Process Automation is the term used to describe any process that is not done through manual or human intervention. An automated process requires less human intervention and is more consistent. In this article, I am going to discuss a department which is considered the ‘Heart’ of the industry.

HR processes have a profound impact on the value of an enterprise.

Here is the list of some of the HR roles involved in the daily life of an employee in an organization.

1. Recruitment

Employees are the strength of any organization and the responsibility of bringing an employee as an asset to the organization is bestowed upon the HR department. Recruiting skilled candidates for the appropriate job is a vital role of the HR department.

2. Employee Onboarding

Onboarding comes next to recruitment which is yet another important task conferred on the HR. This is very important as an effective onboarding helps integrate the new employees to the organization and fosters the feeling of belongingness to the new organization.

3. Workplace Safety

After the employee is effectually inducted into the organization, his/her workplace safety is a factor of important consideration for the HR department. HR Representatives make sure that their business is in compliance with health and safety laws. They are also responsible for educating staff regarding these protocols.

4. Employee Relations

Employee Relations is the HR discipline concerned with strengthening the employee-employer relationship through periodic measurement of employee job satisfaction, employee engagement programs and also by resolving the workplace conflict.

5. Payroll & Compensation

Handling the most important feature, Payroll & Compensation and Benefits of the employee is the chief duty of the HR department. Processing the payroll accurately and on-time is of prime importance to everyone in the company.

6. Training and Development

After onboarding, the employee into the organization by providing extensive orientation and training to transition them into the new organizational culture, the next priority job of the HR is to provide employees with the opportunity to upgrade their skills with appropriate training and development programs.

As we see, predominantly the HR department depends on document-driven processes to get all of the above-listed activities done. HR Automation is the process of transitioning your burdensome, time-consuming paper-based processes to a streamlined, computer-based online system. HR automation is mostly based on the concept of self-service. By self-service we mean the employees and employers could perform all of their HR-related functions on their own, at the convenience of their own system, any time and from anywhere. An HR manager does not have to be a conduit for all interaction between employees.

Here I have listed some of the core HR functions that can be automated.
  • Timesheet submission and approval – Reminder emails can be sent to employees for submission and for approval to the employers. Timesheet filling is linked to another important sector of the HR department ‘Compensation’.
  • Benefits Enrolment – This can be achieved by auto tracking of the employee record and enable benefits enrolment when they become eligible.
  • Employee Recruitment – Store job requirements and candidate profiles in a repository and assign them to the appropriate managers based on the requirement.
  • Generate Tax Forms – Send automatic reminder emails to employees for tax filing.
  • Employee Records Management – Of those in company roll, those on LOP for a long period of time of the employees who are on a sabbatical break but still on company rolls, employees who have left the organization for a stipulated period of time.
  • Performance Review and Appraisal – Fill in the forms for employee performance and automatically route to managers for feedback.
  • Training and Continuous Learning – Based on performance feedback, automatically determine the areas of improvement and suggest courses for employee improvement.

Can you think of any other HR process that can be automated? Share with us your thoughts.