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Human resource management and process are critical components of any business. It handles recruiting, onboarding, training and development, payroll, and offboarding, among other things. No company could function smoothly without human resources.
However, HR departments are frequently swamped with paperwork and tedious manual processes, exhausting employees–making them prone to errors and rendering them to performing their tasks ineffectively.
As a result, many companies are implementing HR automation to redefine the workflow. HR automation can make these mundane tasks more manageable by using software to digitize or automate repetitive/time-consuming tasks. In addition, it allows the team to focus more on strategic tasks to improve business processes.
How Does It Work?
By relieving the HR team of administrative duties such as payroll, timekeeping, and benefits administration, they will be able to track, analyze, and collect much more critical data about the company’s systems, failures, and successes.
Automation in HR can be used in various company systems, including the recruitment process, preboarding, onboarding, offboarding, and employee performance evaluation. The goal is to make the HR department’s work more seamless, accessible, and sustainable than working without the help of automation HR tools. Let’s take a closer look at each of the above-mentioned HR areas.
Recruitment Process
The recruitment process can be a tedious task. It includes posting job ads, tracking applicant responses, screening resumes, assessments for pre-employment, sorting and prioritizing candidates, and handling individual emails.
Companies can automate these tasks so that the HR team does not have to waste time on them. With applicant tracking system (ATS) software, they’ll be able to complete paperless background checks, send automated emails, and update candidates on their application status.
Given the possibility of many job openings and numerous applicants a company faces annually, advancement in work progress could be significant, if not exponential.
Preboarding, Onboarding, and Offboarding
Although not every company has a preboarding process, it bridges the gap between the signing period and the employee’s first day. Preboarding prepares them for the new workplace, whereas onboarding helps them integrate into the team. On the other hand, offboarding helps to ensure that the working relationship ends nicely without any ill-feeling.
While most businesses are focused on the onboarding process, automating these three processes can improve employee experience and productivity.
Preboarding and Onboarding Process
The HR team must verify collected documents, sign forms, and grant new hires access to company tools during the onboarding process. HR automation can make this process more efficient by providing checklists with automatic notifications, approval systems, and the collection of e-signed forms/PDF documents.
If the company uses an app, new hires can receive all necessary information even before their first day. It can also help distribute access to software or tools needed for the job. The organization can make an excellent first impression on new hires by automating the process.
Offboarding Process
Similar to the previous point, HR automation software includes checklists for employee offboarding. It enables the electronic completion and uploading of necessary documents, seamless scheduling of exit interviews, easy updating of personal information, efficient arrangement of an employee’s final payslip, easy requesting for returning company equipment and removing employee information from the company directory.
With the software notifying employees every step of the way, nobody gets lost in the process, hence reducing the friction for offboarding.
Performance Review
If employees’ performance records are automated, the company can easily access data that could help them determine a suitable raise, bonus, disciplinary action, or possible termination.
By having the HR team track these records, managers will be able to give performance reviews, such as 360 feedback, and observe if employees are meeting the objectives.
Regarding employee responsibilities and accountability, automation software can also improve communication and teamwork since HR automation helps provide a clear view of all the processes and stages involved in the workplace.
Why Companies Should Switch to Automation
HR departments that have switched to HR automation have sped up their work and been able to focus on people-centered tasks such as employee empowerment. They can focus on building the company culture and being the communications expert now that the admin work is out of their hands.
With the various automated processes, it will result in reduced human efforts and increased accessibility with electronic filing.
Reduced Human Errors
Manually completing records such as payroll, timesheets, and leave credits leaves room for human error. HR automation can perform these tasks efficiently and more accurately. With an automated system, compensation planning calculation only takes days and is error-free compared to a month of analysis if done manually.
Not to mention that human errors can be costly to businesses. So by switching to automation, you reduce the risks of these costs.
Electronic Filing
Employees can save up to 70% on processing time by using electronic filing. Aside from eliminating human error, it can provide companies with a real-time spending overview.
Printing documents for paper-based processing necessitates a filing and storing system, which can be costly and time-consuming. HR automation allows the company to save money on storage space while providing employees with easy access to records with just a few clicks.
Employees must also complete forms regarding their benefits and other requirements. HR automation enables them to do so electronically, reducing paperwork and resulting in better file management systems.
Benefits and Other Requirements
Calculating vacation days, leave balances, expense reports, payrolls, and taxes can be time-consuming and prone to human error. Automation in human resources will help eliminate these and make work more efficient, saving time for the HR department and other employees.
For example, manual calculation of vacation days involves checking the leave balance, getting managers’ approval, and recording payroll. The software can perform this process automatically and smoothly.
Employees can choose to upload receipt photos for expense reports as the software extracts the necessary data automatically. Automated payroll taxes, on the other hand, provide digital files that are easier to audit and make the entire tax filing process more manageable.
Timesheet apps also help store employee profiles, attendance digitally, and other necessary records, which reduces the time spent manually computing an employee’s days worked. The software can also display benefits on their profiles to keep employees informed and updated on what benefits are available.
