You found our guide to HR automation: best practices & trends.
HR automation is the use of technology to eliminate repetitive, time-consuming processes related to HR administrative duties. HR automation includes data security, onboarding and offboarding, and data entry. Human resources automation has the potential to significantly increase productivity, streamline processes, and cut down on mistakes in the workplace.
HR automation is also related to HR software and may include applicant tracking systems and employee management platforms. You will also find HR books and HR blogs helpful.
This article contains:
- HR automation trends
- HR automation best practices
- HR automation examples
- HR automation ideas
- HR automation benefits
Let’s get started!
HR automation trends
Human resource automation trends will be the primary driver for future development. Therefore, it is only natural to speculate about what emerging tendencies will mold the future of work and HR practices.
1. Hiring Process has the Most Potential for Automation
Hiring new staff is one of the most essential parts of any human resources job. The process is not overly complex but takes time and is also quite repetitive, creating a case for automation. Yet, according to Workato, only six percent of recruiting processes are automated, despite rapid annual development in this area.
Arranging interviews is the biggest time waster. Scheduling a single person is a breeze, but the process may become complicated with numerous candidates. Automating the process removes obstacles like conflicting interview dates and ensures that applicants have a positive experience.
Up to 67 percent of HR representatives polled by LinkedIn said they had benefited from automation in terms of time savings. This figure is bound to rise rapidly as innovative applications of AI and automation streamline and improve HR processes.
2. RPA Systems will Dominate the Automation Market
Robotic Process Automation or RPA systems controls the software robots that perform automated tasks by interacting with other digital systems and applications. These systems’ primary value to modern enterprises lies in the capacity to automate rule-based, repetitive processes.
RPA platforms are a dominant force in the HR industry. Despite the pandemic’s detrimental impact on the economy, Gartner predicts the RPA market will increase gradually through 2024. The use of RPA has been rising steadily over the last decade, but it got a significant uptick in 2019. Revenue growth for RPAs was about 63 percent, and experts predict this upward trend will continue over the years.
Human resources will feel the impact of RPAs in managing and collecting data as routine tasks become automated. Additionally, RPAs will help HR adjust to the new automation paradigm and understand the altered nature of the workplace in which humans and machines collaborate to enhance each other’s skills and abilities.
Some concerns exist that this new technology may affect the employment rate, but it is more probable that it will only alter the approach to HR. Unfortunately, there is still a long journey to having talent and skill assessment algorithms that do not need human intervention.
3. AI-Powered Automation
The demands of human resources in the modern digital era are growing in complexity. With the digitization of the corporate environment on the rise, human resources departments are under increased pressure to catch up quickly. As a result, HR managers must streamline hiring, onboarding, and working with employees.
HR automation examples include:
- Timely information: By automatically recording and analyzing data, human resources can foresee questions and concerns and have ready-made responses.
- Tailor-made strategies: Workers need real-time access to HR services tailored to their specific requirements and schedules regardless of location.
- HR empowerment: Human resources departments may get more done with fewer employees and devote more time to activities that need human judgment thanks to the automation of repetitive chores.
- Round-the-clock availability: AI-powered chatbots allow businesses to give around-the-clock assistance without staffing HR representatives for continuous operations.
As companies move to a cloud-based infrastructure, human resources will undergo a period of change. As a result, decisions will be based more on hard facts and data, increasing the emphasis on employee engagement initiatives, productivity, performance, and health.
The Global Human Capital Trends library found that 38 percent of businesses in 140 countries expect complete deployment of AI and automation over the next five years. Companies that want to remain competitive need to keep that in mind.
4. Strategy Development Based on Data
Human resource managers face many decisions daily, each with the potential to significantly impact the company’s future. For example, you will have to use your gut to decide whether to hire an applicant or turn them down, which perks and incentives to provide, how to schedule their days off, and how they perform on the job. Metrics and analytics are becoming more popular in human resources because they eliminate the need for guessing.
Plenty of data are available for tracking and analysis. However, the most successful businesses of the next decade will be those who learn how to make the most use of this data. For example, you can use data to inform HR practices, like choosing candidates with a track record of success, a relevant skill set, and the potential to contribute to your company over the long term. Data will also help you create training programs that adapt to each individual’s preferred learning method and pace.
5. Automation of HR Analytics
Beyond data-driven choices and analytics in the context of human resources, there are opportunities with automated HR analytics. With HR analytics, you can determine what factors indicate a productive workplace. In addition, you can compare performance ratings and comments from workers with how various leadership styles affect productivity. This obtained data can give you insights into different approaches to productivity and participation.
Data continues accumulating from analytics in websites, social media, and various forms of advertising, and it is becoming critical to maximizing its use. Artificial intelligence will be necessary in the coming stages. Using AI, you can categorize information, extract valuable insights from text, and link data sets. The more advanced AI becomes, the less personnel is required to analyze massive data dumps, and the more accurate results will be.
6. Payroll Automation
According to the 2018 Payroll Operations Survey, around six percent of businesses in the United States automated their payroll processes. In addition, the poll found that about one-fifth of those who do not now utilize payroll automation want to do so in the near future. Using automated payroll systems has several advantages. Since data collection takes up the most time, automating this process would be a huge boon.
In addition, if your Human Resources Information System integrates with your worldwide payroll, both systems can use the same database as a single SSoT. In conventional approaches to payroll administration, data validation also plays a role. Human Resources had to compare spreadsheets and double-check payroll details before finalizing any payments. Artificial intelligence can perform this process automatically, speeding up and improving accuracy. In addition, you have the option of establishing timed triggers that will inform HR when a particular action is due for execution.
The most obvious case is eliminating manual labor by automatically populating pay stubs or payslips inside the HRIS using a paystub generator.
HR automation best practices
The following section highlights the best practices for HR automation and how companies can boost their productivity.
1. Eliminate Permission Loops
One of the most challenging aspects of the onboarding process for new employees is gaining access to the many systems needed for the job. The employee might not know of a particular required process if days have gone by without receiving access to slack for interaction. This issue can potentially cause time and talent wastage.
The IT department may simplify the process by using automated solutions. For example, the department can provide new hires with pre-loaded computers or program a chatbot to deliver all the relevant links and Slack channels. Businesses may use “open by default” instead of the more cumbersome and time-consuming practice of requesting permissions at each stage. By designing your infrastructure to provide permissions automatically, you empower your teams to identify solutions on their own without overwhelming the IT help desk.
2. Implement Employee Offboarding
Offboarding is a sensitive time for human resources departments, whether an employee departs freely or involuntarily. The processes involved include informing the team, retrieving business property, and adhering to legal rules, all within a condensed time frame. Ineffective onboarding can give unguarded access to valuable corporate data. When offboarding processes are automated, success rates increase dramatically.
Using asset management software in your service desk allows you to track assets and recover them when needed. If you are still using a spreadsheet, it is probably time to start thinking about ways to automate and manage your assets. For instance, IT may automate offboarding by sending emails to a distribution list and setting off a chain reaction of smaller activities. If you keep tabs on business property, you may quickly determine who has what until a specific date and close the ticket automatically after the employee has left.
3. Use HR Workflows for Seamless Onboarding
The first few new hires can breeze through the manual onboarding process. However, human error becomes more likely when you go from onboarding three new workers per week to onboarding 50. Keeping a consistent experience for new hires is difficult as the complexity of onboarding increases, but it is possible with automation.
Getting a new employee physically and digitally integrated into the workplace takes a dozen little processes and a few different departments. However, with the aid of IT teams, HR can automate the whole process by putting up a series of triggers that prepare staff members for a new employee’s arrival. For example, opening a ticket may initiate the delivery of a new laptop, downloading and installing any necessary software, setting up an appropriate email address, and notification of facilities to locate a suitable desk. Using Jira HR workflows tailored to the specific needs of your HR department, you can accomplish all these processes.
4. Provide A Self-Service Catalog
Sending an email is often the default setting for dealing with employee requests. However, IT can go above and beyond automating permissions by offering a unified service catalog for digital services. Employees can peruse the catalog and choose the service for IT to address. Your IT’s goal should be to make it as easy as possible for employees to find and use the details they require to do their jobs.
As stated by Forrester in their report titled “Three Trends Are Transforming the Service Desk, October 2019,” Most service management tools started as ticketing and workflow platforms, but now they facilitate fully automated processes from beginning to end, with little to no human intervention required, and capabilities on par with business process management tools.
An effective service catalog and user-friendly service request forms may streamline the fulfillment process without requiring involvement from IT.
HR automation benefits
With HR automation, you can ignore the busywork and time-consuming details of HR administration and instead concentrate on the most crucial element of your work. Thanks to automation, you can focus more on the employees who make your organization shine by devoting less time to administrative tasks like spreadsheets, emails, and bills.
1. Reduce Mistakes
Many HR processes still involve manual data entry, including leave dates, payroll, hourly data, and employee information. However, manual processes mean mistakes are inevitable. The monotony and routine of data input may wear workers down and cause them to get distracted or confused, leading to missteps. These errors sometimes produce more faults that are more irritating or costly to fix. Avoiding these simple clerical mistakes with HR automation may help you save time and money.
2. Motivate Employees
Data entry tasks are mundane and uninteresting for most employees. Engaged workers undertake work that has both meaning and significance, and inputting data about their colleagues into a spreadsheet definitely does not qualify. According to a report by CareerBuilder, HR managers lose 14 hours a week on manual processes that are automatable.
To keep your workers motivated to do their best work, freeing your skilled HR staff to devote more time to what they do best, such as monitoring employee performance, driving corporate strategy, and managing change. HR automation makes this goal more manageable.
3. Streamlining Processes
Traditional human resources activities, procedures, and workflows are overly complicated. Getting through each stage requires work because a large group of individuals is involved, and the process is time-consuming. However, HR automation makes monitoring and administering these HR procedures considerably less of a hassle. For instance, keeping track of employees’ sick and vacation time is a time-consuming and laborious operation that is simplifiable with the help of software.
On the other hand, HR automation means that teams no longer have to manually sift through files or submit requests to HR to get the answers they need.
4. Better Data Security
It is impossible to manage a firm without HR records and data. Your company may be subject to audits. Therefore, preserving records for at least a decade is in your best interest. Often, all of this data is stored in one place inside an aging HR system, making it vulnerable to breaches or failure. However, the information you enter into HR automation systems automatically saves to your organization’s cloud servers, safe from accidents. Having reliable backups in place is a critical aspect of HR automation.
5. Improved Hiring and Onboarding Process
One of your HR department’s most critical functions is recruiting and onboarding new workers. Although human resources software cannot fully replace experts in recruiting, such as live interviews, automation may play an important role.
About 52 percent of HR professionals claim the skills gap for candidates has deteriorated in the past two years. Therefore, it is crucial to use HR automation in the recruiting process to sift through a big pool of applicants and choose profiles based on skills and qualities likely to succeed.
In addition, you can automate the initial stage of the recruiting process so that eligible applicants remain up to date. Furthermore, AI-based solutions may aid in preventing implicit prejudice and discrimination from impacting the selection process.
6. Better Business Decisions
One of the best ways for a company to improve its decision-making in any area, including human resources, is to analyze and learn from data. Using HR automation software, you can collect accurate information on human resources factors, including headcount, employee statistics, and pay and salary trends. In addition, you may use artificial intelligence in such technologies to do complex data analyses, leading to better-informed business choices.
For instance, AI can help you identify which workers are thriving in their current positions and which are struggling so you can evaluate whether a transfer would be beneficial. Another option is to analyze a struggling team to find the areas where improvement is possible. By replacing gut feelings with hard facts, leaders can motivate their employees to achieve tangible goals.
Conclusion
As a result of the high entry barrier, many businesses delay using HR automation systems. These systems may indeed be somewhat pricey. However, while the upfront investment in HR automation ideas may seem prohibitive, looking at the bigger picture often reveals significant savings over time.
You should see HR automation as a long-term goal and investment in your company’s future. While there is an upfront investment, continued usage of the tools will result in significant savings. Lower mistake rates, improved recruiting procedures, tighter data control, and security, reduced personnel, and more employee motivation and productivity contribute to these cost reductions.
Human resources automation allows your business to work more efficiently and effectively while better meeting the needs of your most precious asset, the employees. It may seem counterintuitive to utilize machines to aid the success of your employees, but that is precisely the purpose of HR automation technologies, and it is now simpler than ever to locate the ones that work for you.
For additional reading, check out our article on HR skills and competencies.
Grace He