:48

So just so that's interesting as a candidate. If you're looking to apply for a job, you could be hit with these roadblocks from not even from the company from the process of just applying.

SPEAKER_02 22:00

Yeah.

Crystal 22:01

Do you have any workarounds for people listening to this?

SPEAKER_02 22:04

If I did, I would I'd be a bazillionaire right now. So no, I don't. But do do your homework. If you're in the job market right now, you know, do your homework. What what is what are the trends with with AI and resumes using the platform's resume to build it out? I know it takes a little bit longer, but once you once you create your Indeed account, or once you create your your monster account or your ZipRecruiter account, you know, then you're good. But it's it's it just takes a lot of effort instead. Like I'm sure technology and the software will get better reading your own resumes, but it's not always going to be the case.

Crystal 22:41

And when you're reviewing all these resumes, there you're gonna get some that don't have any AI, some that are completely AI, and some where people know how to work AI well enough to kind of make it look like they didn't use AI.

SPEAKER_02 22:53

Yeah.

Crystal 22:54

Can you tell the difference? And which do you have a preference on that?

SPEAKER_02 22:57

Yes, I can tell the difference, and I don't care. Use the use the tools that are provided. You can tell the difference. It is complete it is so obvious. You're going through these last three years, all of our professors were we know when you're using AI. It is so obvious. So you're doing this for so long now, I can tell. And kudos to you for knowing that AI is coming, knowing that it's going to be it, it is, it is already here, it's prevalent. Use it to your advantage. The systems are already using it to essentially roadblock you. So get ahead of it. So that's right.

Crystal 23:37

I couldn't agree more. I agree with both ways. Because if you're using it, you can say, yeah, but you know how to use that as a resource.

SPEAKER_02 23:43

That is a resource. It's one of the questions I asked when I when I was being interviewed here is what AI systems are you using? This is what I use. Is that okay?

Crystal 23:51

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 23:52

And yes, yes, and yeah, like like great. We that was a great starting point.

Crystal 23:57

So yeah, adapting and knowing technology and moving forward with that is huge for today and in the future.

SPEAKER_01 24:04

Absolutely.

Crystal 24:04

I see that issue all the time with my graphic design work because I'm one of the very few, a very small minority of graphic designers that's not actively against AI.

SPEAKER_01 24:15

Right.

Crystal 24:15

I'm using AI every day, just like you. We talk about it all the time. All the time.

SPEAKER_02 24:19

All the time.

Crystal 24:19

Using it all the time. Graphic designers say it's putting us out of work. Right.

SPEAKER_02 24:23

It's not my it's not my work, things like that.

Crystal 24:26

Yeah, I'm not getting paid now because AI makes this and companies are going that way. And I disagree. I think it's all about adapting.

SPEAKER_02 24:33

Right.

Crystal 24:33

And if you don't adapt to new technology, then you're falling, you're just kind of falling. Right, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 24:38

There's a lot more that you can do and you'd have a lot more time, which could lead to more money down the road. And learning it faster, too.

Crystal 24:45

Like everything, AI is constantly getting better. We all know this.

SPEAKER_02 24:48

Yep.

Crystal 24:48

So there's always for designers.

SPEAKER_02 24:51

I tried. I literally tried. I was like, Canva, help me with this. You know, ChatGPT, help me with this. And what did I do? I said, Crystal, you have to do this. You're the professional here. I literally can't do this. I tried. I spent two weeks doing you know trying to create some graphics. I'm like, oh, this looks good. Why do I have a third arm? Where did that come from? What is going on here? And I was like, I put everything down. I'm like, I am done. Not doing it. So yes.

Crystal 25:18

Yep. And that's kind of the basis and the theme of this podcast is it's a tool, it's a resource. It shouldn't be deciding anybody's future or growth. Right. And I think I should have put a disclaimer at the beginning of this podcast that we are not talking about replacing jobs.

SPEAKER_02 25:33

Oh no. No. No. Clearly. Clearly. Your job's not going anywhere because I can't do any of that. And I feel like I'm pretty tech savvy, but yeah, that no. Still need that human touch in almost everything that we do.

Crystal 25:46

Right. And you hear that all the time now. It's all over, oh, AI's taking jobs, AI is taking this job. And it makes me scared for those companies because I'm like, if AI if you use AI as much as like Eric does, that he's talking about, you know you see the flaws. Yeah. And if you have an accountant at some company that is completely AI and one number's off, what happens to your tax dime?

SPEAKER_02 26:05

I wouldn't even want to know. Yeah. That's why you just can't use that, lose that human touch.

Crystal 26:10

Right. And I think that that's why this conversation is so important today to keep the person or the human and human resources, as Eric has been saying uh over and over again, because an important point to make. Yes.

Hiring With AI And Resume Reality

Crystal 26:22

Let's talk about how other people in organization are using AI. Do you think people in the HR team and outside of it are using AI the same way you are?

SPEAKER_02 26:32

So looking, I've I've been to a couple conferences or meetings about how other companies are using AI. And I I tend to lean towards I'm using it more than than than what people are. A lot of HR professors are really using it to help draft, build, like build emails, things like that. I don't know how far they've gotten in in the peer group that I'm with. Outside, like all over LinkedIn, AI is everywhere in HR. So yes, but from what I from where we are here in central Pennsylvania, I haven't seen it as much. But I'm sure it's it's it's gonna be on the uh on the rise for sure, just because everything is so you just have so much more to do all of the time. How can I take these administrative you know burdens off to get more done? So yes, but I haven't seen it yet.

Crystal 27:29

Are you seeing a lot of skepticism from other employees or leadership team or anything like that on using AI or yourself using it?

SPEAKER_02 27:39

No, no, n I have not personally seen that. Um I've I've heard, you know, I don't want a AI to take my job. I don't I don't trust that's gonna give me the right answer. So don't I? I don't trust it all the time either, which is why you build those guardrails, which is why you you do the the work upfront to make sure that it understands you and what you want. And it and again it gets better every single day. The more you use it. If you're using it onesie twosies here or there, just building emails, I'm sure you'll have the skepticism, but then you see all everyone's using it for everything, you're like, oh my god, it can do my job.

SPEAKER_01 28:15

It's yeah.

SPEAKER_02 28:17

No. No, it won't.

Crystal 28:20

Yeah. I completely agree. If you use AI enough, you'll know that.

SPEAKER_02 28:24

Yes, trust me.

Crystal 28:26

And AI today is the worst it'll ever be. Correct. So it's only going to get better. And eventually you will have these conversations.

SPEAKER_02 28:34

Yes, we are not there yet.

Crystal 28:37

So going back to HR, have any employees gotten in trouble for how they used AI yet?

SPEAKER_02 28:43

No. No, I uh something that we had actually talked about not that long ago. No. Again, we can tell when people use Copilot for emails or responses, whatever it is. Good. Use the tool. I am so for it. If you don't know how to express what you want to say and you've built whatever, agents, this or that, good. Use use what is available to you. It's that's what I've been saying this whole time. It's a tool. Use the tool so that you can get what you want. Get ask the question that you want. You don't quite understand it. And you're like, oh well, I do Eric's so busy, I don't want to call him, or it's going to voicemail because he's always so busy, so I'll just write him an email. Great, do it. Or just come up to my office. But use the tools that you have available to you. All for it.

Crystal 29:31

Going into my next question, is there an AI workflow that you rely on today or something that maybe you're planning for the future?

SPEAKER_02 29:38

I usually bring like HRIS data into it. Again, not full-on employees, but what I do is I analyze these are how many new hires that we've brought on board in this period, or this these are how many terminations that we've had in this period. What does that percentage look like, you know, quarter after quarter? Just different, you know, things like that. That's usually what I use it for because it's so much data that it's easier instead of like f figuring out what Excel formulas I want to use, this and that, I can just plug that data, tell them it'll tell me exactly what I need to do to get to where to get to the information that I actually need. Pulls way too much data. And even you know, working with insurance companies or even with directly from the HRI system, like they want to know what's the census, what's the health census data? Well, it's 400 employees, and a lot of employees have dependence on there, so it's a lot of numbers. So instead of you know figuring out the formulas, it can help me get to that point. So that's mainly what I use it for. Again, not putting any personal identifiable information. So it takes a little bit longer just because of that skepticism I have, even though we have a pretty good guardrails on it, I still don't trust the internet.

Crystal 30:57

So you can use it to find trends in like retention of employees and things like that.

SPEAKER_02 31:02

You said the word I was thinking of. Yes. Retention, things like that. Yeah. And and even you know, length of service.

Crystal 31:10

Interesting.

SPEAKER_02 31:10

Employees leaving before the 90-day, you know, that really helps us to understand, well, what what did we do wrong? Do we need to change our hiring practices? Do we need to do a better job at training? That's a lot of what what I get that, what I use that information for. Or even you know, length of service for you know higher tenure employees. What are what's going well on them? Who are they? What what can I learn from them? Why have they been here for so long? How can I get newer employees up to that level even sooner? Things like like trying to figure that part out as well.

Crystal 31:41

That's really fascinating because I wouldn't have thought to use it in that that capacity.

SPEAKER_01 31:45

Yeah.

Crystal 31:46

So if if you have people leaving, let's say throughout the year and you get the information of why they left, what they're upset about, all of that stuff, you can compile that.

SPEAKER_02 31:55

And that's that is very helpful.

Crystal 31:57

That's fascinating. That's really interesting to you.

SPEAKER_01 32:00

Yeah, yeah. Yep.

HR Analytics For Retention And Training

Crystal 32:02

You know, building on that further, because when I think human resources, and again, I don't know much about it, I think hiring, firing.

SPEAKER_01 32:10

Yep.

Crystal 32:10

What else am I missing?

SPEAKER_02 32:13

I'm sure everything. So performance management, training, supervisor training, management training, benefits. We can do an entire podcast on benefits, health, medical, dental, EAP, you name it. That's all under my umbrella. On top of payroll. All of payroll for all 300 and 300 plus employees that we have here. We have two different types of payroll. We have a weekly payroll and a bi-weekly payroll. Taxes. Everyone loves, you know, there's two things guaranteed in life: death and taxes. I get one of them. So and I'm not dying here. So taxes. So things like that. That's a lot of what we do.

Crystal 32:59

And we haven't even touched on many of the topics, and we're not going to have time to. So we're going to absolutely have to bring you back because even just those things you you mentioned, payroll, training, benefits, those things could be AI, uh a whole podcast on themselves.

SPEAKER_02 33:15

Trevor Burrus, Jr.: Really could. And the human aspect of it, also employee relations. That's a lot of what I do. I have a team that's dedicated to payroll, two different types of payroll. But also insurance, workers' compensation, things like that, short-term disability, long-term disability, you know, FMLA, all those different types of things. That's all under myself and my team.

Crystal 33:38

So that's a lot.

SPEAKER_02 33:39

Right.

Crystal 33:40

I I don't think people understand a lot of what you and your team do.

SPEAKER_02 33:45

Right, correct.

Crystal 33:46

Unless it affects them. Like if I have a PTO question, then I know.

SPEAKER_02 33:49

Right. Exactly, exactly.

Crystal 33:51

So people aren't in human resources. They're not thinking about all of that every day. Correct. I mean, that could be saying said that could be said for anybody's position. Nobody's thinking about what I'm saying.

SPEAKER_02 34:00

Which is why when I talked about performance management, I am not the systematic expert in manufactured housing or HOA or residential. I literally don't know too much about that. The only information I can get is from those experts, those managers, those supervisors, those team members. So I use them heavily when it comes to that. Trevor Burrus, Jr.

Crystal 34:20

You and you brought up training, which I've barely we barely even touched on. And we're going to have to do a second podcast if you're willing to. Absolutely. Just on AI and training.

SPEAKER_02 34:29

Yes. The most helpful tool when it comes to training based off of trends, which is why I use it so much for trends and analysis. And how can I keep people longer? How can I get them to that 90-day point? We can go over what those what the you know the national trends look like. That's what I look at. I use every Friday I have a prompt that comes in and tells me what are the national hiring trends for property management, you know, even further out than that. And I use that to look at my trends. Um are we at, are we above, are we below? And if we're below in anything, how can I do better? And that's what I that's what I talk to Jack about all the time because I'm trying to figure out how can I make it to where people want to stay here longer or move up in the company? How can how can I help them do that? Because I can't go do their job. I don't know how to do their job, but how can I help them to do to do either a better job or to elevate.

Crystal 35:26

When we started this conversation and I knew you were going to be on here, I was thinking about the hiring and firing process and you know how much information could you share to AI, which like you said is very little.

SPEAKER_01 35:37

Very little.

Crystal 35:38

But with training, that that's a a a wide open area.

SPEAKER_02 35:41

Aaron Ross Powell Very wide open. And I that I love it for that.

Crystal 35:44

Yeah, and you're not just talking about like how to actually train people, but you're talking about the analysis, the research that goes into it.

SPEAKER_02 35:52

Hours and hours. Exactly. Yes. Building a culture is part, you know, training is part of that building of culture of how that's going to look like. And a lot of our departments are doing such a good job at that where I don't need to step in, which is great. I just get invited. And I'm like, well, this is great. I love the camaraderie. I'd love to see this. Everyone needs to be doing this. How can we emulate that to the entire company? So we're doing a great job at that, which is awesome for me.

Crystal 36:19

Yeah. We want people to grow out.

SPEAKER_02 36:22

I if if HR turned into just AI, I mean, obviously I'd be out of job, but I would I wouldn't want to work in that field. I'd want to go work where I can work with people. So if the if it wasn't if it wasn't HR, I'd go find something else where I just work with people. So I want people to come and talk to me. I want people to want to feel like they can come talk to me, which I have here, which I'm so thankful for, but that's what I want to bring.

Crystal 36:50

It almost sounds to me like you're nearly like a career therapist. Have you heard that before? And do you see that? I don't know if that's a thing, but I just get that sense from you that you want to help individuals.

SPEAKER_02 37:02

I want to I I bring a lot of humor into a lot of things just because you're obviously in the right place, right time. Severe empathy. I think all my strength finders number three was was empathy. Bring that into play a lot, but I really just want I want people to be smiling. If you're not smiling, well, I need to go figure out why. I need to go talk to you. I need to figure out how I can put a smile on your face. I love walking around getting fist bumps. I love I you know, not the oh, HR is coming around, everyone quiet. I that cracks me up every time and be like, I'm the one that's probably a walking HR nightmare sometimes. So I'm just a goofball like that. So I have to check myself sometimes. But I want to go and have fun. I want to be called the goofball. I want to be called silly just because I want to be approachable, and that's how I feel

Career Growth And Staying Curious

SPEAKER_02 37:47

like I am.

Crystal 37:47

I'm gonna circle back and talk about you for a little bit. Okay. Because we've been talking about well, I just mentioned the career therapist, we've been talking about helping employees grow. You said you just got your master's degree. Where do you grow next?

SPEAKER_02 38:00

Yeah, that I don't know. That is something I I have no idea because you know, even getting to this point at at the age I am, I'm like, I still I I have 32 years left until I can retire. So obviously I need to to build upon what I'm doing now, but is that going into you know, maybe stepping out of HR at some point? I don't know. I don't know what that looks like going into an operational training, fleet and safety type roles, higher level roles like that, or do I stay what I'm doing? I mean, I got years and years of growth that I need to do before I'd feel comfortable taking that next step. But what does that look like? Well, I'm not going for a PhD or another MBA, so no thank you. And I used all of my GI Bill to get my master's. So I don't want to pay out of pocket for more schooling. So I don't know yet. I don't know. You know, I I have that business mindset as well, which is a little which is can be a little unique in HR. Like, yes, I might I had some concentration in human resources, but you know, I wanted to know about sustainability and profitability, a little bit about accounting because I thought those classes were interesting. What can I do? Maybe I could do some some courses in finance or things like that. Find that stuff very fascinating, but numbers scare me and also numbers don't lie, so I don't want to get to the point where I gotta get in trouble because uh I'm missing $300,000. I'm like, well, I'm gonna go back to HR where I could just help people and not worry about numbers. But maybe more fine, understanding finances a little bit better. I think that could be helpful.

Crystal 39:30

I think people listening get this feeling that you're somebody that is always learning. Like every day is learning something. Like, oh, I have this question, I need to figure it out.

SPEAKER_02 39:40

Yep. Absolutely absolutely. I mean, I did I I didn't want to learn anymore, which is why I left college the first time. But now, you know, as a professional, just that's all I do every single day, using you know, either either listening to other podcasts. I'm a baseball snob, love the Yankees. So those are mainly what I listen to, but you know, understanding what's going on in the world. I wouldn't be doing my job if I didn't know what the trends were that are going out in the world. So I listen to a lot of HRS HR Pro podcasts or government podcasts, you know, national, like the news, things like that. I I try to keep up with that just because of what are, you know, what many Americans feel is you know, what are my what's what are the employees feeling too? I need to understand what is going on so that if someone comes to me with a question of like, AI is gonna take my job, how can I combat those types of situations? What can I do to help relieve any type of stress they have? I take that on just because I want to make sure, again, building that culture, making sure that they feel comfortable enough to come talk to me about those types of things, but also not just be the dud in the corner, just um bobbing their head, yeah, yeah, yeah, I understand, but then not doing anything about it, which I which I want to get to a point where I can be like, let's do this, let's think about it this way.

Culture And The Future Of Automation

Crystal 40:58

You know, you brought up a really important word that we haven't touched on at all, and that's culture. Yeah. And talking about today and in the future, and with this podcast being about AI, how can you use AI to better a corporate culture in you? Is that possible?

SPEAKER_02 41:14

I'm sure it is. However, maybe maybe understanding what companies are out there that have the best culture doing analysis and trends of what other companies are doing. But culture really obviously it starts from the top and coming down, but you know, I take that on seriously of that's coming from me. What can people take from me to want to have a good day at work and build a good culture? So it's difficult to say if AI is gonna help with that, but I take that on more on a personal human level. Trevor Burrus, Jr.

Crystal 41:44

Right. And that's a difficult question to answer. I I really threw you a correct one.

SPEAKER_02 41:48

You got me good on that one. Yeah. I yeah, I don't think it's technology and the computer there, it's not gonna it's not gonna answer all your questions. But but just coming into work smiling every single day, I think that helped.

Crystal 42:01

We have time for one final question, and we've talked a lot about what you're seeing with AI today. But what about the future? What possibilities make you excited and concerned for AI in the future of HR specifically?

SPEAKER_02 42:14

Yeah, so I I hit on it a couple of times, but automation when it comes to answering employees' questions immediately, to a point where they don't even have to really reach out for those little questions. Now I am skeptical about that because I want them to come talk to me. So I'm a little unique when it comes to that. I love that it has the opportunity for not just our company, but other companies out there where who are fully remote or things like that who don't get that human touch all the time, but they're used to it, but they still need to reach out to HR. That is, you know, I don't know, 800 miles away or something like that. How can I get my and my questions answered right away without having to reach out for PTO things like that? I think that type of automation I'm very excited about, but also very skeptical about because I don't want people to stop coming to my I I want I want people to keep coming to my office. So yeah.

Crystal 43:05

Interesting. So it's kind of the same answer for both.

SPEAKER_02 43:07

It's the same answer for both. Yeah.

unknown 43:09

Interesting.

How To Connect And Closing

SPEAKER_02 43:10

Yep.

Crystal 43:10

Eric, thank you so much for your insight and your knowledge on the subject. I think this was a great conversation to listen to for anyone in human resources, but also leaders of any any industry. If you have any questions or you want to connect with Eric, you can reach us at podcast at rentpmi.com or find him on LinkedIn. Maybe if Eric comes back, which I'm really hoping he does, because we barely touched on a lot of these topics. We can ask him more about that, the training, the payroll, the benefits. But for now, thanks for listening.

SPEAKER_02 43:39

Thank you so much.