HR managers have a lot on their plates. From recruitment, onboarding, and payroll to overall resource management, they must take care of various data-intensive and complex processes. And up until recently, HR management has mostly been done using manual methods. Manual operations are not only time-consuming, they are also error-prone and lead to low efficiency.
It is no wonder that businesses worldwide, be it small, medium, or large, are embracing HR automation. A Gartner study reported that about 17% of businesses worldwide use AI-based solutions, and by the end of 2022, that percentage is expected to jump to 30%.
What is HR automation?
HR automation refers to using automation tools, AI, and unified data sources to automate HR processes. HR automation allows you to enhance your productivity by automating redundant tasks with little to no manual intervention. It helps you set up automated workflows and processes along with accurate data tracking to streamline all HR-related tasks efficiently.
Read on: Don't fear the AI in HR.
Benefits of HR automation
Here are some top HR automation benefits you can expect from automating your human resources department:
Reduced risk of human errors & saving costs
As previously mentioned, HR automation saves time that would be otherwise spent on manual, repetitive tasks. With automated processes, you can set them up once and get the job done perfectly every time without any errors.
Paperless digital approach
We live in a digital era. But unless you move to automation, you may not be feeling the full benefits of going digital. Automation not only aids in digitization, but also improves the benefits of your overall digitization efforts. Consequently, it also helps reduce the costs associated with manual labor and hardware resources.
Better insights
Do you want to find out the potential reason behind any low employee satisfaction levels? Do you want to know what you can do to improve the quality of your recruitment process? Automation can help you gather the required data and gain insights into questions like these. With data-driven decisions, you can better optimize your processes.
Better security
HR automation helps with optimized resource access management, thus improving your security – an essential aspect of handling personnel data.
Enhanced efficiency
Scheduling, resource allocation, and leave management can all be automated efficiently. HR automation allows you to spend time on more critical tasks and leave the day-to-day operations to be carried out in the background without any worries.
Transparent and consistent workflows
HR automation introduces accountability and consistency to all your HR processes. For instance, leave approvals can be easily tracked, which helps employees spend less time worrying about the status of their leave requests. Approval processes, auditing, and more can be made transparent and consistent across the organization, allowing you to implement HR best practices effectively.
Which HR processes should you automate?
Recruitment
An HR automation process can benefit every step of the recruitment process. Tasks like resume screening, candidate management, interview scheduling, and reporting results can be easily automated.
Read on: HR process automation can land you a better candidate.
Employee contracting & agreements
Automating employee contracts and agreements lets you improve the transparency and integrity of the process and allows both parties to gain easy access to any contract documents.
Onboarding
Onboarding includes the initial HR processes needed to get a new recruit trained and accustomed to the company. By automating onboarding, you can easily track the employee’s progress and meet your deadline criteria in an optimized manner.
Offboarding
Offboarding stands to benefit greatly from automation. Many offboarding tasks are repetitive and involve handoff processes such as device handovers, exit interviews, tax forms, and so on. Automating offboarding ensures that nothing is left out and all resources are accounted for when the employee exits the company.
Leave management
Leave management can be easily automated and is made far more efficient with the help of automated workflows. Automation allows employees to easily check leave balances, schedule their leave beforehand, and get them approved at the right time.
Travel & expenses management
Travel and expense management is another part of HR management that usually involves a lot of paperwork. Managers will also have to keep a keen eye on the details so that no financial errors occur. Automation helps with that by ensuring that employees can easily upload their bills, submit their expenses for approval, and track the status of their requests throughout the process.
Performance management & evaluation
Performance management requires transparent processes, and these are easily achieved with the help of HR automation.
Time tracking
Time tracking is an important part of productivity. Automating timesheets gets you better insights into your company’s productivity stats, giving you the information you need to make accurate decisions.
Interesting in learning more about HR? Check out our guide to the fundamentals of HR.
Examples of HR automation
Besides the aforementioned components of HR management, you can automate payroll, employee benefits, internal HR processes, and more. Custom workflow automation also lets you automate workflows that are unique to your organization, giving you a tailored approach.
Implementing HR automation
HR automation is often implemented with the help of specialized automation software tools. They can be either used as standalone applications or can come as part of a bigger, comprehensive ERP solution. Packaged enterprise resource planning tools include features that can help introduce HR automation.
Read on: Top 7 HR automation tools in 2022.
If you're looking for HR automation software, you could also choose a modular ERP. A modular ERP solution allows you to pick and choose only the modules you need. For instance, if all you need is HR management, you can pay only for the modules related to HR and use the automation capabilities provided by the modular ERP software.
To learn more about HR automation implementation, find out how Vault can help your HR department on our blog or contact us today.