How To Implement Workflow Automation for HR?

HR management takes a lot of time and effort because it involves so many distinct tasks. HR managers have a lot on their plate, including performance reviews, employee engagement, employee onboarding, managing company procedures and employee data, and other menial duties. 

These HR procedures have the power to build or destroy your company. If they aren't managed well, they deplete corporate funds, and you can be forced to pay a hefty salary for hiring a large HR staff to meet the demand. All of these manual processes may be optimized with HR workflow automation, giving your HR team the ability to complete their work swiftly, effectively, and neatly. Automated workflow solutions are used by companies of all sizes to increase efficiency and production within their human resources department.

What are the HR Processes That You Can Automate 

You may ask what are the processes in the human resource department that can be automated?

HR managers may shift their attention to more strategic tasks like talent management, employee engagement, and organizational development by automating repetitive and time-consuming processes. In addition to these advantages, automation ensures regulatory compliance, minimizes human errors and expedites employee questions. 

Recruitment and onboarding process 

The sourcing of candidates, resume screening, scheduling of interviews, and integrating new hires into the organization can be very hectic and all these can be done easily with automation. Automated solutions can decrease time-to-hire and screening applications according to preset standards, and managing correspondence with applicants. 

Automation makes sure that new hires are walked through the required documentation, training plans, and first tasks of their jobs in a methodical and comprehensive manner during the onboarding process. 

Employee Data Management and Documentation 

HR managers frequently encounter difficulties while handling employee data and documentation, including accuracy problems, paperwork overload, compliance complications, and the requirement for employee self-service.

The process of automating employee data management entails the safe and compliant central storage, updating, and retrieval of employee data. Automation lowers the possibility of human error, and guarantees quick access to current information, which helps with regulatory compliance and better management decisions. 

Performance Management and feedback process 

Setting up performance reviews, gathering input from several sources, and monitoring advancement towards objectives are all included in performance management automation. 

Through automation, HR have the ability to plan reviews, remind users, compile input from several sources, and create systems within the department with historical information on employee performance. This guarantees a fair and impartial mechanism for assessing employee performance and promoting professional development in addition to saving time. 

Training and developing workflows 

HR manual workflows related to training and development can face a number of obstacles that limit their efficacy and efficiency. Older training techniques, a misalignment with company objectives, a lack of resources, subpar monitoring and assessment systems, opposition to change, and challenges calculating return on investment are a few typical problems.

Automation of training and development includes managing training programmes, including session scheduling, participant tracking, and efficacy evaluation. Employers can be enrolled in suitable courses, and receive messages and reminders via automated systems. The system can also be used to manage post-training evaluations and feedback, giving HR the ability to track the effects of training on performance and make required programme adjustments.

How Nected can help in HR workflow automation  

Employee onboarding is one of the crucial areas where automation may be quite important. Effective onboarding is essential since it affects employee retention and establishes the foundation for their tenure at the organization. Through a thorough example, let's see how Nected makes the onboarding process go more smoothly. 

Take the example of a new hire's onboarding process, which consists of multiple processes that Nected can optimize. An automated workflow can be organized as follows: 

Defining tasks that can be automated  

Many of the following tasks in the employee onboarding process can be automated: 

1. Automated Document Verification: Ascertain whether all necessary documents have been filed and are legitimate. 
2. Notification of Verification Results: Automatically update the HR team on the progress of the document verification based on the verification's outcome. 
3. Upon document verification, dispatch a welcome email to the new hire along with details about their first day of work. 

Step 1: Setting Up Triggers for APIs

The first step in our onboarding approach is an API trigger: 

1. Trigger Setup: The Workflow is started when the trigger API is called. This can be achieved using a form, button etc. 
2. Goal: The trigger is necessary in order for the onboarding procedure to begin automatically as soon as a new hire's data is input into the system. 

First login to your Nected account and create a new workflow by clicking on the create workflow button 

After creating a new workflow, create the API trigger to start the with the workflow process 

Step 2: Configuring Parameters for Input 

A workflow's efficiency is largely determined by its input parameters, for this current example, let the parameters be as follows: 

1. department: Assists in identifying the department to which the communication should be forwarded. 
2. document_verified: a boolean representing the new hire's compliance with filing requirements. 
3. name: A way to make communications more unique. 
4. start_date: This is crucial for planning upcoming events and welcoming procedures. 

Step 3: Defining Actions and Conditions

Actions in the workflow are based on the results of the conditions evaluated: 

1. Rule Configuration: 

Rule Name: is_verified 

Condition: Checks if Document_Verified is true. 

2. Actions Based on Rule Outcome: 

If True: Triggers a notification with notification_sent marked as "Sent", alerting the HR department that the documents have been verified. 

If False: Sets notification_sent to "Not Sent", indicating further action is required for document verification. 

Flexibility in Actions 

Nected platform allows for significant customization: 

1. Positive Verification: Can trigger additional welcoming steps like orientation scheduling, IT setup, etc. 

2. Negative Outcome: Might trigger a task for HR to follow up for additional documents. 

We can add nodes to our workflow according to our own needs.

(You can take these nodes: Rule , Workflow, Code , Database Connector such as MongoDB, MySQL, PostgreSQL, Redshift , Rest API)

For our current example let's add a simple rule which will check if our “document_verified” parameter is true or false 

Based on this rule’s outcome you can perform various actions according to your needs such as notification to HR about the process, email to the new employee about the status of their document verification, etc.

After completion of the workflow, you can test and publish it. 

Build a robust workflow for your own department now. 

Conclusion

To sum up, automating HR processes has many advantages that can greatly improve an organization's productivity, efficiency, and competitiveness. Using technology to reduce errors, expedite repetitive activities, and enhance compliance can help organizations accomplish the following goals: 

Efficiency Gains:  HR professionals may concentrate on strategic initiatives that propel corporate performance since automation saves time and effort in completing HR operations. 

Cost Savings: Automation helps businesses minimize operating expenses and increase return on investment (ROI) in HR processes by maximizing resource allocation and minimizing manual labor. 

Enhanced correctness and Compliance: Automated workflows guarantee data correctness and compliance with organizational policies and regulatory standards by enforcing standardized procedures.  

Enhanced Employee Experience: With quicker responses, more seamless interactions, and less administrative work, employees benefit from streamlined HR procedures. 

Improved Decision-Making: Automation enables decision-makers to make well-informed, data-driven decisions that promote organizational growth and success by providing real-time data insights and analytics. 

HR workflow automation, taken as a whole, aims to change HR procedures in order to better align them with strategic goals, increase employee engagement, and promote organizational excellence. It does this by eliminating manual labor. Businesses may realize the full potential of their HR departments and succeed long-term in the cutthroat business world of today by embracing automation. 

FAQs: 

Q1. Workflow automation in HR: What Is It? 

HR workflow automation is the practice of leveraging technology to standardize procedures and automate repetitive tasks in order to streamline and optimize HR processes, including performance management, onboarding, offboarding, and recruitment. 

Q2. What HR procedures are automatable?

Recruitment, application tracking, employee onboarding, performance reviews, leave administration, payroll processing, and offboarding are just a few of the HR procedures that can be automated.

Q3. How does HR workflow automation improve employee experience? 

By lowering administrative costs, optimizing procedures, delivering quicker responses, and offering self-service capabilities for things like leave requests and HR information access, HR workflow automation improves the employee experience. 

Q4. Is HR workflow automation suitable for small businesses?

Yes, companies of all sizes may gain from automating HR workflows. Small firms can increase their efficiency and competitiveness by utilizing a variety of automation solutions that are flexible and adaptable to their needs and financial restrictions.

Q5. What is the return on investment (ROI) of HR workflow automation? 

The efficiency of the automation solution, the size of the company, the complexity of the HR processes, and other variables can all affect the return on investment (ROI) of HR workflow automation. But cost reductions, higher output, enhanced compliance, and higher employee satisfaction are usually viewed by organizations as the main drivers of return on investment.