HR Automation: A Complete Guide To Streamline Your HR Processes

Every week HR managers loses 14 hours on tasks that could be automated, according to a Career Builder study in 2017. Fast forward to today and 60% of business leaders intend to incorporate more AI and HR automation in the next 5 years.

From managing employee relations and addressing workplace concerns to overseeing payroll and benefits enrollment, your HR department plays a vital role in keeping your organization running smoothly. To maximize efficiency, your HR team needs advanced systems and tools that automate key business processes.

However, while automation streamlines operations, it’s essential not to lose sight of the human element. Employees still require genuine support and personal interaction. The key is balance—leveraging automation to handle repetitive tasks while freeing up your HR team to focus on people-centric issues.

Still wondering why and you should automate your HR processes? Below, we explore some advantages and disadvantages of HR automation to understand the impact of AI on HR processes. We’ll also provide some concrete examples you can start implementing today.

Related articles:

What is a Workflow? Definitions and Examples
3 Best Practices When Approaching an Automation Effort in HR

What is HR Automation?

HR automation is the use of digital tools and software to streamline and optimize human resources processes, reducing manual effort and increasing efficiency. It involves leveraging technology, including artificial intelligence (AI) automation, machine learning (ML), and natural language processing (NLP), to handle time-consuming HR tasks that were traditionally performed manually.

By implementing HR automation, directors can transform their department from a primarily administrative function to a strategic partner in organizational success, driving efficiency, accuracy, and data-driven decision-making across the employee lifecycle

Advantages of HR Automation

Reduce workload and prevent burnout

HR technology offers countless advantages, with one of the most significant being the reduction of manual work for your HR team. Repetitive tasks like payroll processing, onboarding, and offboarding can be fully automated, saving valuable time and resources.

Many companies operate with lean HR teams, which can lead to burnout of HR managers. Automating routine processes alleviates the burden of manual tasks, allowing your team to focus on strategic initiatives and employee engagement.

Cut costs without sacrificing efficiency

HR automation isn’t just about saving time—it’s a cost-effective solution. Hiring additional staff comes with expenses like salaries, benefits, and ongoing support. In contrast, automation software typically requires only a subscription fee. By implementing HR process automation, you can significantly lower operational costs while maintaining—or even improving—efficiency.

Enhance HR decision-making

HR automation provides real-time access to essential workforce data, allowing HR teams and executives to make informed decisions quickly.

By automating data collection and analysis, organizations gain a clear understanding of talent trends, resource needs, and performance metrics. Automated HR reporting ensures accurate, consistent insights, saving time and supporting more effective strategic planning.

Provide employee autonomy

HR automation doesn’t just benefit your HR team—it streamlines processes for all employees across your organization. By implementing modern tools, you empower your workforce with greater independence, reducing their reliance on HR for routine tasks.

For instance, with an automated HRIS, employees can easily access a centralized platform to download pay stubs, retrieve tax documents, and submit PTO requests. This self-service functionality accelerates response times, improves efficiency, and enhances the overall employee experience.

Improve security and compliance

Automated HR systems help organizations stay compliant with ever-changing labor laws and data privacy regulations. Automated alerts and built-in compliance checks ensure important deadlines are met, documentation is accurately maintained, and reporting requirements are fulfilled.

By leveraging HR automation, your organization can avoid costly fines, mitigate legal risks, and build trust with employees by safeguarding their personal information.

Focus on human-centric tasks

With the implementation of automation technology, employees are likely to feel as if their human-centered skills are more valued. They can spend more time on tasks that bring value. The truth is, there are some tasks that simply cannot be replaced by computers. By making this known, you will empower your human resource professionals to utilize their skills in more value-adding work such as strategic HR, in order to benefit the organization.

With increased automation, your HR team will have more time to focus on things that actually do need human intervention. According to a recent KMPG report, there were five people-centric HR functions that were found to be less inclined to automation:

5 HR Functions NOT to Automate

1. People performance management
2. HR and business strategy
3. Organizational effectiveness
4. Change management
5. Employee relations

Disadvantages of HR Automation

Are there any disadvantages of HR automation? The short answer: it depends.

Without proper planning, HR automation can create more problems than it solves. Disconnected systems can lead to fragmented data, lower user adoption, and higher cost of training.

Risk of disparate data

Without proper integration, automated systems can lead to fragmented data across platforms. This lack of cohesion can cause data inconsistencies, making it difficult to maintain accurate records and derive reliable insights.

Resistance to change

Implementing new technology often faces pushback from employees accustomed to traditional processes. Resistance to change can slow adoption rates and reduce the effectiveness of automation initiatives, highlighting the need for clear communication and training.

Skill gaps

Automation tools require new technical skills that some HR team members may lack. Without proper training, there’s a risk of underutilizing the technology, which can limit the potential benefits and create reliance on external support.

Addressing these challenges through effective change management, integration strategies, and upskilling can help maximize the advantages of HR automation.

Examples of HR Automation Tools

HR systems

HR systems, such as Human Resource Information Systems (HRIS) and Human Capital Management (HCM) platforms, are essential examples of HR automation tools. These systems centralize and streamline various HR functions, enabling organizations to manage employee data, payroll, benefits, recruitment, and performance with greater efficiency.

Using automated workflows, HR systems reduce manual errors, improve data accuracy, and save valuable time for HR teams. Employees also benefit from self-service features, allowing them to access important information, update personal details, and manage requests like time off or benefits enrollment without direct HR involvement.

When considering HR automation tools, you might also benefit from integrating enterprise search tools into your workflow. These tools enable your team to quickly find, manage, and utilize important HR-related information stored across multiple platforms, such as employee records, tax compliance forms, and training materials.

HR chatbots and digital AI assistants

HR chatbots, also known as digital assistants, are AI-powered tools designed to enhance employee support and improve HR processes. These virtual assistants facilitate conversations through messaging interfaces, providing quick and efficient solutions to common inquiries.

They can handle a wide range of tasks, including answering frequently asked questions, offering technical support, assisting with onboarding, and guiding employees through training programs. By delivering instant responses, HR chatbots empower employees to be more self-sufficient while reducing the workload on HR teams.

What sets modern digital assistants apart is their ability to provide personalized, conversational experiences. They not only answer questions but also identify employee needs, offer tailored solutions, and guide users through various processes in real time.

Key Benefits:

• Faster response times for common HR and IT inquiries
• Enhanced employee self-service and independence
• Personalized support with real-time problem-solving
• Streamlined onboarding and training experiences
• Reduced administrative burden on HR teams

HR analytics and reporting tools

These tools collect, process, and analyze vast amounts of workforce data, providing real-time insights into employee performance, turnover rates, recruitment efficiency, and overall workforce trends.

By automating data collection and report generation, these tools eliminate manual data entry, reduce errors, and save valuable time. HR teams and executives can access employee dashboards with key metrics, enabling quicker, more accurate decision-making on issues like talent management, resource allocation, and employee engagement strategies.

HR analytics tools also play a vital role in compliance and risk management by tracking important deadlines, monitoring policy adherence, and ensuring organizations stay aligned with labor laws and industry standards.

Why wait to customize your HR ecosystem?

There’s no better time to explore the PeopleSpheres platform. Zero obligations.

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How to Create Automated Workflows

One of the first areas that you should focus on when trying to implement HR automation, is workflow design. If you are able to automate workflows on your HR team, you will remove the friction that currently exists in many of your processes. 

For example, if your employees request PTO, you can create a workflow that will block off their calendars, so that no meetings are booked when they’re out of the office. You can also use workflow automation to alert managers of their employee’s work anniversaries, birthdays, and other important dates.

These are all tasks that typically fall on the HR department to remember and communicate to their teams, but with HR workflow automation, this burden can be taken off the HR department. If you want to take this automation software beyond your HR tasks, a business workflow can be integrated into any part of your organization’s business process.

By syncing the tools within your current tax dock, and integrating them into one dashboard, you will be able to create automatic workflows to simplify your day-to-day HR processes. As a result, your organization will become more efficient, reliable, and less susceptible to human error. 

Once workflows are up and running, you are likely to improve your decision-making, save time on processes, and reduce cost. However, workflow foundation involves several chronological tasks and decisions and designing for workflow efficiency is crucial. Make sure to follow these important steps for HR workflow optimization:

1. Collect information from SMEs
2. Identify responsibilities
3. Outline the workflow
4. Get approval
5. Finalize and implement workflows

Examples of Automated Workflows

Workflows can streamline many of your HR processes, including onboarding, offboarding, payroll, time and attendance, and more.

Below, we outline two examples of workflows that simply HR professionals work: onboarding and time-off requests.

New employee onboarding workflow

1. Software automatically generates the onboarding interview between the recruit and the HR department
2. Software automatically notifies the HR professional, the manager, and the employee of the onboarding interview, including date, schedule, and more
3. Software automatically notifies the training module of the arrival of a recruit and assigns them to an e-learning training path

Time-off request workflow

1. Employee submits a time-off request and chooses unpaid leave or paid leave
2. Software automatically transmitted the request to the manager
3. If the request is approved, the software automatically sends it to the HR department
4. If approved, the software automatically updates the planning module and the employee’s attendance schedule
5. The software automatically updates the payroll module

How to Implement HR Process Automation

Keep reading if you are hoping to implement HR process automation in your organization. Below, we will explore how to embrace business automation within your company, and which processes you should transition first.

Payroll Management

Another common task that can be taken over by HR process automation, is payroll management. The payroll process cannot be interfered with, as it provides employees with security. They need to know that they will get paid on time. Payroll processing is known to be a lengthy process, that is highly susceptible to human error. It is not uncommon for organizations to make mistakes when conducting payroll manually. Oftentimes, when HR payroll is conducted manually, factors, such as bonuses, time off, and holidays, are often overlooked.

To ensure that your employees get paid on time, and the full amount they are owed, your organization should implement HR process automation to take over the payroll processing. Alternatively, many organizations opt to partner with Professional Employer Organizations (PEOs), which can manage payroll and ensure compliance with labor laws, allowing businesses to focus on strategic growth. HR process automation tools are programmed to take into account factors, such as PTO, holidays, and more, that may interfere with the time and amount of payment.

Some organizations have even been able to decrease their workforce by an entire headcount, all thanks to embracing HR processes and automation and allowing payroll software to take over their payroll systems.

Onboarding New Employees

Employee onboarding is another highly manual process that is often done by HR professionals. If you are still onboarding your employees manually, your process is most likely old-fashioned and outdated, lethargic, and chaotic. Onboarding automation uses technology to automate and streamline the onboarding process. With the help of this technology, you can expect to increase employee engagement and retention, improve the efficiency of the process, have a smaller margin of error, and reduce your onboarding costs. At the same time, you can stand a competitive edge as newcomers will not have to deal with tedious paperwork that weakens the employee experience.

There are many tasks in the onboarding process that can automated. For example, new hire onboarding meetings can be scheduled on the day stated in the candidate’s offer letter. A welcome message can also be sent out prior to the candidate’s start date.

On their first day, HR process automation can take over the burden of adding this new hire to all necessary systems for their role. Since there are so many tasks associated with employee onboarding, it is easy for HR management professionals to miss out on steps and make mistakes. You will guarantee all of your new hires have a streamlined onboarding experience with HR automation.

Recruiting Process

The recruitment process is another time-consuming process that HR personnel is responsible for. When it comes to reaching out to passive candidates, there are many HR solutions that can automate this outreach for you.

You can also utilize HR services to help your talent acquisition team filter through applications within your ATS system. This way, your talent management team can spend more time interviewing potential hires, and less time performing admin work. Interviewing is a skill that cannot be taken over by computers, so it is important to continue giving your talent management team the most time to focus on this craft.

Tax Documents and Compliance Forms

Many organizations employ multiple tax professionals in order to remain in compliance. However, these individuals typically require high salaries, as a result of many years of education and experience. By utilizing HR process automation, you can cut down on your accounting team headcount.

By investing in tax systems, you can have confidence that your organization is always in compliance. These systems are typically called PEOs, and take the responsibility of being liable for tax mistakes. The systems are extremely beneficial for larger organizations that do not wish to be liable for some of these complex processes. As an added bonus, many of these systems also conduct payroll paperwork too.

Performance Evaluations

Performance evaluations are another heavily manual process often times taken on by the HR team. While it is extremely important for your organization to offer managers and subordinates the opportunity to get employee feedback, the performance evaluation process can be very time-consuming. Instead of launching typical surveys as employee performance reviews to your workforce, embracing HR process automation can help with the collection and analysis of data.

Of course, peer evaluation will need to be completed by hand. However, the collection and analysis portion will become a completely automated process. This makes it easier for HR teams to jump into action and make changes based on this feedback.

The People Process & Technology Framework

The People, Process, Technology Framework (PPTF) as a method to reduce HR workload. This framework integrates people, processes, and technology to improve HR operations and performance. It emphasizes understanding employee behavior, streamlining daily tasks, and employing digital systems to support these processes.

The PPTF enhances HR functions like talent acquisition, employee training, and payroll, and provides a flexible, data-driven approach for assessing workforce culture and organizational needs.

Choosing the Right Software for HR Automation

If you are still confused about which process to automate, we got you covered in things you need to know before investing in HR automation. There are multiple HR automation systems offered on the market but the importance lays in finding a system that fits your organization. Consider investing in a customizable system that can integrate applications and customizations that will be a good fit for you. When trying to find a workflow management system that will optimize your processes, start by asking yourself these questions:

1. What are my business requirements for workflows?
2. What are my non-negotiable features for workflow management?
3. How many users will I have in the workflow?
4. How quickly do I plan to use the software?
5. How much assistance will I likely need?

If you are still not sure which HR system to pick, look for general features that all workflow management systems should have. That includes:

• Code-free design
• Integration with other cloud apps
• Cloud-based technology
• Reporting tool
• Notification of where and when you need them
• Role-based technology

Why wait to customize your HR ecosystem?

There’s no better time to explore the PeopleSpheres platform. Zero obligations.

Free trial