Do you spend the majority of your time manually entering data into spreadsheets? Or do you always have to go through the same onboarding procedure with every new hire? What if I told you there is a more effective method?
Through the elimination of repetitive tasks, the reduction of workloads, and the development of faster processes. HR automation enhances employee experience and promotes process efficiency. As a result, the HR department has more time to attend to candidates and employees.
What is HR automation?
HR automation is the use of software to carry out various HR operations and activities without the involvement of a human. Standardizing and streamlining HR workflows can also help to speed up processes and improve accuracy and consistency. HR automation also includes standardizing and streamlining HR workflows to speed up workflows and increase accuracy and consistency. Ultimately, HR automation aims to improve employees and candidates’ experiences.
Why makes HR automation so crucial?
Automation makes sense for the HR team for one simple reason. The less time you spend on routine, manual, or supporting administrative tasks, the more personal time you have with individuals. Automation makes it easy for HR teams to provide data and insights to support business initiatives and achieve a full digital HR transformation.
Advantages of HR automation
The whole hiring and working experience is enhanced by automating the HR process. This is due to the fact that automation eliminates repetitive or supportive tasks, giving HR more time to concentrate on people, enhance HR functions, and make it possible to solve issues quickly, effectively, and without error.
The following are the top six advantages of automating HR procedures:
1. Quicker reaction times
Automation keeps employee requests and work items moving, by directing requests to the appropriate person, changing statuses, and providing alert notifications when a job is about to due or has been inactive for too long. Automation also initiates workflows and captures requests from emails or conversations without any additional effort from you or your team.
2. Less conflict and easier collaboration
When there are many employee requests and HR tasks, communication issues and delays are frequently present. Workflows that demand input or action from team members in different departments exacerbate the issue. With HR software, you can quickly route issues to the right staff members in each department, so they can offer feedback, approval, or status updates.
3. Less mistakes
The need for human data entry and the likelihood of errors are decreased by HR automation software. Additionally, it connects data from several departments, programs, and platforms to provide records that are more consistent while removing the need to re-enter data.
4. Improve visibility
Knowing the progress of their requests and work items makes employees, team members, and bosses happy. Status updates using HR automation technologies might be based on input, contacts, or time. Users may access a single dashboard or Kanban view to see the status of all of their requests or tasks, allowing them to know exactly where each request progress is at any given time.
5. Scalability
With HR software, the time spent sending emails, inputting data, manually routing or updating requests and work items, and other monotonous or redundant duties decrease significantly. HR only need to configure each selected workflow once, and then it may be used repeatedly for subsequent activities. The time saved on these duties can be used to make more strategic decisions. Efficiency also means that employee requests are resolved faster.
6. Better Employee Experience
HR automation creates a seamless user experience at all stages of the candidate and employee lifecycle. Self-service features allow users to submit new requests, check the status of ongoing requests, and obtain documents and information immediately.
What types of HR tasks can be automated?
Automation of HR processes is not intended to produce impersonal, robotic procedures where candidates and employees have no form of interaction. Contrary to popular belief, automation actually improves the human-likeness of HR procedures.
We must distinguish between two forms of activities in order to automate HR processes: those that require human involvement and those that do not. Automation should be used when a person is not required to perform the task.
Typically, these tasks share at least one of the following traits:
| Task types | Traits |
| Frequent | Involves the same steps each time |
| Repetitive | Involves the same steps each time |
| Simple | Does not require complex information |
| Scheduled | Occurs regularly at the same time or day |
| Predictable | Regular workflow or process |
| Collaborative | Requires multiple stakeholders input or approval |
| Communication | Emails or notifications |
However, there is still room for automation even in tasks that demand human involvement, such problem-solving, communication, and collaboration.
For instance, a member of the HR team must complete a number of touchpoints in a typical employee onboarding workflow, such as:
- Contacting new hires to extend a warm welcome
- Conducting orientations
- Providing clarification and addressing concerns
- Assisting new hires with any unforeseen challenges
- Creating schedules
Although these duties are dependent on people, these same activities also require a lot of repetitive and supporting tasks that can be automated, such as:
- Creating and sending welcome letters
- Delivering notifications
- Status updates
- Capturing signatures
- Sending documents to the appropriate department
- Sending calendar invitations
For teams with large workforces, or businesses planning to scale recruitment efforts, automating these kinds of tasks can make a huge difference in terms of workload for the HR team and create a positive employee experience. When paired with integration, the number and types of tasks that can be automated increases.
HR automation examples and best practices
Employee request management
HR departments handle a variety of employee requests and HR matters. The fact that each type of request may need its own procedure makes request management more difficult. No two requests are handled in the same way because each one requires feedback from collaborators in other departments.
The HR team can easily view and manage workflows with the aid of drag-and-drop interface. Ensuring that every request or case is received, forwarded to the appropriate person, and then resolved as quickly and easily as possible.
Vacation requests | Payroll updates | Performance reviews | Document requests |
PTO | Equipment requests | Reimbursement | IT support |
Records management | Remote work | Training | Enrolment benefits or change |
Examples of employee requests that can benefit from automation
Employee onboarding
Employee onboarding is one of the most complex workflows any HR team has to manage. When a candidate transitions to a new hiring status, several interrelated workflows are performed.
For instance, it is necessary to coordinate initial training, payroll and benefit setup, equipment distribution, and IT requirements all around the same time. The onboarding process is a top contender for automation due to its size and the amount of collaboration it requires.
Issue new-hire paperwork | IT setup | Payroll setup | Capture e-signature |
Send emails | Benefits enrollment | Schedule training sessions | Issue equipment |
Examples of onboarding tasks and workflows that can be automated
Recruitment
In order to secure top talents, talent acquisition teams need to have a competitive edge and work fast.
The hiring process is accelerated by automation, which also gives it greater importance for both the hiring manager and the candidates. That’s because recruiters have more time to broaden their talent pool, focus on the most qualified applicants, and develop connections that lead to the hiring of the most qualified applicants.
| Capture hiring requests | Open job vacancies | Send candidate emails | Schedule interviews |
| Send calendar invites | Screen candidates | Create offer letters | Receive e-signatures |
Examples of recruitment tasks and workflows that can be automated