The Ultimate Guide to HR Automation

HR automation has taken a huge burden off of HR personnel. Well-implemented automation handles all the tedious and repetitive processes in the HR function.  There is going to be a huge demand for HR automation from various types of business setups right from tech startups to established fortune 500 companies. But let us first understand what HR automation is all about.

What is HR Automation?

HR automation is defined as the process of making an apparatus, a process, or a system operate automatically. The primary objective of HR automation is to automate repetitive and menial tasks that do not require much human intervention. 

Automating HR processes leaves HR personnel with enough bandwidth to focus on tasks that require brainstorming such as decision making and creating better strategies. It doesn’t mean that people are no longer required, rather it ensures that people channelise their energy in contributing to their organisation’s growth on a more extensive plane.

Advantages of HR Automation

The advantages of HR automation are as follows:

• Increased productivity with faster data procession and sharing
• Increased employee engagement and thus lower attrition rates
• Paperless, completely removing printing overheads, asset maintenance, and even investment in printers
• More secure systems to avoid compliance and policy breaches
• More efficient recruitment process, which means reduced hiring costs
• Avoiding data processing errors ensure documents are not misplaced
• Accurate data analytics reports provide insight to make better business strategies.
• Easier collaboration with service providers at any point or multiple points of the HR process, hiring, training, employee engagement, etc.
• More bandwidth is given to HR for analysing the data and making decisions, rather than repeatedly going through the entire process.

What Every HR Misses Out by Not Implementing Automation

More and more businesses have realised that HR automation is the way to go. According to Software Suggest, 45% of companies are still in the early stages of HR Automation. Organisations that are keeping HR automation at arm’s length or avoiding it now will be losing out in the following areas:

• Failure to leverage efficiency

Piling a stack of a thousand CVs. on your skilled HR reps isn’t a great idea. Such tasks are labor-intensive and reflect your failure to leverage the efficiency of your skilled resources.

It would make more sense to have the data logically presented to HR reps. It allows them to make quick decisions about whether or not to hire an applicant.

• Human error

Every month-end HR reps could just be signing off on tasks instead of having to check and recheck leave carryovers and schedules. It would free them up to prepare HR strategies and engage employees. Automation can compute these tasks with ease and without error.

• Employee experience

HR  executives are more often flooded with work. This is especially true during the hiring season. Automating the process ensures that HR reps don’t miss their targets and promised call-backs and lets them focus on selecting top talent.

It doesn’t have to become a rush to the finish to hire the required number of employees. Instead, reasonable tech solutions that involve HR automation make this process easy and efficient.

HR Processes for Automation

We know that a vast array of business functions can be automated and probably should be. The question arises, which HR processes should be automated?

These are some of the processes that can be automated to create a more robust, efficient HR department. The goal is to drive business growth and improve productivity and be more competitive:

• Recruitment and Selection
• Performance Management
• Learning and Development
• Succession Planning
• Compensation and Benefits
• Human Resources Information Systems
• HR Data and Analytics
• Notifications and Reminders
• Scheduling
• Background Verification and Screening

Examples of HR Automation

Here are a few examples of HR processes that could be automated. Read on to understand how they will help improve your business.

• Recruitment and Selection

While it is an essential function of HR, the process is time-consuming and highly tedious. The requirement of intensive, manual work makes it a process that would benefit from automation.

The function requires HR reps to shortlist resumes, interview candidates, verify documents, and ensure new hires can access the needed tools and devices.

The HR automation process means that AI would scan and shortlist the ideal resumes. Tech can carry out essential employee selection and assessment tasks, and minimal human involvement would be involved with document verification. A well-integrated system also ensures that the time taken to provide access to tools and equipment is reduced from days to a few hours.

Ultimately, this allows for a healthier new hire experience and eventually a more efficient HR department.

The best HR suites come with digital employee onboarding processes that are designed around employee experience, one such example is Darwinbox.

• Performance Management

This process is integral to the success of any organisation. HR departments have to create goals to help measure performance, track the performance and its changes, measure it against a reliable scale and analyse how to enhance it.

Automating this process streamlines the processes of defining KPIs and tracking performance continuously and without errors. HR departments can then analyse the report generated using the highlighted data and make efficient and quick decisions.

HR software solutions ought to consider the key factors for each organisation. Make sure your HR solutions partner is capable of creating and implementing unique performance management tactics that suit your business needs. Take a look at how Darwinbox does this.

• Exit Interviews

Exit interviews have a lot of impact in creating an ideal environment that allows better employee engagement. Traditional exit interviews can be cumbersome and ineffective. It comes down to human error, mindset, and various other factors.

Collecting valuable data that isn’t biased is vital in reducing employee attrition and improving employee engagement in the future. Using an automated system allows for data to be collected accurately and insightful reports to be generated.

Automating a single part of it, such as creating a questionnaire and collecting the data properly, can make a big difference.

• Scheduling

Just the process of ensuring available resources are allocated for the right slots can be an arduous task, let alone tracking leaves, managing shifts, ensuring supervisors are available and support systems are in place, and tracking employee adherence.

All this can be automated. It allows HR managers to have an overview of what is happening and remedy situations quickly.

An ideal HR automation process will show HR managers which resources are available when they are available and can automatically assign those resources to the desired areas.

Darwinbox can help businesses completely automate rostering and shift assignments. 

• Payroll

There are innumerable factors and concerns around ensuring the payroll process is executed smoothly. More often than not, HR departments are struggling to keep up with the monthly payroll requirements well before the payments are due.

Automating this process means that systems can calculate dues, deduct leaves, ensure compliance protocols are met, and calculate taxation pension funds, and so on.

Looking at what the system offers up for approval is enough for HR departments to sign off on payroll. It means that your payroll stress is cut down to a few days or hours versus entire weeks.

Conclusion

From the examples listed above, it is clear that HR automation is the way to go. The process streamlines the work and enhances the efficiency of the HR department and all its functions.

While only a few examples have been cited, the entire HR process can be automated. For businesses, this means using their existing HR resources to strategise and engage employees on a human level. With the world moving towards more efficient tech solutions, the fact is that businesses that fail to integrate HR automation are likely to be left far behind.