Automation is entering every facet of our professional lives and Human Resources (HR) is no different. HR teams within organizations usually have deep and complex roles to play and they are indispensable to the smooth running of a company. 

That’s because they deal with recruiting, onboarding and offboarding, training and development, timekeeping and payroll, vacation and sick days tracking, and employee well-being within the organization. 

With so many tasks thatrequiring immenseor time, it’s now possible to automate some of the recruitment and HR processes to streamline operations and achieve greater efficiencies. 

Wondering what an automated HR and recruitment process is? What about some of the benefits, challenges, and usage examples? This blog post answers these questions.

What is automation in Human Resources and recruitment?

Automation in HR and recruitment is quite simple to define but not as simple to implement. In essence, it takes a majority of the HR tasks and enables these to be automated through the right software so that HR professionals are able to focus on more strategic tasks. In turn, this can improve organizational efficiency and security and reduce the potential for human error. 

Examples of recruitment tasks that can be automated

Having clarified that HR and recruitment processes can now be automated, it’s worth delving a bit deeper into which processes can be automated. Below, we outline a list of some of the most frequently encountered HR processes that will benefit from automation.

• Sourcing and selecting candidates: automated HR functions can stretch to sourcing and selecting candidates. For example, it’s possible to automatically generate job ads, making for a much faster time to publish the ad, and thus speeding up the process of receiving CVs. After CVs are received, the manual part of screening them for suitability or unsuitability can also be automated so that there is a more accurate sifting of the talent pool to get to the best candidates.

• Utilizing the internal talent pool for maximum benefits: in short, this means going back to previously screened candidates who were suitable for the job. As such, this makes the recruitment process more proactive as opposed to passive.

• Applicant tracking and interview scheduling: with automation in place, it’s now possible to automatically book a candidate into an interview slot that is convenient for line managers. 

• Offers: also a new possibility is the automatic creation of offer letters, contracts, and other relevant documentation (alternatively, rejection letters) to candidates that were successful or not successful. This helps reduce time spent on paperwork and time spent in the offer process altogether.

• Employee onboarding: when an employee first steps into the role, they need to be onboarded. This can range from training programs to setting up IT access. These tasks can easily be automated by ensuring that different relevant members of the team are involved in the process.

• Offboarding: when it comes to an employee leaving the organization, various processes need to be followed. If done correctly, the employee will leave with a positive view of the organization. It is, therefore, necessary to enable candidates to complete and upload documents electronically, schedule exit interviews, update personal information, make arrangements for the final payment, create requests for company equipment to be returned, remove access to apps on a given date, and remove them from the company directory on their last day. 

• Paid leave management: manually managing paid leave can be time-consuming and prone to human error. However, with automation, it’s quick and easy to check an employee’s leave balance, get manager approval for leave requests, record the leave for payroll circulation, etc. 

• Expense claims: the process of submitting expense claims can also be automated. Receipts can be photographed and simply sent by the employee’s phone while expense management software can extract the required data. This information can then be sent to the relevant line manager, who can accept or reject it, saving precious time. 

• Payroll: payroll can also be automated by factoring in the time or days worked in addition to leave days.

• Tax filing: a complex process in many countries, this is necessary and part of the law. But if an employee gets the wrong forms, it can cause delays and frustration. When tax filing is automated, the process can be sped up and stress can be eliminated. 

• Time management: paper timesheets are a thing of the past. Today, we can all automatically store employees’ profiles and attendance records for greater accuracy.

• Employee benefits: examples of these include health care plans, retirement plans, workers’ compensation, and others. However, many employees aren’t aware of these during their tenure at the organization. Offering information and access to such data online in a digital format can help clarify confusing aspects.

• Employee performance tracking: this process can now be bias-free and enable more accurate decision-making with regard to raises, bonuses, disciplinary action, termination, etc. 

Benefits of automating HR and recruitment processes

We have already touched on a couple of the areas where HR and recruitment automation can be applied. Now, let’s explore some of the benefits in automating these processes for organizations:

• Identify quality candidates and improve the quality of your hires
• Assess candidate skills more effectively
• Build a talent roadmap to see gaps and opportunities
• Access to greater and better analytics
• Decrease time to hire
• Personalized mass messages or emails to candidates
• Improve and lower your costs and boost efficiency
• Eliminate hiring bias and build diversity
• Better reallocation of internal resources
• Increases productivity
• Promote better collaboration between all stakeholders
• Build a better workplace culture
• Enhanced candidate experience
• Easy onboarding
• Reduced room for errors
• Improved communication and collaboration
• Lower paper-based processing costs

Challenges of automating HR and recruitment processes

Of course, recruitment and HR automation don’t come without their challenges. Some of the most important ones to consider today include the following:

• Technology integrations can be time-consuming and expensive
• Teams may fear the implementation of automation
• There may be resistance to internal adoption
• Possibility to negatively affect your branding if forms are not consistent
• There can be some privacy and security issues 
• Funding can be a challenge 

In conclusion

Overall, recruitment and HR automation is something that is expected to continue driving processes in the future. 

Whether your organization adopts it now or later, it’s an inevitable part of managing your recruitment and employee management processes. 

And if you need any assistance in building your talent pool or finding the right candidates, you can always turn to us. 

At StorsenDigital, we have a talent hub of experts that you can quickly and easily tap into in order to make your recruitment process more efficient and streamlined. 

Simply get in touch with us and we can help you achieve your recruitment needs.