HR process automation is central to HR software development and customization.
According to Forbes Advisor, 80% of businesses use HR software for such activities as recruitment and onboarding, performance tracking, and talent retention. However, 36% of HR professionals are not satisfied with the technology they use.
Keep reading to discover what makes HR software an important investment and how organizations can improve their processes using HR automation technologies.
1
What Is HR Automation?
Human resources automation means shifting labor-intensive and repetitive tasks in payroll, time tracking, onboarding and offboarding, and other processes to software — preferably, to cloud-based programs.
Digitalizing processes improves the HR department’s performance and cuts operating costs. According to HR statistics shared by G2, 51% of companies that have implemented HR solutions have reported improvements in recruitment and employee retention.
HR automation tools support high-level strategic tasks, such as:
- forecasting workforce demand and improving planning,
- uniting remote and on-site workers in a seamless workflow,
- enhancing collaboration between contactors, augmented staff, and the in-house team,
- promoting inclusion and disconnection,
- collecting actionable insights on the organization’s performance,
2
What Are HR Automation Benefits?
By automating HR-related processes, organizations streamline complex workflows, increase efficiency, and constantly track vital business parameters.
Here are more benefits of HR process automation:
Improved productivity
HR software ensures access to required information from any device, automated and centralized updates, report generation, and more — everything needed for department managers to track performance and make quick, informed decisions.
Process improvement insights
With access to current and historical data and report generation, HR professionals can identify improvement areas and inefficiencies in employee management and address them based on perceived business value to increase retention.
Fewer errors
Automation prevents losses caused by human error: almost 33% of employees make payroll mistakes that cost businesses 1% to 8% of annual payroll. Automation software expedites both work time tracking and the payroll process.
Process consistency
Automated HR portals increase process transparency and improve communication while minimizing the time required for employees to send and keep track of leave requests, expenses, upskilling programs, and so on.
Improved employee experiences
Ultimately, HR software decreases stress among an organization’s employees, which can be caused by growing bureaucratization. As such, it can prevent conflicts and burnout and increase retention.
3
What HR Tasks Can Organizations Automate?
HR automation software can help reduce the amount of regular but low-value-added activities employees must complete during a typical workday.
According to Zapier, 76% of workers spend up to three hours a day moving data from one place to another. Meanwhile, they report that 81% of workers spend less than three hours a day on creative work and 76% spend less than three hours a week on strategic work.
Let’s take a closer look at where HR automation software could reduce wasted time at work:
Recruitment Activities
- Review and prioritize candidates’ CVs based on required skills and experience
- Notify candidates of job-related information and credentials they need to submit
- Send automated updates on next steps during the recruitment process
New Employee Onboarding
- Enable new employees to fill in required forms and submit documents quickly
- Provide instant access to orientation materials and credentials needed to start working
Contract Management
- Streamline employee, vendor, and contractor management
- Keep track of and review agreement conditions
- Notify of upcoming contract expirations
Time Management
- Automatically keep records of each employee’s attendance, leave days, and scheduled vacations
- Seamlessly send data to the payroll system for processing
Performance Evaluation
- Monitor essential KPIs of teams and individual employees
- Identify bottlenecks and weak spots in the workflow
Payroll Processing
- Eliminate errors in payroll activities while ensuring secure payment mechanisms
- Speed up review of expense requests
Employee Surveying
- Conduct regular reviews of employees’ engagement and morale
- Collect and analyze data on employees’ satisfaction to draw insights on possible enhancements in workflows and management
Reports and Analytics
- Track key HR metrics, identifying areas for improvement
- Ensure the organization’s compliance with local work-related laws and regulations
Offboarding
- Gather feedback during an exit interview
- Remove licenses and revoke access to the corporate system
- Support execution of the succession strategy
Are you looking to introduce long-awaited improvements?
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4
What HR Processes Are Commonly Automated?
How does HR automation work? It depends on specific areas of responsibility.
Here are some HR automation use cases:
Improve hiring processes with recruitment automation functionality
Only 27% of recruitment leaders say their operating model enables a quick response to changes. Recruitment management software lets managers effectively post and track multiple vacancies, improve job descriptions, and filter responses.
It also helps bridge the gap between applicants’ and employers’ expectations, ensuring transparent communication.
Benefits of recruitment management software:
- Manage and track changes in job requirements
- Automatically post consistent job descriptions across multiple job boards
- Screen CVs to identify the best match
- Conduct initial screening interviews using a chatbot
- Automatically update candidates on their statuses
Decrease the time required for background screening and qualification tracking
Automated HR tools can retrieve and process data from third-party screening service providers in the background, decreasing the time for checks.
Also, candidates or new hires can upload required certificates and credentials and the system can scan and verify them in seconds, eliminating hours of paperwork.
Benefits of automated pre-screening tools:
- Automated drug tests and candidate background checks
- Streamlined maintenance and updates to employees’ credentials
- Simplified regulatory compliance
- Decreased hiring times
Balance the workforce with AI-powered predictive analytics
A human resources management system (HRMS) collects historical data on employees’ performance, workload trends, and fluctuations.
By integrating AI/ML algorithms, organizations can use HRMS software to identify hiring needs for the next several months and refine their hiring strategy by addressing specific gaps with long-term hires, short-term staff augmentation, or outsourcing.
Benefits of AI/ML algorithms in HRMS software:
- Automated trend forecasting to a depth of 6–18 months
- Fewer staffing gaps and increased team morale
- Optimized resource allocation
- Automated alerts on upcoming understaffing/overstaffing
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Streamline attendance and time logging with a time tracking system
Attendance monitoring can easily spin out of control when managers must supervise a combined team of full- and part-time employees and contractors who work different shifts. Simultaneous management of remote and on-site team members only adds to the complexity.
Automated clock-in and clock-out from employees’ devices with comments on assignment statuses can help harmonize the workflow.
Benefits of automated attendance tracking solutions:
- Simplified attendance logging for employees
- Streamlined work time approval for responsible managers
- Improved scheduling and, consequently, work–life balance
- Flexible management of leaves, days off, and vacations
Ensure quick and secure payment processing
Fast timesheet approval and seamless transfer to a payroll system lets accounting and finance managers optimize payment processing. HR software can automatically calculate insurance, bonuses, retirement plans, and more.
Automation software helps the accounting department handle different types of contracts, ensuring transparent employee, contractor, and supplier management.
Payment processing solutions can:
- Ensure accurate payments
- Automatically calculate salaries, bonuses, and taxes
- Quickly reflect changes in employees’ salaries and benefits
- Automate expense claims processing
5
What Do HR Automation Tools Look Like?
Organizations can add HR automation functionality to an existing system, launch a standalone app, or use several solutions that exchange data seamlessly within one workflow.
HR automation tools take different forms depending on users’ needs and requirements.
Web-based portal
Web solutions work best for managers, enabling them to access required information immediately from anywhere. The pros of a web app are cost-effectiveness and reduced development time.
Internal desktop system
Organizations implement autonomous internal systems without direct internet access to keep sensitive business data safe.
Mobile app
Mobile apps let employees enter or retrieve data on the go, such as working hours. Organizations can choose cross-platform development or a hybrid app to stay within budget limits.
HR module in a tablet app
Businesses can add HR-related modules to already existing software to improve their field workers’ routine, such as by integrating employee management into a retail POS.
This helps track time and performance without creating extra workload for workers and managers.
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6
What Are HR Automation Best Practices You Should Follow?
Here are HR automation best practices for software implementation:
Select between off-the-shelf and custom software
Consider how both off-the-shelf and custom software can meet your needs, along with the long-term costs of ownership. Off-the-shelf software can automate basic processes quickly, but subscriptions can be expensive. Custom software can best meet a company’s unique goals but requires an initial investment in development and maintenance.
Prioritize your goals
Start with small steps, but keep long-term goals in mind. Think of improvements that bring the best value for the least investment but lay a firm foundation for long-term transformation.
Set specific and measurable KPIs to determine if your plan works.
Do you have a vision for improving your HR team’s workflow?
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Hire an expert team
Invest your time in looking for top developers when software is not your core business.
A dependable team can help you launch software, integrate it into your processes, and determine risks and priorities to help you use your budget efficiently.
Identify the optimal user experience
Look at the app flow through an end user’s eyes. This lets you identify bottlenecks and inconsistencies that can harm processes.
Or ask an experienced software development vendor for help. A software development company can offer you project discovery and UI/UX services, eliminating costly rework at later stages.
Consider cloud-based HR automation solutions
Opt for cloud software to simplify scaling, maintenance, and user access. By adding DevOps services, you can increase both software stability and the pace of feature delivery.
If you are concerned about data security, choose a private cloud.
Do comprehensive testing
Testing is crucial for software to meet end users’ needs and expectations — never skip this step.
Apart from extensive QA and testing by the project team, you can show software to end users for usability testing. Once some functionality is ready, you can execute acceptance testing to ensure it works as specified.
Schedule employee training
Ensure your team understands how to use the new software with maximum efficiency.
To do this, schedule training sessions on essential features. Also, prepare extensive documentation, guides, and FAQs where users can find quick answers.
7
What Are Key HR Automation Trends for 2024?
Trends in human resources automation help adjust HR management to the realities of hybrid work approaches and facilitate flexible workforce strategies needed to hire and retain top talents.
The most significant technological trends that support growing HR automation include:
Generative AI
Generative AI is one of the biggest trends across all industries, and HR is no exception. AI integration lets managers spend minimum time preparing drafts of different descriptions, creating content, or finding relevant information in unstructured data.
AI-powered chatbots can answer candidates’ questions about open vacancies, help candidates find the best match for their skills, and redirect them to the application form.
Total workforce intelligence
HR automation software expands the HR department’s capabilities and makes total workforce intelligence possible: a comprehensive view of the global hiring market, its trends, challenges, and opportunities.
HR automation software can help managers collect data and gain insights into talent availability across different markets, allowing them to make informed decisions on planning, hiring, upskilling, and retention. This software can also be used to identify and make necessary changes to workflows.
As a result, organizations can better navigate the volatile labor market.
Headless HR systems
A headless HR system operates without a specific UI. It works as a data hub and can be coordinated from other interfaces. A headless HR system stores and processes data on the back end, which it then seamlessly exchanges with different pieces of HR software.
By introducing a headless HR system, organizations connect different processes into an uninterrupted workflow, enabling them to transition specific user data to the required piece of software (for example, to pass checked background information to the HRM system once a candidate’s status changes to new employee).
An up-to-date technology stack (with cloud technologies being an important part) ensures successful implementation of a scalable solution and the ability to keep up with changing user workflows.
Digital identity management
Digital identity management — virtual representation of a real person — is crucial for successful remote and hybrid workforce management.
Organizations can use digital identity management processes to protect themselves against identity theft, unauthorized access, and misrepresentation during the hiring process.
HR automation software can help strengthen identity verification and protection by performing automated checks on social network activity, strengthening verification and protection, and detecting fraud.
Compliance with local laws and regulations on secure storage and processing of personal information is required when implementing tools for identity management.
8
How Can IT Craft Help with HR Process Automation?
IT Craft’s HR development services let both HR software startups and established companies turn their vision into an up-and-running solution via the shortest path.
Our company can help you build the software you need to cut operating costs and boost your workflow:
- Payroll solutions and payment gateway integrations
- Application tracking systems
- Workforce forecasting and management software
- Corporate portals
- Data storage and processing systems
- Attendance tracking software
- Succession and change management solutions
Why us?
Clients choose IT Craft as a long-term partner for their projects based on:
Over 20+ years, IT Craft has acquired extensive expertise in building, rescuing, modernizing, and maintaining software projects of all sizes.
Our engineers prioritize your project functionality based on the business value it will generate. The team can switch priorities quickly when your needs change.
We’ll begin work on your project without delay. All we need to do is clarify the terms of cooperation and sign an agreement.
We provide you with all necessary tech-related assistance. Our company finds, assigns, and manages the required experts internally, saving your time.
Flexwise
The IT Craft team helped Flexwise finalize and launch a solution for temporarily hiring and managing qualified nursing professionals.
After the initial launch, the team continued working on software maintenance, improvement, and expansion, turning the startup into a comprehensive platform for forecasting staffing needs and providing transparent management across all departments.
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Summary
HR automation software is an important investment to support an organization’s hiring and staffing management strategies. With the help of such software, managers can reallocate working time from tedious data entry and checks to priority tasks while eliminating manual errors.
Custom HR automation software can support an organization’s exact needs and processes, and the best way to build this software is by partnering with a reliable software development services provider.