AI and Automation: Albert Galarza of TELUS International On How To Effectively Harness AI Technology In People Operations

An Interview With Rachel Kline

Be transparent within your organization and with potential candidates about how you’re leveraging AI as part of your people operations.

With technological advancements, particularly in the AI space, an increasing number of tasks can be either fully or partially automated. In this series, we are talking to People experts about how they’re utilizing new technologies to make their jobs easier and provide greater strategic value. As a part of this series, we had the pleasure of interviewing Albert Galarza.

Albert Galarza is the Global Vice President of Human Resources at TELUS International. Albert joined the organization in 2016 and has over 20 years of experience in human resources across retail and technology industries. In his role at TELUS International, Albert leads an HR organization of over 600 professionals supporting almost 50,000 team members in twenty countries. He is responsible for the entire HR suite of services including HR Generalists, Talent Acquisition, Compensation & Benefits, Labor Relations, HR Operations and People Analytics.

Thank you so much for your time! I know that you are a very busy person. Before we drive in, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your ‘backstory’ and how you got started?

I started my career in Human Resources (HR) in the 1990s as an HR specialist for a distribution center in San Francisco. Prior to that, I worked mainly in operation roles, managing large, diverse teams in a retail environment. I always say I ended up in HR by chance, because it was one of my mentors that saw my abilities and persuaded me to consider it as a career. He felt that it was a natural fit for me given all of my experience leading diverse workforces in my operations role.

I joined the BPO/customer experience industry in the late 2000s and I’m now based in San Diego, California. In my role at TELUS International, I support the company’s 75,000 global team members in over 30 countries. Today, I directly lead a team that oversees the entire suite of People Services including, total rewards, talent acquisition, employee relations, HR operations and People Analytics.

It has been said that our mistakes can be our greatest teachers. Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

With my first HR role, I relocated from San Diego to San Francisco during the height of the dot-com boom. In my eagerness and excitement to be a part of the industry, I didn’t take the time to do my due diligence on what a move to a new city entailed, in particular the cost of living in San Francisco, which at that time, was essentially three times more than what I was used to. The company that I worked for provided me with 30 days of corporate housing to help with the transition, but the demand for housing and the rents were significantly more than I expected and I had challenges finding a place to live. In the end, I had to ask for an extension on my corporate housing to help me bridge the gap. You could say that experience certainly gave me pause and taught me the importance of doing due diligence before making any major decisions. You really don’t know, what you don’t know!

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful for who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story?

As a leader, I believe one of the most important things you can do is to remove obstacles for your team so they can focus on doing their jobs effectively and efficiently. Early on in my career, I had a mentor who taught me that if you treat your team members the same way as you would treat your customers, you’ll experience great success and foster a healthy and engaged team.

We can often get bogged down in our day-to-day tasks and lose sight of the fact that as a department, HR is here to support the overall operations of the company and its team members. My mentor taught me that I should always look at the company’s employees as internal customers. How would they rank your services or the support you offer them in their roles? Delighting your internal customers has a direct impact on the bottom line and it’s a lesson that has stuck with me to this day.

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

One of my favorite quotes and a motto that I like to live by, both personally and professionally, is a variation of the Mark Twain quote: “Dance like no one’s watching, work like you don’t need the money, and love like you’ve never been hurt.” There’s a lot to be said for looking at life in this way. To me, it means not being afraid to expose your vulnerabilities or lack of expertise in certain areas or having the fear of failure stop you from trying something new. We can’t be experts in everything, but making sure you have a team around you that can complement your shortcomings and allow you to leverage your strengths is key to success.

Thinking back on your own career, what would you tell your younger self?

I think that all of my decisions along the way have brought me to where I am today. Looking back, I would tell myself three things:

1. Go to college right after high school. I took a break before embarking on my higher education and while I think that time away was beneficial, I feel like I missed out on the full college experience. The college years really gives you an opportunity to be a part of a bigger team and build camaraderie with other students, exposing you to people from different backgrounds and life experiences and really teaching you to think about diversity and inclusion in a tangible way during your formative years.
2. Be patient. I think with youthful exuberance, we tend to believe that we’re more prepared or ready to take on the next big thing in our careers before we actually are. Looking back, I would tell myself that when you’re ready for something, it will be evident and everyone around you will know and you’ll be tapped on the shoulder to take on that next challenge.
3. Build yourself a strong support network. I think this piece of advice is applicable for anyone, but having a core group of people that you can rely on is crucial to success and living a happy life. I’ve been with my wife for over 25 years and she has been a great partner to me, supporting me throughout all the challenges that life brings, and I wish I had met her sooner!

Let’s now move to the central part of our interview. How have recent technological advancements such as AI made your job easier?

Tech advancements like automation and AI-powered solutions have enabled our team to reach a broader audience — both internally and externally. It’s made it easier for us to stay connected with our global team members and potential job candidates. What was once a one-way communication channel (like email, newsletters, or corporate website) is now a two-way, interactive channel.

For example, SPACE by TELUS International is our new virtual recruitment platform that provides job seekers with a fully immersive experience in a fun and interactive digital environment. Starting from the virtual recruitment interviews through to the e-signing of their employment contract, the entire hiring process can be completed in SPACE. This virtual environment also encourages and creates more personal and in-depth interactions between candidates and recruiters, increases the speed and efficiency of the overall job application process, and maximizes candidate engagement. It also broadens the reach of our company’s recruitment efforts, facilitating access to a larger global talent pool and makes the process more accessible for individuals who may be unable to attend an in-person interview or job fair.

When properly implemented and maintained, automated technologies such as AI-powered bots and robotic process automation solutions (RPA) can help employees save time and boost efficiency and productivity. Additionally, RPA solutions can reduce customer effort by automatically capturing data from self-service portals and input it into relevant systems, thereby making it easier to access information for both customers and employees. Because AI-powered bots and RPA can operate around the clock at high speeds, it allows employees to focus on more complex tasks like customer engagement, rather than completing low-skill, repetitive tasks and projects, resulting in higher employee satisfaction.

In which processes do you utilize automation the most?

At TELUS International, we leverage automation the most in our talent acquisition and recruitment processes. Tools like AI and machine learning are used to analyze online applications and background checks to help our HR department identify top candidates efficiently. By leveraging advanced algorithms, we can innovate and expand the hiring process while obtaining valuable insights and data-driven analytics on whether an applicant is qualified or would be happy in the role. By widening our overall search and expanding to additional areas of focus to incorporate those with soft skills, ambition, and motivation to learn the requisite skills, automation tools open up our organization to another level of applicants with the potential to positively impact the company.

By way of example, our remote talent acquisition solution enables our team to strategically source, onboard and manage candidates 100% remotely from end-to-end. It offers smart screening and classification programs that leverage recruitment chatbots to guide candidates through the application process from the comfort of their own homes.

It also has enhanced security and verification procedures in which we utilize best-in-class digital solutions and platforms to complete remote interviews, virtual reference checks and digital paperwork, as well as using RPA (Robotic Process Automation) when appropriate to help move candidates through the process, significantly compressing the hiring timeframe to just 125 minutes, down from an eight-hour, partially in-person process.

What should people bear in mind when automating processes?

As automation tools mature, individuals should keep in mind that automation doesn’t completely rule out the work that humans provide. Research by my firm uncovered that 77% of American consumers believe GenAI algorithm audits around bias and prejudice should be mandatory before brands integrate this technology into their platforms. When brands incorporate human review processes, it reduces the possibility of errors. Incorporating a human-in-the-loop approach is key to optimizing AI tools within the workplace and is essential for any automation process to successfully integrate into daily operations. Humans possess the critical thinking and nuance needed to look out for inappropriate or incorrect data to remove potential bias and add in any necessary adjustments to enhance accuracy. While automation is a powerful tool, organizations must ensure that human insights are included, especially from those who directly interact with these processes daily.

One key thing that people should remember when leveraging AI and automation is that the extraction of data is only as accurate as the input of data. In other words, ‘garbage in, garbage out’. If you train your AI using poor-quality or incorrectly tagged data, you’ll end up with poor-quality AI. Particularly with the rise of generative AI (GenAI), this is exacerbated even more as new content is created. For this reason, it’s crucial that AI algorithms be trained using accurate, diverse, nearly bias-free and safe training data to minimize and avoid perpetuating biases.

What are your “Top Five Tips For Harnessing AI Technology to Propel People Operations”?

1. Stay curious about AI technology. While there may be some uncertainty about how AI will impact various jobs, there are also significant benefits and opportunities to be gleaned from it. Understand what AI is and what it isn’t. While GenAI can draft suggestions on content, you can’t solely rely on it without double checking its output. For example, if you ask a large language model (LLM) to draft something for you, you must always give it prompts to ensure it’s giving you an accurate response because of its propensity to hallucinate, or generate inaccurate information.

2. Proceed with caution, as these technologies also open organizations up to potential data leaks, meaning it’s crucial that HR professionals employ the appropriate cybersecurity practices to ensure the safety of candidate, employee and organizational data.

3. Always be learning, as AI is progressing at a rapid pace and there will always be new tools and techniques to adapt to. I always encourage people to embrace a growth mindset and ensure they’re upskilling to learn new skills. I shared a recent article on Forbes on the emergence of a corporate lattice and how career growth and development is changing based on an evolving workplaces. A great example is ensuring you’re keeping up to date on how to effectively leverage and incorporate new technologies like AI or GenAI to enhance your work, because while it’s still an emerging technology, it’s one that’s definitely here to stay.

4. Embrace the valuable data and insights the technology can provide to improve all areas of the business including in candidate testing, performance reviews, diversity and inclusion initiatives, learning and development opportunities, and more.

5. Be transparent within your organization and with potential candidates about how you’re leveraging AI as part of your people operations.

What are your favorite “I couldn’t live without these” tools?

At TELUS International, we work to seamlessly blend a digital and human-led workforce and we task bots to do more simple and repetitive tasks to free up our frontline customer service agents to address more complex and nuanced queries. This empowers our team members to focus on making meaningful, empathetic connections with our customers and also leads to faster resolution times.

In an effort to reduce the ticket volume of routine help desk inquiries, we created an HR chatbot to serve as a single point of contact to speed up the response process and enable agents to focus on more complex requests. The internal chatbot presents user-specific responses by connecting to enterprise systems and pulling data from the back-end. The solution is regularly updated through continuous learning by gathering information from unhandled conversations, or conversations that require agent intervention, to ensure that the bot improves with each interaction. In addition to improved team member experience and first chat resolution, our HR Bot has 24/7 availability, and now handles nearly 50% of all internal HR inquiries.

How do you see technology impacting the HR space in the future?

As discussed above, I believe technology will continue to have a significant impact in the HR space from automating processes to helping hiring managers to better understand candidate motivations and enabling them to find and hire the right people more quickly and more effectively. HR professionals will become infinitely more efficient and employee hiring and retention will become smoother as AI provides valuable data and insights about candidates and existing employees. There’s so many untapped possibilities of what AI can do to help HR support organizations and move at the speed of the business. From using GenAI to help write compelling and accurate job descriptions to perfecting the interview criteria to assisting with the onboarding of new hires and even helping with succession planning. We’re only at the beginning stages of determining what AI can do to support the HR function.

We are very blessed to have some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world whom you would love to have a private lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this.

I would love to meet and have a conversation with Michael Jordan. What he’s been able to achieve, both in and outside of his industry, has been extraordinary. His perseverance and work ethic is admirable and I think many of us can learn a lot from him. Another person that I would have loved to meet is Abraham Lincoln. I really admire his ability to see the big picture and visualize what the world needed to be, and then his ability to know what he needed to do to achieve that vision.

Someone that I was fortunate to have actually met in my life is Condoleezza Rice, the former Secretary of State. She’s achieved so much in her life, and I think she’s such a talented and dynamic leader, and it was truly a highlight of my life meeting her.

How can our readers further follow your work?

As a Forbes HR Council member, I use my dynamic background in retail, technology and BPO Industries to contribute articles and share insights on workplace culture, optimizing automation processes, engaging with the next generation of employees and mitigating shifts within organizations. You can also stay up-to-date with my work on LinkedIn.

Thank you so much for sharing these important insights. We wish you continued success and good health!