One of the most common general challenges that HR experiences is being bogged down with heavy administrative tasks – tedious daily responsibilities that hinder their productivity. These repetitive tasks don’t just take up valuable time out of HR professionals’ days; they are also demotivating, taking up valuable mental energy and draining people for the rest of their work day. Administrative tasks also take away focus from other strategic responsibilities that may have a bigger impact on the organisation’s goals and on the performance of the overall workforce.
This is why automation is predicted to be a huge trend for the coming year. As HR comes into the digital age, tech tools can free up HR’s time and automate those tasks that add up, eating through their work days.
How HR can automate
HR can research and analyse which administrative duties are taking up the most time out of their days, and why these tasks have not yet been automated. For example, recruitment and onboarding tasks for a growing company may begin to pile up as the organisation expands and many new employees need to be hired.
Another massive challenge may be technical limitations and processes that haven’t been optimised. What processes have yet to be made paperless and digital? What processes are digital, but are still overly complicated and time consuming? One example may be employees requesting leave. To do so, they may have to request a specific form from HR. HR will then send that form to the employee, who will fill it out, and then send it to their supervisor for approval. Once the supervisor signs off, it’s then sent back to HR to review and record. Finally, HR can confirm to the employee that their time off has been officially approved.
This process is tedious and lengthy. What if, instead of passing the form back and forth, HR set up a self-serve portal where an employee could immediately find, fill out, and submit a digital leave request form, which HR and the supervisor could review in real-time? This would immediately save precious time and energy for HR to refocus on other more crucial matters.
Automation tools HR can use
To find the right automation tool, HR must determine what tasks they need to automate. For example, Workato is a fantastic platform that HR could use to integrate multiple applications and build no-code automated workflows. However, other automation tools can target more specific areas of work, such as recruitment or marketing tasks. Once HR analyses the time-consuming gaps in their administrative duties, they can also find and implement the right tool to automate that workflow.
