Every company must have a human resources (HR) department that takes care of hiring and training employees and making sure that the business complies with labor laws. Because HR deals with people, it’s often perceived as a very hands-on department where tasks are done manually to achieve that “unique human touch”.
However, doing everything manually is laborious and time-consuming, not to mention prone to error. It’s high time you streamline your HR processes and tasks through automation.
What is HR automation?
It is the application of automation technologies on standard and repetitive HR processes to enhance the efficiency of the HR department. By relieving employees of manual tasks such as inputting employee information and screening resumés, they can focus on complex tasks like decision-making and strategizing.
Automating your HR processes should be part of your business’s overall digital transformation, or the incorporation of new and better technologies, to revolutionize how your organization operates.
The benefits of HR automation
Through HR automation, your organization can enjoy a suite of benefits, including the following:
- Improved productivity – Automation facilitates quicker processing and data sharing, allowing your staff to do more in less time.
- Lower operational cost – By automating your processes, you can reduce paper-based processes and their associated storage and printing costs.
- Higher data accuracy – Using automation technologies eliminates the variable of human error in your processes. This ensures that your databases are always complete, up to date, and free of any mistakes that can result in compliance risks or policy violations.
- Intelligent insights – Automating your HR workflows allows you to gather data and create insightful reports that are critical to making intelligent business decisions.
- Better employee management – Automation gives your HR department more time to analyze employee data and strategize how they can better hire, train, and retain employees.
What tasks should be automated?
Not all HR tasks can be automated, but the following should be.
1. Payroll
There are countless payroll automation software available in the market, such as QuickBooks, ADP solutions, and Microsoft Power Automate. Not only do these tools ensure accurate calculations, but they also allow your HR department to store and organize payroll records digitally, making audits a breeze.
2. Timesheets
Manual time trackers can be inaccurate due to employees’ faulty memory, confusing shift changes, or even intentional fraud, among other things. These can all be avoided by automating timekeeping processes. And now that most employees work from home, it’s even more critical that they can conveniently record their work hours without having to go to the office.
3. Benefits
Benefits can vary per employee depending on their rank, date of hire, or the number of their dependents. This makes it difficult to track and manage benefits manually. With a consolidated HR portal, you can automate the benefit eligibility process to check what benefits each employee is entitled to. This will also promote transparency, making employees aware of what benefits they can avail of or how to request modifications if necessary.
4. Onboarding and recruitment
Manually gathering and sifting through new employees’ information can mean endless hours and mounting paperwork. Automating your onboarding (or even offboarding) process can improve your HR staff’s experience, reduce human error, prevent paperwork loss, and improve the visibility of the new hire’s status between departments. What’s more, you can integrate AI applications with your HR automation solution to make recruiting and onboarding more interactive.
5. Employee performance management
A streamlined, automated employee performance management strategy enables managers and HR to set goals simply and efficiently. It also allows them to track and measure employee progress by juxtaposing employee performance with key performance indicators (KPIs), which enables leaders to give objective, consistent, and accurate evaluations. Such evaluations can be used to create training opportunities aimed at improving employee performance or furthering their career.
6. Tax compliance
Filing incorrect tax returns can incur penalties from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Avoid running afoul of the law by using automation tools that will help you accurately prepare, document, and file company and employee taxes. Using a cloud-based tax software service also makes it easy for your HR team to retrieve, verify, or update information wherever and whenever you need to.
If you’re ready to reap the benefits of HR automation, talk to our business technology experts at SpectrumWise. Give us a call at 704-703-9990 or send us a message today.
