8 Examples Of Process Automation In HR | Ecommerce Fastlane (2024)

Today, automation solutions in the business world are abundant, from enterprise resource and customer relationship management systems to various project management, accounting, and finance tools.

There is dedicated software for most internal business processes and an online booking service for nearly any external order.

However, what about human resource (HR) management? This vital business function has always relied on interpersonal communications and a human “touch” to inspire and motivate employees.

Below, we’ll provide 8 examples of how software applications and smart robots revolutionize human resource management.

Why is Automation of HR Processes Important?

According to Me-Pos (provider of comprehensive software solutions for business process automation), over half of HR companies around the globe achieve 10% to 20% cost reductions upon deploying business process automation.

Automation in human resource management simplifies hiring of new employees and speeds up their onboarding by 2-3 times.

It helps to improve employee assessment, development, and contract termination procedures. Automation also facilitates the management of employee data, monitoring regulatory compliance, and administering employee payroll.

Let's talk in more detail about each of these and other examples of automation in HR.

Scanning Through Resumes and Shortlisting Candidates

Each job vacancy comes with a list of requirements for the candidates. These requirements can be functional or interpersonal, probing candidates’ soft or hard skills. Therefore, it takes a lot of HR man-hours to review the applications and look for the best matches between the information in the resumes and job requirements.

However, this process can be streamlined by using automated software that analyzes resumes and selects only those that meet the specified requirements. After a shortlist of the best matching candidates is prepared by smart software, an HR expert can do their mind-work to analyze and sort out candidates further.

Sending Letters to Candidates

Let’s assume you have a list of candidates to be interviewed. A robot or AI application can help you generate an official invitation letter and send it to every candidate. Even if you have 100 people to contact or more, an AI can swiftly add individual names and disseminate all the letters by email in no time.

By the way, for the applicants who did not pass the initial selection stage, a program can also create and send a refusal email.

Adaptation of New Employees

Not all newcomers can quickly adapt to their new workplace, and it’s not only their fault, as many companies have too much bureaucracy and complicated onboarding procedures.

Once in the employee database, a person must receive:

• an account for the internal IT system;
• a badge to access the work area or zone;
• a mailbox;
• working tools (such as a laptop and a phone), and so on.

When the onboarding process is led by a software application, the adaptation speed increases up to 10 times. A smart algorithm can quickly develop a specific template for the onboarding workflow of a particular person, simplifying the entire routine.

Travel and Expense Management

Employee reports on business trips are not always accurate and correct. They often need to be adjusted in a hurry, since many employees submit them well past the deadlines.

By automating these processes, the risk of calculation errors is eliminated because the robot can automatically track all travel payments and approve only those that meet the specific reimbursement requirements.

By keeping records of all travel expenses in the company, it is easy to generate all sorts of financial reports to be reviewed by the management.

Employee Data Management

Employees in companies can be classified into several categories:

• former, current;
• freelance, full-time, part-time;
• needs development, top talent;
• employee, manager;
• and so on.

Each category is subject to different requirements and rules that relate to benefits or salaries. All this data is stored in databases and often in many separate ones.

Manually comparing information from different databases to apply a procedure to an employee can take days and weeks. Alternatively, a robot can find and analyze the required data from different databases in a matter of seconds. The responsible employee will only have to make an administrative decision on implementing a particular procedure.

Attendance Tracking

In companies with as many as 200 full-time employees, tracking attendance is not easy. What if there are 2000 employees and each has unique terms for being at work?

Here, an automated smart system will be indispensable. It can record not only the time of arrival and departure of employees but also identify ardent absentees and the most hardworking ones.

Moreover, in critical situations like a pandemic, a smart system can recommend distributing the workload between departments if most people are forced to be on sick leave.

Payroll Management

Payroll administration is an example of repetitive, monotonous work. It can have various factors and variables at play, and HR specialists must take them all into account.

Robots not only eliminate human error but also significantly reduce the time for calculation and accrual. As a result, the absence of late or unfair payments will have a positive impact on employee motivation.

Compliance and Reporting

Relations between employees and employers are regulated by labor legislation. The latter is usually subject to multiple changes, requiring loads of HR specialist’s time for monitoring. Whereas, if you integrate a custom AI program into the system that will transfer data from the legislation to the company’s work, you can free up a lot of time for your employees. Generating compliance reports will happen a lot faster, too.

Final Recommendations

If any of the above-mentioned optimizations are not part of your current HR practices, you must be seriously underperforming in operational savings and productivity. Consider taking the necessary steps toward sourcing the missing software capabilities and manpower skills.

Automation doesn’t mean laying off your HR personnel or reducing their numbers. It will only require upskilling and reskilling them. Your workforce will most likely appreciate the transformation in the long run, as they’ll have to do fewer manual tasks and focus more on creative and interesting ones.