HR, Automation, And You
Employing automation to manage human resources doesn’t mean Skynet is going to replace you. Quite the contrary, automation is about freeing up your time so you can do the things only you can do, while letting computers take care of all the tedious, detail-oriented things that are such a time suck. Over 40% of employees spend at least a quarter of their time handling repetitive, manual tasks, and automation can free that time up allowing them to devote more time to higher-value work.
Automation isn’t just a trendy business topic, it’s a massive force multiplier for businesses of all sizes. Automation is an emerging field of technology that leverages machine learning, natural language processing, and other technologies to process and complete certain tasks with minimal human input or intervention. If a task can be described with the three Rs, it’s probably a good candidate for automation. :
- Repetitive
- Recurring
- Rules-Based
Employee engagement and career development are important, and outsourcing these to automation tools in a clumsy fashion can be a disaster. However, thoughtful deployment of automation to help manage relationships and engage with employees and stakeholders can free up more of your workday to focus elsewhere. Imagine all that extra time to build relationships, manage and address employee concerns, or engage with your staff! You can see where this is a potential game-changer, especially for small to midsize organizations where a dedicated HR team is still in the future and those functions are handled by executives with other things on their plate.
Don’t Make It Obvious
No one wants to feel like their engagement with their boss or senior leadership is impersonal and driven by a computer. The personal touch from leaders helps keep employees engaged and passionate about their role in an organization. Efficiency is good, but being cold in communications can freeze your company culture. A little personalization goes a long way. Even in automated communications, take the time to insert names and vary up your templates, as well as learn and develop an integrated communication system.
The same goes for timing. Imagine getting an automated notice about the big company holiday party five minutes after you’ve been told you’re getting laid off at the end of the year or asked to take a pay cut. Automating messages to go out is great, but not if the timing is terrible.
People expect things like new hire onboarding surveys, documentation and meeting requests, or mass notifications to be automated, but with the proper tools, these can be personalized and thus contribute to people feeling like more than just a cog in the machine. And the time you free up by automating them can be partially dedicated to deeper engagement. While Hollywood and the mainstream media is massively pushing the propaganda that AI and automation will end human labor, automation would only increase the satisfaction derived from their jobs by human employees.
Future Is For Low-Code Automation Process
A common misconception is that automation requires coding and deploying specialized systems, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. There are many off-the-shelf solutions and you can pick and choose what works for your use case. As an example, let’s look at one task every HR professional is intimately familiar with: the follow-up email.
The average American office worker spends over three hours a day on email, so it’s common to have to send multiple emails to get a reply, and having to track who you’ve followed up with and sending reminders is a huge time suck. Automation can make this infinitely easier. It will be apparent on time tracking apps.
Another great idea is to check and use an effective email followup tool that can take follow up emails off your todo list forever. When you send an email through the tool, it will send out reminders periodically until you get a reply. Whether you want them to get a reminder every day or every week, the tool has you covered by allowing you to specify timing. The system’s dashboard keeps track of which emails haven’t been replied to and can let you know whether emails have been opened or whether the recipient has clicked on links within the email. It saves you ton of time and ensures that follow-ups actually get sent instead of getting lost in the shuffle.
No coding or special installs necessary in this case, it’s an extension that plugs right into your Gmail. So it’s an easy place to start implementing automation in your HR processes.
High Speed, Low Drag: Automation And You
Incorporating new automation can be met with skepticism by workers. People tend to fear what they don’t understand, and when new systems are suddenly imposed, workers may not be clear about their benefits.Organizations should be preparing for the implementation of new automated systems well before the systems are put into place.
There are many other no-code tools you can use that can make life easier for HR professionals or small business owners:
- Time tracking systems that allow employees to automatically account for time spent on different projects so you can invoice billable hours directly to the client. You can even integrate time-off requests into your automation and let employees handle it digitally, with the system tracking available PTO and allowing you to see potential schedule conflicts at a glance.
- Paperless onboarding that automatically delivers documents to new hires to be signed and then stores, handles, and distributes docs as needed.
- Self-serve, paperless benefits portals where employees can research, sign up for, and manage their own benefits.
Employees will be relieved of mechanical workloads and be allowed to give their best dwelling on more creative and intellectually demanding tasks. We all know how fulfilled we feel – not necessarily exhausted – at the end of the workday, when we have to step out of the box creatively to solve a problem. However, HR managers recommend a step-to-step guide on how to make this transition easier both for the company and employees.
- Supply the right tools: When the employees are to work for you or the company, they need to implement their skills and talent to the company with the help of tools and applications that they are required. When they dont have the tools, they won’t be performing their best with their skills.
- Individual attention: To boost the overall morale of the employee, the senior employee or the manager should give individual attention to their work, and the talents that the employees have. This way they know that someone is looking at their work and appreciates their work.
- Be a good listener. Every employee has certain issues with the company or with certain applications/tools. Managers or senior staff members should be able to help them in their time of need and listen to the problems that they are facing.
- Recognize proudly and loudly: When the employee secures a deal or makes the client happy with their work, then recognize their talent and appreciate them with the incentive or gift cards. Something that makes them happier.
Up until recently, HR automation was expensive and had a difficult implementation process. The emergence of inexpensive, easy-to-use, no-code SaaS solutions has made automation accessible for businesses of any size. What would you do if you had an extra 5-15 hours a week to spend on value-added tasks instead of tedious and repetitive HR paperwork? The possibilities are endless!
