Automating HR processes: 4 places to start

Gartner recently surveyed 800+ HR leaders across 35+ countries and all major industries to assess their priorities and expected challenges in 2019. No surprise, but improving operational excellence was the second highest business priority, trailing only behind growing the business. Improving and automating manual, document-driven HR processes seems like an easy place to create efficiencies, improve accuracy and enhance the employee experience. But prioritizing which processes have the biggest (and quickest) impact on your organization can be difficult.

When you also consider the delicate balancing act HR needs to manage between providing high-touch support and automation, the decision on where to start gets even more cloudy. Don’t worry, we’re here to help. In this blog we’ll explore 4 easy places to start when automating HR processes.

1. Tuition Reimbursement

Providing continuous learning opportunities for employees has the benefit of increased innovation, performance and opportunity for upward mobility within the company. But managing the tuition reimbursement process manually can be disjointed and creates headaches for everyone involved.

The HRIS wasn’t built to support this process, so by default many companies have opted to handle it through email, making the process confusing and error-prone. By automating this process, HR can ensure the correct workflows are followed, information and documentation is efficiently captured and shared, and everybody involved is introduced only when they need to take action.   

2. Internal Transfer or Promotion

Research shows that greater workplace diversity leads to greater profitability, customer centricity and increased employee engagement. Providing employees with the opportunity to work in different offices around the country or world is a way to reap the benefits of a diverse workforce. But between all of the paperwork required, finding a place to live, and other moving “stuff,” this process is often stressful and time-consuming for both employees and HR.

By digitizing and optimizing this process, employees can enjoy a smooth transition into their new role without having to worry about administrative procedures. And automating the tasks involved creates space for a more productive and agile HR team.

3. Verification of Employment (VOE) Letter

When we talk about quick wins with big gains, automating Verification of Employment (VOE) letters is where your mind should go! Banks and mortgage lenders often require potential home buyers to provide a Verification of Employment (VOE) letter to determine job stability and income history. That makes getting this letter quickly very important to employees.  

Without automation, this simple process requires a lot of backend work. HR has to search for the right document template, download it, manually go into different systems to find the correct employee data and enter it into the document by hand. Robotic Process Automation (RPA) makes it possible for employees to generate this document on their own, eliminating the stressful waiting game.

4. Disciplinary Action

You work hard at creating and maintaining a positive, collaborative and safe working environment for your employees. So when an employee needs your help with an employee relations incident, you need to be there.

For the (hopefully) rare occasions that require disciplinary action or Employee Relations (ER) involvement, technology can automate and manage potentially sensitive incidents in the most efficient way, while helping ensure you remain compliant.

HR can drastically improve efficiency by digitizing and automating these manual, document-driven processes using an integrated HR Service Delivery platform. Find out how to automate these processes and others in the ebook, The Key to Strategic HR: Process Automation: The 8 Best Places to Start Automating HR Processes.