COVID-19-related lockdown all over the world has an irreversible impact on our life. People are forced to work remotely while only 55% of businesses could offer some capacity for that. According to the McKinsey and Company report, a more or less full recovery of world business spheres is predicted for no sooner than the second half of 2024. Moreover, some statisticians predict remote work will stay along for much longer, thus completely reshaping businesses. For companies to survive rapid digitalization of all business processes is the lifeline. HR sphere is not an exception. The transmission from a typewriter to a computer in the 60s was for many companies a dilemma and now looking back it’s clear that success walked hand in hand with the ability to adapt to a new reality. From a developmental perspective, we are facing another challenge: the remote world.
What is HR Automation?
The urge for automation in the HR sector stems not only from the necessity to work under the lockdown conditions, but the present state of world business generally. Human resource departments work cross-culturally, through various world-located offices, adjusting the documentation concerning taxes, payrolls, etc. based not only on state laws but in the case of huge world corporations, on national laws and regulations of the countries. Stand-alone HR software has been around for a while but nowadays it could only be beneficial in the combination with HR automation. There are several ways to boost productivity by handling administrative tasks and the everyday routine of the human resource department.
HR Automation Software Goals
- Automate the recruitment process through AI implementation into HR software, mainly in hiring, onboarding, and company communication systems.
- Automate repetitive tasks, and make HR workflows available to different groups of users.
- Provide security and data protection.
- Provide the ability to share documents on multiple devices to simplify the audit and enable the transparency of data.
- Import documents to the cloud, and organize them into a retrievable and searchable format.
Tackling the aforementioned tendencies brings a plethora of benefits to HR personnel and the company. By saving time through the automation of repetitive tasks, HR employees attend to their jobs with bigger efficiency and increased motivation. Witnessing improved goal accomplishment brings better morale, not to mention the annihilation of human error.
Core HR Processes to Automate
Taking into consideration the vast amount of tasks and responsibilities, HR automation software is not only a step into the future, but the present indispensable need. Based on recent research around two-thirds of HR managers admit the ongoing automation, and the other one-third claim to have plans on how to navigate this emerging new sphere. Moreover, due to the needs of each business regarding its size, scale, multiple locations, and remote work we should take into consideration that not all legacy HR apps and software presented in the market would ideally match the current needs. In some cases, custom HR platform development is the only answer.
Which HR tasks can be automated with a custom-made HR platform?
1. Hiring and Onboarding
Any hiring process starts with recruitment activities. The automation of the recruitment stage helps to reduce costs and save time, it also allows to reach the best candidates in a very short time period. The best way to optimize this stage is to develop AI-based software that can equally cover a job posting process and hiring. Such HR platforms for recruiters could automate and streamline recruitment stages through AI-driven chatbots, automatically generated emails, applications, and even interview scheduling. Thus, hiring and onboarding processes accelerated tenfold left HR specialists with the tasks of analytical and strategic planning, and eliminated inefficiencies and biases which could take place in the hiring cycle.
2. Personal Data Management
Cloud-based repositories used by HR management help keep personal information up-to-date. Special software helps to store, update, and retrieve the data and in case of an audit could easily upload and bring it on paper.
3. Tracking Timesheets
This is a time-consuming and inefficient task that can be subjected to automation. There are several tracking options. The most common one is to ask the employees to log onto time tracking software and keep the track of the time spent at work. The other way is to integrate the company pass entry system with the HR tracking tool. The data is compiled and ready for payroll automatically.
4. Performance Appraisal
This activity is connected with bureaucracy and spending time getting feedback on employees from heads of departments, and it could tie up HR staff. An automated process generates the needed data more effectively and flawlessly, thus turning appraisals from a hard chore to a genuinely effective leverage business tool by tracking the overall performance regardless of the company size.
5. Offboarding
Human hand in mishandling termination files, company equipment return, and the removal of ex-employees from the payroll and benefits could generate legal issues and cases against the company. HR automation handles such sensitive issues accurately, consistently, and reliably.
6. Salary Management
This is one more arduous task for the HR department. Salary management could become an extremely stressful and frustrating process. Employees have to sift through tons of Excel spreadsheets and manage the data provided there. HR automation software reduces stress levels, brings more motivation to employees, and dramatically speeds up processes. The right HR tool connects salary management with time-tracking software. Moreover, an HR platform could be integrated with different payment systems.
7. Leave Requests
Specialized HR software collects and validates data swiftly and error-free. In terms of leave requests, HR automation tools provide faster approval, which is specifically important in times of holidays or the recent COVID conditions.
6 Biggest Benefits of HR Automation
Right HR software builds automated processes fairly easily and helps companies reap profit. Let’s cover these game-changing benefits.
Error-free
Human error is the biggest issue on the way to the success of any company no matter how well-organized its workflow is. One cannot anticipate, predict, or/and eliminate mistakes that trigger enormous amounts of rework. This affects employee efficiency, morale, and turnover levels. By breaking the complex workflow into separate parts with automated connections between them, the manual dependency is eliminated and the number of errors decreases.
Time-saving
HR automation provides an unmatching time-saving capability. Web-based HR platforms as well as HR mobile apps automate repetitive tasks, eliminate manual interference, and bridge gaps between processes. Thus, the personnel becomes more productive and could dedicate their time and efforts to high-impact tasks.
Cost-efficiency
The aforementioned benefits could be directly driven to cost-efficiency, not only due to making the HR department more productive and delivering better results but also by giving companies the option to select which of the processes they want to automate. Having this in mind there is no need to spend lots of money on buying stand-alone HR systems that could have many features your company workflow doesn’t need. Custom HR automation software, on the contrary, pinpoints only the weakest spots in the business workflow.
Efficiency
HR processes digitization brings transparency to the company workflow. It allows to display the real-time status of tasks, reduces approval waiting time, and enhances collaboration. It’s ideal for retrieving the bottlenecks of HR processes and bringing the company to a higher operational level.
Consistency
No need to stress out how complex the recent HR processes are. HR cloud platforms advocate for predefined workflow when processes are unified and leave no space for variations.
Safety and Protection
One of the best sides of HR automation is the protection of personal data. Databases of HR cloud platforms are generally encrypted.
Summary
HR processes automation of any business soars its survival chances during the pandemic or any other tough time. Also, modern technologies show a deep human impact on the HR sphere. They advocate for more empathic leadership and strive for employees’ wellness support. With the right HR tools in place and better agility, top managers have more chances to build the scenario-planning muscles, plunge deeper into the numerous data, and get better prepared for the unexpected VUCA world we all are living in now. If you have any questions concerning HR automation processes, would like a consultation on the HR software development and implementation, or have a project in mind, let us know. We get back to you as soon as possible and are ready to provide you with all the needed information.