How HR Automation Can Save Time & Money

Do you work in an HR department that still uses manual processes?

Then you're severely limiting your productivity and budget.

About 72% of HR professionals admit that a lack of automation hinders business success.

That's a healthy number of people in your industry screaming for AI help. The good news is there are many solutions out there that can benefit their processes.

But before we get into that, let's take a closer look at how HR automation can save time and money for your company.

Eliminate the Burden of Manual Onboarding

Are you onboarding new employees using manual processes? Then you know the burden that comes with this tedious, mundane task.

This alone can eat up both your time and your budget.

It's shown that onboarding manually can cost more than $102,000 annually. And by just automating this one process, you can cut your costs by 80%.

That brings it down to about $22,000 per year.

Imagine how the business can apply that $80,000 in saved dollars each year.

Retain More of Your Employees

The experience employees have with your company is everything. And it all begins with your onboarding.

In America, employers spend about $4,000 and 24 days hiring new workers.

If you bring them aboard with outdated manual processes that are long, confusing, or inefficient, then guess what's going to happen?

These employees aren't going to stick around for long. Numbers show workers who have a negative experience during onboarding are twice as likely to look for work elsewhere (soon after you hire them).

The reasons for this is that it negatively impacts employee morale. The best workers are those who are well-trained and confident in their position within an organization.

By retaining more employees, you're cutting hiring costs and boosting the productivity of your workers with an excellent onboarding process.

Numbers show you can save over $100,000 in turnover costs with automated onboarding.

How Uber Excels in Effective Onboarding

Uber -- the company everyone's grown accustomed to seeing (and maybe even using).

A lot of people who use public transportation prefer Uber drivers over taxis.

This is because you can rate individual drivers, which can help you choose ones that offer the best experiences.

But what's notable about Uber is that it does an excellent job of onboarding new drivers. As you would imagine, the entire process from application to onboarding is done entirely online.

They start by educating applicants about the company and its expectations of its drivers. And this is before they apply.

Those that pass this process move on to the interview. You can submit all necessary documents through the portal.

At this point in the vetting stage, the applicant talks to a human in HR. They welcome the new driver and supply them with a ton of resources.

For example, they offer perks to those who engage in peer learning and community building. One perk is offering scholarship funding for Uber drivers to continue their education at South Seattle Community College.

This entire process focuses on empowering workers with knowledge of the company and its goals, how to be a great driver, and incentivizes their employment with enticing perks.

Unless there's some underlying flaw, there's no one who will say this company is terrible to work at (based off its hiring and onboarding processes).

When you value workers as the assets they are, then you're bound to get a high return on investment.

Get More Employee Referrals

It's also important to note that 20% of new hires refer an employer to friends and family after going through onboarding.

This helps cut costs because employee referrals are faster and less expensive to hire.

So if the onboarding experience isn't great, then you have a slimmer chance of getting employee referrals.

Numbers show that these referrals can reward you with an $18,000 savings compared to working through a talent agency.

Plus, these hires onboard quicker compared to traditional hires. This is because these individuals already feel close to the manager and are more open to asking questions.

Another study shows 46% of employee referrals stick around for at least a year. This is compared to 33% of non-referred new hires.

Save Money On Office Expenses

With an automated HR process, you're cutting out the need for printers, ink, and paper. And this also lessens the need for rooms filled with filing cabinets.

When you integrate electronic signature tools like Xodo Sign, you're able to hire and onboard employees using digital documents and signatures.

You'll also have virtual access to these documents so you can easily access these documents anytime and anywhere you have internet access (including on mobile devices).

Then you can also see which documents are complete or pending signatures.

Everything's done through the portal to provide the utmost security.

Speaking of which...

Save Your Business from Costly Data Breaches

The human resources department is well-known for having documents with sensitive data. When you store these documents in digital format, it can decrease the chances of them being lost or stolen.

Data breaches happen more often than they should, and it's sometimes due to negligence and outdated manual processes.

By switching to automation, you can better safeguard critical documents.

Increase the Productivity of HR

HR professionals have a lot of duties to perform throughout the week. They're responsible for finding talent, training talent, coaching talent, and managing financial documents, such as tax forms and direct deposit forms.

When you eliminate the use of manual processes, you free up time for HR to focus on more productive tasks.

We find that HR pros can save over a day a week by automating administrative tasks. This includes recruitment, benefits administration, and employee records management.

These repetitive tasks don't have to bog down the workflow of your HR department.

With sophisticated HR tools, your team will be able to focus on coaching, updating training materials, and other tasks that directly impact the success and revenue of your company.

Let's take a quick look at the various tasks HR can automate.

Automate Recruiting

Is this possible? How can AI find and hire talent for an organization? Well, it can't per se.

Instead, it supports the process by helping HR professionals to screen applicants. Rather than spending hours each day poring over applications, they'll have only a few pre-screened candidates to focus on.

Then once you hire applicants, they're onboarded via an automated process.

Automate Onboarding

There's a ton of paperwork involved in the onboarding process. This can be somewhat time-consuming for HR professionals.

You can integrate an automation system that'll handle the signing of contracts, training, and orientation.

It cuts back on the admin duties of HR reps, who can focus on improving onboarding materials. This may include updating interactive lessons, adding new videos, or developing assessments.

Automate Timesheet Tracking

Another area of HR that's tedious is tracking timesheets, especially for larger companies.

What's excellent about automation is that it eliminates the risk of human error. So there's no worry of miscalculated hours, and there's no need to obtain subsequent validation.

In turn, this helps to speed up the entire process, since everything updates in real time.

Automate Payroll and Benefits Tracking

Your employees need to get paid for all their hard work. But what's harder is managing compliance obligations and extracting details from various legacy systems.

With automation, you don't have to worry about any of this. Benefits are automatically tracked, and payroll is integrated into a single system.

This helps to boost data protection processes, which is less of a headache for HR professionals.

Automate Performance Appraisals

Besides hiring, training, and paying employees, you also have to manage performance appraisals. This is something most employees look forward to because it can potentially earn them a raise.

However, when you're in a large organization, these appraisals can be long-winding and exhausting.

Imagine being able to see employee performance metrics in real-time. For example, how many deals they close, how many projects they complete, or the effectiveness of their tasks.

Speed, efficiency, productivity, and anything else you track is quickly done using automated systems.

You can look these up and create an appraisal quickly.

Automate Your HR Department with the Right Tools

You'll find many platforms on the market that can help you automate your HR processes. This includes digital signature tools and HRMs.

Whatever you decide to use, be sure to measure its efficiency so you can determine if it's helping or hurting your business.

So what are your plans for automating your HR department? Let us know in the comments!