Effective handling of human resource management makes a significant difference in the employee’s productivity in an organization. HR team plays a vital role in the journey of an employee in an organization, right from hiring and onboarding to routine tasks. An organization’s culture and well-being are largely dependent on its HR operations.
Repetitive and tedious HR processes take much of the organization’s time and energy. HR can focus less on other crucial strategic HR initiatives, leading to employee frustration and lack of performance. It is of utmost importance to keep up satisfaction levels among the workforce. This can be achieved if the HR functions in an organization are updated, agile, and aligned with employees’ needs. This is where automation could play a vital role in streamlining repetitive tasks and set the HR processes more goal-oriented.
What is HR Automation?
The process of setting the manual and repetitive HR tasks to an automatic mode is what is meant by HR automation. Automation makes the whole process efficient, thus enabling the HR team to work towards more productive areas and other pressing HR issues. Automation simplifies routine tasks by creating formats and schedules for various tasks. It also helps to rationalize costs over a period of time.
How Does Automation Help Your HR Department?
Automation is helpful in all areas of HR. With a lack of effective automated HR solutions, many manual tasks typically pile up. Let’s look at some of how automation is beneficial to HR.
Simplifies HR processes
With an automated HR solution, employee experience tends to go up. All the work gets done at a much more rapid pace, and employees have access to many self-service tools by which they feel engaged and quickly get the information they seek. Everything is available to employees within a few clicks, from the leave management process to compensation-related resources, rather than going through a considerable paperwork process.
Increases cost savings
Since HR in an organization is said to be a cost centre, automated HR processes help the organization save money over time by reducing the hours spent on manual tasks and storage. Employee-related data can now be stored online, thus reducing the need for filing. Another vital aspect is saving money on paying penalties as automated HR feature helps to stick to compliances. A line of set processes and tracking system allows for analyzing what is going wrong and helps in course correction. So, this saves money on things that are not showing results.
Prevents data errors
When employee data is managed manually, there are chances of errors in terms of wrong data entry or incorrect data calculation. These errors sometimes have negative consequences at various employee levels. Inbuilt alerts in an automated system take care of data errors and update the records whenever there is a change. Thus, duplication of work and wastage of time is avoided.
Boosts productivity
Automating the HR process helps boost the productivity of both the HR function and the employees, as the data is always consistent and updated. Both HR and the employees do not spend their time on manual tasks and can focus on other critical strategic areas. Automation takes of email and data management. Any information that is required at any time is readily available, thus leading to efficiencies.
Which HR Functions Should be Automated?
With automation in place for the HR function, the team can focus on crucial strategic HR areas like company culture, employee satisfaction, safety, and training needs. Here are some of the areas where automation works for the HR function
Payroll
Manual calculation of the number of days worked coupled with leaves taken, expenses and claims, taxation, etc., leaves room for error, leading to wrong estimates in payroll. Data becomes much easier to find required in case of a compliance audit. Automating payrolls helps your business run efficiently, leaves less room for error, and employees are paid accurately and on time. It also simplifies and streamlines complicated payroll processes.
Timesheet Management
Manual management of multiple projects with approvals and billing becomes cumbersome when timesheets are recorded in excel spreadsheets. Timesheet automation takes care of this difficulty. With this, employees can record their time on various projects and send the sheet online for approval, and the line managers can take action immediately. This leads to precise and error-free time tracking. Invoicing and payroll process also becomes efficient as a result.
Training and Development
Automation can take care of the training and development needs of the employees. Going by the skills of each employee, multiple need-based courses can be created and recommended online. Many numbers of employees across various locations can be trained in a single go. Employees can also complete their assessments online and get online certifications instantly.
Employee Data Management
Automating the data management is beneficial to both HR functions as well as the employees. Employees can easily access their information and update them as well online. This way, they can reduce time on following up with HR personnel to provide them with information as the data can be consolidated in a single place. It helps HR in managing huge data volumes and access in a secure manner. Thus, it gives them time to tend to other important strategic areas.
Performance Management
Automation of performance appraisals helps employees align their performance to organizational goals. It provides a great degree of transparency in the process, and all biases common with manual performance management are avoided. It gives a whole new dimension to standardization and makes the review process continuous and meaningful. When the systems are up to date and transparent, it enhances the business’s productivity and goes a long way in keeping the employees motivated.
Final thoughts
Over the last few years, the HR function’s role has become more strategic and goal-oriented. This ranges from hiring the right candidate for the vacancies to their journey in the organization. A lot of routine and mundane tasks which are repetitive become automated, and the HR team can focus on qualitative issues about the function. Automation helps employees see transparency in the system, get the information they need, and track their progress within the organization.
Automation in HR is a recommended practice as it leads to efficiencies and helps the employee to stay focused and motivated at all times. All we can say is HR automation is here to stay and will begin to be adopted across organizations rapidly.