HR managers are always at the frontline of securing the best talent for their companies and building a positive employee experience. Ironically enough, they often fail to develop a healthy working environment for themselves while struggling to grapple with tremendous routine administrative activities. At one point or another, these inefficiencies in traditional HR management systems inevitably lead to:

• unorganized documentation located in different databases
• inaccurate, manual data entry and the higher possibility for error
• inconsistency across document execution processes
• no transparency in communication between departments

The situation only got worse after the pandemic broke out and urged businesses to introduce new human resources tools and adapt to a new "hybrid" working landscape. Many companies are trying to adopt a patchwork approach to eliminating these new bottlenecks. For instance, they solve paperwork storage problems by moving it online to a centralized system but close their eyes to other document-related aspects of work, like the need for esignature or automated document routing. As a result, HR workers end up spending less time on their primary duties, such as employee performance appraisal or onboarding, and more time on administrative maintenance.

How to create an efficient HR management system within your company

The core duty of an HR department is to maintain a positive experience throughout the entire employee journey. That’s why companies need to consider eliminating tough steps in administrative tasks. One of the possible solutions is to outsource or outstaff these tasks to other companies. However, this decision might not be budget-friendly and may take a lot of time to implement. The most efficient way to offload an HR manager’s administrative tasks and help them refocus on higher-value activities is to automate HR processes.

Concerns associated with implementing automation in human resource process management

To a certain degree, people are predisposed to resist change and innovation. Implementing automation into well-established, yet burdensome HR processes is no exception. Here are some of the most common aspects holding companies back from taking steps towards HR automation:

1. Excessive reliance on paper. Despite the rapid trends in digital transformation, we witness today, many companies remain too reliant on traditional paper-based document management and are not entirely prepared to move it online.
2. Future of employment. There’s a common misconception that HR automation will displace humans by taking over their jobs.
3. Security and privacy issues. New data and privacy regulations, which went into force in recent years, gave people more control over the data they share online. For companies, it means more rigorous and sometimes costlier measures for keeping this data protected while implementing workflow automation software.
4. Compatibility with existing processes and infrastructures. There’s no "one-size-fits-all" solution that would be suitable for all companies. Every solution requires a certain level of fine-tuning when it comes to accommodating existing infrastructures with automation tools.
5. Need for IT specialists. The majority of solutions out there require a certain level of coding, which may scare companies, especially small ones from adopting automation in HR.