The Talent Magnet Leadership Podcast

Episode #184: How AI Supports Your Employee Experience with Carolyn Peer

Can we create effective leaders with AI? Carolyn Peer and Mike Sipple Jr. share the answer on this episode of the Talent Magnet Leadership Podcast. Carolyn is the CEO and co-founder of Humaxa, and an award-winning human capital management industry luminary. She uses Humaxa - a machine learning-powered employee engagement and performance platform - to connect feedback with actions, through meaningful AI conversations. Carolyn and Mike explore what Humaxa can do for companies and why it is a tool for the future, in this intriguing conversation.

Humaxa functions like a helpful assistant, that helps solve problems within the workforce and empowers employees. The program gathers workforce data via anonymous conversations, and immediately offers solutions to the individual who's talking to Humaxa. It's main function is to reduce the time taken for an employee to receive feedback, to zero. [3:22]
"A lot of the research that we did before building anything, was looking at how willing people would be to communicate with a computer," Carolyn stresses. What she found was that people were more willing to communicate with a computer because of the level of anonymity, and because they didn't feel judged whilst voicing their opinions. She and her company used that concept to empower both the employee and the employer. [5:54]
Humaxa works as an early detection system, and lets leaders know when there are problems that need to be addressed, such as employees feeling like their voices are not being heard. Humaxa fills those gaps by offering strategies based on what the program deems the best solution, and what each individual wants and needs at that particular time. [10:03]
Humaxa anonymously alerts managers when something isn't quite right within the organization. This opens up an opportunity for a conversation on what issues at that time need to be addressed. Even if a conversation doesn't happen, the manager is still aware that something is wrong. "Being able to have those live anonymous conversations with employees based on how they feel is a way to really get into the root cause; not just how they feel but why," Carolyn expresses. [14:19]
Humaxa allows leaders to organize their teams however they desire. The one thing Carolyn cautions leaders against, is having too many matrix teams. "As long as there are at least eight people in a group, the data is anonymized and you can look at the detailed analysis for just that team," she adds. [20:26]
The long feedback process of employee surveys prompted Carolyn to come up with a solution that was more immediate, more meaningful for the workforce, and that would also benefit the company. This is why she created Humaxa. [21:38]
Employees have most of the answers as they are the individuals who deal with the customers the most and converse with each other the most. Leaders need to be able to respond faster, quicker, more efficiently and validate that they are listening. [25:22]
Carolyn's closing remarks are a reminder that Humaxa is not a replacement for manager-to-employee communication, but rather simply a tool to augment those conversations so that managers and employees know what to talk about, and how to get ahead of any problem that may be brewing. [26:54]