Technology is changing how we work – and that includes human resources (HR). As Artificial Intelligence (AI) and automation become more sophisticated, they’re taking over many of the administrative tasks that used to eat up a ton of HR professionals’ time.
In fact, new research by SHRM (the Society for Human Resource Management) shows that nearly 1 in 4 organizations now use automation or AI to support HR activities. That number is only expected to grow over the next few years.
Clearly, there is already widespread appeal for automation, especially due to the fact that it can handle repetitive tasks like filling out paperwork, scheduling interviews, and tracking employee hours – freeing up HR staff to focus on more strategic initiatives. So which HR processes benefit the most from automation? Here are five that have seen major improvements:
Recruiting and Hiring
One of the most time-consuming parts of HR is finding and hiring new talent. Between sorting through resumes, scheduling interviews, checking references, and making offers, it can take weeks or even months to fill a single role.
Automation can seriously speed up this human resources process by taking care of the repetitive administrative tasks. Resume screening software can identify the most qualified applicants based on things like keywords and experience. Interview scheduling tools can coordinate times between multiple hiring managers and candidates.
Background check services can be integrated to automatically run after an offer is made. And recruitment chatbots can answer common candidate questions 24/7 without HR staff getting involved.
For fast-growing companies hiring many roles, these automation tools are game changers. Rather than getting bogged down scheduling every meeting and phone call, recruiters can focus on building relationships with candidates and streamlining the hiring workflow. Automation also ensures consistency across the process, while still allowing personal touches like customized offer letters. It’s a win-win that makes recruiting much more efficient.
Onboarding
Getting new hires up and running quickly is key, but onboarding can mean tons of paperwork and logistics for HR teams to manage. Between verifying eligibility, managing tax forms, creating accounts and credentials, answering a ton of questions, and tracking progress, it’s a super time-consuming process.
Onboarding bots and automated workflows are game changers in this area – they can handle all of those administrative tasks seamlessly behind the scenes. HR staff save countless hours not having to do manual onboarding work like they used to. Instead, they can focus on training new hires and orienting them through meetings and introductions to their team.
Automation also ensures every new employee gets the same streamlined, consistent onboarding experience. There’s no more scrambling to pull together paperwork and set up accounts. It’s simply a much smoother process all around, both for HR and for the new hires starting off on the right foot.
Benefits Enrolment
Open enrolment period is essentially chaos for most HR departments. There are always tons of employee questions to answer about plan details, not to mention all the manual data entry required for enrolment selections. Chasing down paper forms and inputting data is a huge, frustrating workload for HR teams each year.
But self-service online benefits portals simplify everything by empowering employees to shop plans, compare features and costs, and select benefits completely through an interactive web interface. No more paper forms for HR to collect and manual entry required. Employees get a personalized enrolment experience that meets their needs.
At the same time, HR gets to ditch the huge enrolment admin work that used to eat up their time. The portal integrates seamlessly with payroll systems as well, automatically updating deduction amounts. Using automation for benefits enrolment saves HR teams tons of hours while providing a better experience for everyone.
Performance Management
Performance reviews and appraisals are really important processes for managing talent and providing feedback. But coordinating schedules, manual forms, follow-ups, and all the administrative pieces can limit how frequently they happen.
Automating the performance review process through HR information systems helps solve a lot of those problems. Built-in workflows can trigger reviews and reminders on set schedules, so they actually happen regularly. Customizable review templates allow managers to provide structured, objective feedback to employees.
Integrated goal tracking and automated development plans also help keep employees engaged in improving throughout the year. By eliminating most of the manual administrative work, automation lets managers focus on more in-depth coaching conversations and mentorship during reviews. It really optimizes the process.
On top of that, HR gains valuable performance data and trends across the organization to inform bigger talent strategy decisions. Ditching all the manual performance management processes for automation ultimately makes the programs more effective.
Time and Attendance Tracking
Monitoring employee hours and attendance through manual processes like paper timesheets results in huge workloads for HR teams. It also leads to potential payroll errors that can cause compliance issues.
Automated time tracking systems eliminate those headaches by removing manual processes. Built-in automatic workflows approve timesheets, enforce work and overtime policies, integrate seamlessly with payroll, and keep detailed records accessible from one dashboard.
Not only do these systems save HR and payroll teams tons of time, they also improve accuracy so employees are always paid correctly. Issues can be resolved quickly through the centralized tracking.
For hourly or shift-based teams especially, automation is an absolute must to simplify time and attendance management. The manual processes of the past simply can’t keep up with the demands of today’s dynamic, mobile workforce. Automation makes this critical HR process efficient at scale.
Final Word
The bottom line? Automation is changing the game for many HR processes. No doubt about it. While some see technology as threatening, when used strategically it actually empowers HR pros to focus less on administrative work and more on big picture people initiatives.
Of course no algorithm or piece of software is flawless – there will always be a need for human insight and experience in HR roles. But used properly, automation can free up tons of time for developing talent, shaping culture, and other important stuff that matters.
As Artificial Intelligence and new innovations emerge, even more HR workflows will benefit from automation in the coming years. It’s all about finding the right balance between cutting-edge technology and the irreplaceable human element. Approach thoughtfully, and automation can be an HR team’s secret weapon instead of a threat.
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