Human Resources shape up your company's status and reputation, present and future. That’s why it’s important not to miss it when you start fully entering the digital era among other business aspects.
Globally it’s one of the data-driven scopes that like logistics, eCommerce currently go through digital transformation. However, it’s still hardly connected with paperwork making routine tasks whether time-consuming or affecting their quality by the inability to give the required attention.
A fair share of clauses on the to-do list of an HR manager can be performed automatically with minimum supervision. Considering that the constantly increasing market pace affects and accelerates internal workflow speed the answer to the question why HR automation? is pretty clear.
By simplifying for the department the handling of endless similar tasks you give it the ability to pay more attention to its main priority - people who already work or can start contribute for your startup, company or enterprise in-house or remotely as well as minimizing the number of mistakes within everyday routine due to the lowering concentration.
Application of HR automation tools: where and why
So what exactly can be automated? Let’s go over by the main duties of an average HR to discover what you can do to raise his or her efficiency and productivity.
Recruitment
From job board automation and CV scanning tools, there are a lot of helpful digital solutions that can help to attract, sort out and define quicker the selection of candidates for further examination by the trained eyes.
They also allow keeping track of everyday activities to monitor the task progress and the chosen approach efficiency.
Off/Onboarding
Ironically to become an actual team member or leave the role behind the one has to be it on paper first. The bigger company is the more complicated the process that can result in the big fat folder of documents.
But one of the basic HR automation benefits is the ability to move all these operations to the digital platform saving time and simplifying the access to employee info for those who have proper authorization.
Actualization
All related documents including employee personal information have to be regularly updated. Going folder by folder not only can take hours but also raise the risks of data losses and false inputs.
With a digital database, even a mistake detection and correction can take seconds and accessed at any time and place if it’s permitted by the system.
Tracking
Spent time on a certain task is the basic metrics to evaluate employee productivity as well as estimate the level of reliability and motivation that can significantly affect task performance.
Tracking solutions come not only with punch-clock functionality but also can present custom reporting without delays for analysis and further actions like de- or promotions, fines/bonuses, etc.
Requests
The level of HR responsiveness for employees mostly define the company loyalty towards its staff.
HR automation solutions allow not lowering the bar and create, send, process and accept/decline requests timely as well as keep the log to ensure that stipulated limits (for instance, vacation days per year) are adhered.
Payroll
This is the aspect when none of the parties will easily forget about mistakes. Incorrect data can affect not only statements but strategic planning and budget definition.
Digital solutions in addition to simplifying the process of data entry allow centralizing the whole company system concerning finances improving their management and flow tracking.
Training
Taking advantage of online education achievements is a way to save time on introduction for HRs, simplify the integration process for new employees and expertise growth for existing workers.
The scope actually gives a wide room for the implementation of unique HR automation ideas. All the rulebooks, tutorials, etc, can be presented in the digital form including using a gamification approach to ease the learning curve within an adjusted learning management system (LMS).
Rewarding
Setting any bonus programs within the company can be challenging with a poorly organized HR system. By going digital you can keep all the required information a few clicks away and sort out employees eligible for participation.
It also allows making the loyalty system more transparent for the staff enabling the monitoring of their current progress and automatic notification them about the achievements. Explore one of the HR automation examples for the aspects created by Springs.
Reporting
When it comes to performance evaluation of the HR department itself it should be as well done correctly and objectively.
Custom reporting tools using dashboards allow presenting data visually to detect not only happenings but tendencies to make more reasonable adjustments to the existing workflow and overall department strategy and politics.
If during the audit you see that the established HR system looks outdated and has serious gaps in risk and time management, performance quality and efficiency you should consider running with HR automation workflow upgrade. By making contributions in the technology you can stop an unreasonable budget increase on staffing and recruitment.
HR automation software technology
The scope of digital transformation is empowered by the same advanced tech that is driving the tendency within industries.
Artificial Intelligence. Enabling more accurate planning, behavior analysis, and forecasting as well as diverse data analytics and 24/7 employee support with chatbots.
Machine learning. Sharing the range of application with A, it's also the core technology of recommendation engines that allows detecting or attracting the right talents.
Internet of Things. Wearable IoT devices and specific sensors are among the latest HR automation trends. They can help raise the level of security and staff productivity, health, etc.
Cloud. On-premises infrastructure isn’t that cost-efficient option considering usability and maintenance especially for the SME sector companies with the digitization attitude.
Blockchain. Securing the data with the technology allows not only improve an internal fraud prevention system but also talent acquisition and management.
Each tech achievement or their combination finds its application in digital solutions for Human Resources, Staffing and Recruitment.
HR automation process: how to start
If you discovered the mentioned above issues in your workflow, it's time to take action. Technology application is a way to remove, improve or adjust the detected aspects on a long-term basis. But after voting for the innovation you might think what’s next? How to prepare, where to start, what software to use and how to acquire it? Let’s clarify these issues step by step.
Preparation
As with any other improvement goal in mind you should start with existing HR system optimization.
To be able to fit in the chosen solution framework it should have at least the structure outline for process management and duty segregation as well as be based on the completed list of responsibilities for each role.
Definition
Bringing all changes at once isn’t obligatory. You can go scope by scope, In this case, you should decide where the majority of burning issues are located or define the process where a new approach integration will be less painful.
If you plan to build a centralized system you can gradually add required modules to fulfill the current requirements.
Teamwork
Leaving your staff behind decision-making can add difficulties to the integration process as well as raise the odds of the initial failure.
Surely, you can’t satisfy everyone's needs but you can get more real-life guidelines to better comprehend cold numbers from the performance reports. It also can shorten the training time depending on the employees’ expertise.
HR automation strategy is another step in the digital transformation of your company to make it competitive on the market and capable to adjust to constantly changing external conditions.
To be able to involve the best of the most valuable resources in any business - talents and experts - you should put some efforts in acquisition, HR processes, and staff motivation to find, select and manage eager qualified workers for each position to bring closer the whole team success.
