8 Examples of HR Automation

Two-thirds of HR leaders say their department is impacted by digital transformation and HR automation, yet only 40% have a plan to enter this uncharted territory.

HR handles job postings, applicant screenings, onboarding, company benefits, performance tracking, offboarding and more. When a company scales, has multiple locations or works in multiple places, it is impossible to survive without automation.

Traditional HR software may require custom programming and is also quite expensive and complex. The good news is that HR automation today is both cost-effective and easy to implement.  Solutions have expanded to the cloud, and there are low/no-code options like ProcessMaker.

Read More... Advantages of an automated Human Resource Management System

What is HR automation?

HR automation is technology that automates repetitive HR processes and streamlines document-heavy tasks. Without sacrificing quality, it significantly reduces the time needed to complete HR processes.

It can handle many important administrative tasks, such as feeding data, creating files, sharing documents, selecting candidates with specific skills, pre-filling forms and more. When done manually, these types of tasks can take hours.

Why should your organisation look at HR automation?

HR automation offers many benefits, such as reducing printing and physical storage costs while providing convenient access to online files at any time and from any location.

When employee data can be stored in a central location, it increases efficiency in selection, hiring and training. Equally important, employees feel more engaged when they have time to focus on strategic tasks that help advance the organisation's business goals.

When onboarding is automated, new employees can get straight to work instead of spending their first week digging through piles of paperwork and forms.  Data entry errors can also be avoided.

Saving time equals reducing costs, especially if the HR team can become more productive.

Focus on what matters most - your people

On average, HR spends 40% of its time on tedious administrative tasks such as retrieving data from one system and entering the information into another. If processes were streamlined, HR could spend more time finding and retaining top talent.

With HR automation, you can create an environment that eliminates unintentional bias - an environment where you can focus on what's most important: skills. Furthermore, it's quite common for new employees to lose some of their zeal when they're busy filling out paperwork and managing emails.

However, if you automate your HR workflows, new employees and long-term employees will no longer feel so overwhelmed. Almost any HR process can be put on the fast track and instantly improve the workload for HR while increasing the engagement of employees interacting with HR.

8 Common Examples of HR Automation

Employee onboarding
Employee onboarding is one of the more tedious tasks regularly undertaken by the HR department. From posting jobs and collecting resumes to interviewing and giving network access to new employees, all of these processes can be automated. Hiring driven by HR automation can speed up the onboarding process while reducing associated costs.

Furthermore, monitoring, analysing and measuring performance is not a simple process. There are many instances where bias and inefficiencies can become part of the cycle. In contrast, HR automation will closely track the most meaningful KPIs to ensure that each employee's contribution is aligned with business objectives.

Offboarding
Offboarding is not a pleasant process, neither for the employee nor for the employer. In some cases it can feel awkward and forced. Nonetheless, termination paperwork must be collected and processed. In addition, company equipment must be recorded, returned and checked. Next, steps must be taken to remove the terminated employee from payroll and benefits.

Instead, use automation to process each of these tasks quickly, reliably and consistently to make the offboarding process more manageable and avoid potential legal issues.

Leave requests
There are many reasons why a team member may request leave - whether it's for medical treatment, sabbatical, training or something else. Processing any leave request is tedious and time-consuming. Moreover, the time involved makes it difficult for HR to respond to and approve the requests in a timely manner.

On the other hand, intelligent automation can deliver secure approvals in the shortest possible time, while the employee's leave data is updated immediately. In this way, HR can monitor and approve all leave requests quickly and efficiently, leaving everyone happy with the convenience of the process.  Watch a video on how to create leave requests in ProcessMaker.

Before HR automation, HR administrators had to sift through various Excel spreadsheets and stacks of paper files. As a result, it took days, if not weeks, to sort through an employee's expense reports. Even with a detail-oriented manual process, expenses could show up out of date and with inaccuracies. Before any filing could take place, the HR team had to process each expense item in the company's system. It also had to be reviewed and approved by the employee's supervisor. Next, it goes to the accounting department. This process is the same regardless of the size of the claim.

It is no surprise that the backlog would mushroom, leading to frustration and fatigue. However, HR automation removes cumbersome manual processes while reducing the error rate in accounting and relieving the HR team from participating in outdated processes.

Payroll
In this age of government regulation, manual processing of payroll increases the risk of error exponentially. In lieu of manual processing, HR automation can provide accurate calculations, guide payroll to comply with IRS and US Department of Labor regulations, and ensure employees are paid on target and on time.

Time management
If you are still using a manual time entry system for your employees, then it is safe to say that employees are not entering their hours until the week is over. Often this form of time recording is prone to error, as not everyone can remember everything that happened during the working day. This is not meant to be malicious, but people cannot be expected to remember everything that is not typical, such as doctor's appointments, traffic, picking up children from school and other unexpected activities. Without automation, this can lead to major headaches when it's time for payroll.

Employee benefits
Employee benefits can constantly change over time, due to events that change employees' lives or open enrolment, for example. Not to mention that it is extremely difficult to track employee benefits through paper and manual processes. It's time to reduce the costs associated with benefits administration through HR automation. For example, you can automate the following:

• Eligibility for benefits
• Benefits education and training
• Benefit adjustments for life-changing events such as marriage, divorce, relocation, a new child or a new health issue
• Open enrolment
• Familiarisation with benefits
• Managing employee benefits doesn't have to feel like a nightmare.

Tax returns
Tax time is always cumbersome for many businesses, as is tax compliance. The good news is that HR automation gives your business the ability to scale quickly. With this cloud-based platform, you can ensure you're calculating the right taxes for your products and services, as well as usage taxes. You can also automate payroll taxes in compliance with state laws.

Looking for an automated HR Management System? Try IceHrm today. Enjoy thier 45 days free trial to enjoy all the modules.