5 HR Automation that can transform the way employees work

When employees are working from various locations at different time zones, it is imperative that the businesses automate their HR processes to enhance processes to enhance productivity, collaboration and engagement.

Automation in HR was always desirable, as it would lead to better engagement and productivity. But with the pandemic, this is no longer a desire but a need. As companies scrambled to make employees work productively from home, the once deemed "good-to-have" tools became organizational priorities.

Josh Bersin, a leading global industry analyst on HR trends, remarks: "The big trend in the tech market is moving from systems of record to systems of design." The industry today is moving from just digitizing the records to digitizing experiences. It is no longer automation for HR, but the employees.

We need automation in processes like getting back to work, working in a hybrid environment, remote recruitment, and onboarding.

Five trends where we see HR automation can transform the way we work and create experiences are

1.Recruitment: With the increased demand for technology services, one important area where we see a need for automation is the recruitment experiences. AI-based recruitment will help sort the right kind of skills required by an organization. Many AI/chatbot-based platforms even let you interview candidates according to your organization's needs and values. This would help reduce the enormous time of the senior management, who can better focus on solution architecture, team, and client engagement.

2.Onboarding: As more and more team members are getting onboarded remotely, the need for automated processes is increasing. With platforms like Microsoft Teams, onboarding has become seamless. A candidate now can be "pre-boarded" where he/she can find information regarding the company, its processes and projects way before he/she joins. The training can start as soon as a person is onboarded with the options of selecting learning paths and recorded sessions.

3.Experiences: As we start coming back to work and enter the hybrid world of work, companies are looking at platforms to help in scheduling work from office days, manage travel, ensure document access across geographies. Employees want self-service and workflow management apps for quick approvals and escalations. Self-service helpdesks are now increasingly being driven by technology platforms like Power Apps and chatbots that provide 24X7 assistance Wellbeing is another part of employee experience where flash surveys and quick wellbeing checks done by platforms like Workday and Microsoft Viva give instant insights into what the employees are thinking and where intervention is needed.

4.Learning Experiences: Corporate learning has evolved over the years. From need-based, learning with the flow of work to capability-focused. And this calls for many platforms that can drive the learning experiences. BetterUp, a $1.7 billion valuation AI-based coaching platform has revolutionized this aspect of HR. There are many other learning platforms that help in skill mapping, gap identification and also provide recommendations on learning paths for capability building. Now, based on the sales forecast, companies and managers can identify the skills need; look at the capability skills gap and immediately start the upskilling/reskilling process.

5.Insights & Analytics : Customized analytics solutions that understand and analyse data like never before with tools like Tableau, PowerBI, help the management to predict attrition, joining probability, engagement, etc of the team members. With the power of AI, businesses can enhance the scalability of their business and gain a competitive advantage across the global market. With the click of a button, beautiful and insightful dashboards are available for HR and management, to help them in quick and effective decision making.

To reiterate, Covid-19 has accelerated many business transformations. And one of the major functions affected is the human resources (HR) management. When employees are working from various locations at different time zones, it is imperative that the businesses automate their HR processes to enhance productivity, collaboration and engagement.

The author, Ruchika Godha, is Chief Operating Officer at Advaiya.

DISCLAIMER: The views expressed are solely of the author and ETHRWorld does not necessarily subscribe to it. ETHRWorld will not be responsible for any damage caused to any person or organisation directly or indirectly.