A True Measure of HRs Effectiveness Is Its Ability To Respond To Organization Needs Promptly

Increasingly there is a pressure being placed on Human Resources (HR) to find smart, innovative ways to deliver cost effective services to their organization. Very often it is the daily and routine nature of advising and answering questions and queries that stifles HRís capability to add value. In essence too much time is spent on the non-strategic elements of HR, and very often costs associated in supporting this service far out way the value delivered. In response to this need, Brite Human Resources have introduced a new module called AskGuru to their overall e-HR solution PerceptGen.



Ask Guru is an automated self learning and optimization tool using natural language (i.e. using words that people typically use in a conversation with a live person over the phone via a service or call centre). Its capability creates, builds and manages your FAQ (frequently asked questions) and general knowledge base. It enables you to seamlessly and creatively bring knowledge experts from across your business together 24x7 365 days a year. Ask Guru records all the questions asked, monitors and rates the accuracy of the answers continuously to ensure efficiency and user satisfaction. It will even update any expired answers with updated ones. The administration part of Ask Guru will enable you to fully manage all the editable sections and as a result generate valuable strategic reports with analytical data that can be used in conjunction with your HCM (Human Capital Management) system or other business related system processes.

Ask Guru is a unique question responder, which provides personalized, personally and permanently relevant information and answers to employee queries, relevant in the context of a given topic or subject matter (see below for a list of question categories). As a result, AskGuru is a unique automated, interactive HR question response system that deals with contacts to the HR department via; Email and the Web (intranet & internet) thus providing answers when and where it is required. In doing so, the tool provides answers to ensure HR are free of any information bottlenecks, so that they become released of routine tasks.

Ask Guru will escalate to an appropriate human operator if it cannot answer a question or if it encounters emotive language. Requiring no technical ability to use or administer, by uploading a companyís specific HR policies, procedures and cultural information, AskGuru can be configured over a 7-10 day period.

Ask Guru combines two elements of the latest technology (1. Natural Language Processing and 2. Natural Learning Processing). In essence, the tool works on ífuzzy logicí and íAIí (Artificial Intelligence) principles. This enables users to simply and efficiently communicate through natural language. The application is web browser and email based and can be fully bespoke to your requirements and implemented within your Intranets, Extranets and Websites within a few hours.

Ask Guru can be taught new answers and questions by any authorized team member. With reasoning and learning capability, AskGuru is highly flexible, either as an add on to an existing HR intranet site or main company website or as an embedded feature in an E-HR platform. The solution can handle queries and questions in a number of innovative ways. The tool mimics a human operator and is multi-lingual (33 languages). An example of questions AskGuru is able to answer smartly would be:

1. Who qualifies for eyesight tests?
2. Does business mileage still need to be sent to payroll now that cars are taxed on emissions?
3. Where can I find out about a career break?
4. Can I carry over holiday entitlement into the next holiday year?
5. Can a tape recorder be used during a disciplinary hearing?

If a true measure of HRís effectiveness is its ability to respond to organization needs, then AskGuru provides unsurpassed levels of responsiveness.

Q. Who needs the tool?
A. HR departments that;

. Need to ensure their partners and employees ( customers) who are not sympathetic to delay, want relevant, personalized information faster and faster.
. Find that their Intranet, Extranet, Website is overwhelmed by common íelectronicí queries, many of which tie up HR team members, or a service centre function unnecessarily.
. Find their íelectronic enquiryí level is exceeding their manpower to deal with it.
. Want to respond to increasing email, web based, voice or wireless mobile queries without increasing headcount and whilst retaining a personal touch.
. Need to integrate their existing voice (telephone) base Customer Relationship Management System (CRM) with web, wireless, email or automated interactive voice enquiries
. Want to take notice of the customer when they are demonstrating interest and in real time
. Want to attract a user base back to a best of breed information source repeatedly AskGuru enables non-technical users to address all these objectives and more;
. Immediately and automatically receive and answer questions in a personable, relevant manner via email, voice, wireless mediums or the web.
. Access and promote information/knowledge via almost any media, including wireless PDA
. Keep a personal touch through an automated system
. Make an automated system work for their customers and with their staff
. Automatically recognize emotive language and escalate to a human operator immediately
. Automatic and manual live updating of the knowledge database
. Record who asked a question if required
. Achieve an accuracy rate of up to 96%* on first enquiry after system learning period of 3 months
. Integrate with most databases and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems containing existing
FAQís (Frequently Asked Questions)
. Create and continually amend a comprehensive FAQ database