Human Resource (HR) is considered as an important department in any business. People in this department are responsible for managing resources related to employees.

However, the HR department is traditionally regarded as a cost-center simply because it doesn't generate direct revenue. Nevertheless, as businesses realize that manpower could be their most valuable asset, the HR function has been slowly evolving into a value-adding center that leverages human capital. With this change, comes the shift to cost optimization strategies with the use of different technological tools to help HR departments play a strategic role, with significantly lesser focus on administrative tasks.

With the said shift, HR automation comes in. CIO White Review defines HR automation as the process to improve the efficiency of HR departments through automating the manual HR processes and eliminating information-centered risks. 

The HR department relies heavily on paper and manual processes, which can consume a significant amount of time that could have been spent in planning and strategizing for business growth and improvement.

Moreover, the paper waste of an HR department can be enormous. Just imagine the number of applicants that are being processed, requests and approvals that need to be routed across departments upon employees onboarding, and the forms that employees have to file on a regular basis.

Here are some of the HR tasks where you can apply automation:

1. Request for leave
When an employee requests for vacation leave, sick leave or any type of leave, it will definitely take time if done manually. Aside from that, errors may happen during the filing which may eventually affect the whole process. But when this process is automated, it automatically shows the employee the number of days available which the employee can use in different circumstances.

2. Information system updates of employees
Employee information is important and it needs to be updated regularly. However, updating employee information manually is quite tedious and would take up a lot of time. When updating employee information is automated, it allows employees to fill out an automated digital form that can pre-populate their existing data.

3. Employee onboarding
This is one of the most used automated HR processes. This gives new employees a great experience. The advantage of having this process automated can make the organization’s approach to onboarding more personal.

4. Employee offboarding 
HR needs to be sure that it has done everything the exact way during the offboarding. Each time an employee resigns or is relieved of their position, the HR is obligated to gather their access cards, IT assets, remove them from subscribed accounts and organize the final salary. Doing these steps require a lot of time and effort, which is why having this process automated makes the steps more efficient and faster. 

5. New employee hiring request
The HR department is where newly hired employees go for concerns. However, it is a big let down when HR believes they have found the perfect candidate, only to get rejected by the manager due to information that could have been shared ahead of time. With an automated employee hiring request, the requestor can fill out a digital form, and will be able to proceed to the next step once the digital form is completed. Additional documents can be attached along with the digital form.

6. Timesheet tracking
Among the HR processes, this is the most tedious if done manually. It takes up many hours each month. But if it is turned into an automated human resource process, the whole system or process can be smooth and much faster for everyone’s convenience.

Why automate your HR processes
When a business relies on HR Workflow Automation tool, the system completes the job in a more efficient and faster way. A good HR Workflow Automation software is customizable to suit the business needs. This system helps in:

• Reduce Costs
• Fewer Administrative Errors 
• Greater Productivity
• Less Paper-dependence
• Bridge Process Gaps
• Enhanced Internal Communication
• More Time for Strategic Tasks, Less Administrative Work
• Effectively Manage Tasks 

Workflow automation software like Activity Factory is designed to help businesses spend less time on tedious manual process by automating the execution of business processes and eliminating paper forms, manual routing and approvals.

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