What is HR Automation? A Guide with Practical Examples
Converting from manual to automated systems takes effort and adjustment, but investing in HR automation is well worth the time, energy, and budget it requires.
Rapid advancements in Human Resources automation have enabled HR departments to work more efficiently and effectively. Freed from tedious tasks, HR staff can devote more time to people-centered initiatives that support organizational goal achievement.
Core HR functions, like recruiting, onboarding, offboarding, timekeeping, payroll, and leave tracking, are essential to every organization. However, fulfilling these obligations leaves many HR departments drowning in time-consuming administrative duties and paperwork. A Deloitte report disclosed that 57% of HR staff’s time is spent on administrative tasks.
Now that automation can streamline and speed up HR operations, companies are increasingly choosing to automate wherever possible. In fact, HR automation adoption surged by nearly 600% over a recent two-year period.
Embracing Human Resources automation sooner rather than later ensures your HR department remains future-ready and your organization doesn’t get left behind.
Contents
What is HR automation?
HR automation software providers
Benefits of HR automation
Challenges of HR automation
10 examples of automated HR processes
How to effectively implement HR automation
What is HR automation?
Human Resources automation (HR automation) uses software and algorithms to digitize and mechanize repetitive and time-consuming administrative tasks. HR automation streamlines processes, improves efficiency, reduces human error, and frees up HR teams to focus on more strategic, value-adding duties.
Vast technological advances have emerged to meet modern workforce management demands. Embracing them is now a necessity for virtually every organization that wants to remain viable and competitive.
HR automation software providers
With a wide range of software providers available, there are many HR automation tools to explore. Each product offers diverse features, analytics, and integration capabilities. Selecting a suitable option(s) for your organization depends on your HR priorities, workforce size, and budget.
Here is an overview of a variety of HR automation solutions to consider:
All-in-one HR suites
- BambooHR unites payroll, benefits, timekeeping, hiring, and onboarding information for accurate data tracking and reporting, efficient coordination, and elevated security.
- Gusto offers payroll and timekeeping automation, onboarding workflows, benefits administration, performance management, and tax compliance. It is geared toward small and medium-sized businesses.
- Namely automates employee data, payroll, and timekeeping with its core platform. Enhanced modules extend the platform to include applicant tracking, benefits administration, performance management, and compliance. A self-service mobile app is also available to employees.
- Rippling is a platform with integrated tools for HR, IT, and finance automation. Its capabilities include a cloud-based directory that synchronizes data and automatically provides appropriate digital access permissions/suspensions throughout the employee life cycle.
- Workday provides AI-powered solutions for human capital and finance management. An array of tools simplifies planning, payroll, time and attendance tracking, global compliance, and analytics. Workday is used by over 10,000 medium-sized and enterprise organizations around the world, including more than 50% of the Fortune 500 companies.
Recruitment and applicant tracking
- Greenhouse is an all-in-one platform for every stage of the hiring process, from sourcing to onboarding. It provides efficient recruitment workflows, simplified interview scheduling, and AI-driven insights to guide companies in more effective hiring practices.
- Lever merges advanced applicant tracking and candidate relationship management tools for developing a potent talent pipeline compatible with business needs. It offers automated and personalized candidate outreach, a self-service candidate portal, and anti-bias hiring defense.
- SmartRecruiters is an all-in-one hiring platform that handles sourcing, interviews, offers, and onboarding. It provides multi-level screening, scheduling, and conversational engagement through its AI-powered candidate interactions via text, voice, and video. It can also integrate with other recruitment tools such as LinkedIn, Zoom, and Docusign.
- Workable offers a complete talent sourcing solution for attracting and engaging top talent. It allows instant job posting to top job boards and every major social media platform. Workable also provides a drag-and-drop career page builder and access to a database of AI-identified passive candidates that can generate tailored outreach emails.
Payroll and benefits administration
- Fuse Workforce Management is a platform that brings together time and attendance management, HR management, and payroll into one software solution for accurate employee data with real-time analysis. With its automated payroll and employee self-service access to benefits information, HR is freed up from interruptions and repetitive tasks.
- WebHR is software for automating HR processes. It covers all payroll components, with embedded tax laws for 75+ countries and adaptability for individual locations or employee groups. Its benefits management features include an intuitive employee self-service interface and real-time reporting.
- TriNet Zenefits offers intuitive tools to automate compliance, payroll, and benefits management that can be customized to accommodate industry-specific requirements. Its scalable solutions adapt to the evolving needs of a range of organizations, from startups to large companies.
Onboarding and offboarding
- Aptien is a configurable employee onboarding and offboarding management system. The onboarding solution includes document management, electronic forms, benefits selection, and equipment checkout. Offboarding provides smooth employee departures and legal compliance with key information/responsibilities transfer, password/permission suspension, and equipment return.
- WorkBright provides fully remote, mobile-friendly onboarding for any organization. It allows you to manage new hire paperwork and employee files from anywhere with full compliance. An easily accessible onboarding process with automatic reminders throughout ensures successful candidate conversion.
Master HR automation and drive digital transformation
Learn how to streamline your HR operations, reduce manual work, and improve employee experience by adopting smart automation strategies and tools.
AIHR’s Digital HR 2.0 Certificate Program helps you build the capabilities to lead your organization through HR digitalization. You’ll explore real-world automation examples, map out your own HR tech stack, and gain hands-on experience with future-ready practices. This self-paced, online program is ideal for HR professionals ready to modernize their processes and lead with confidence in a tech-driven world.
Benefits of HR automation
The automation of HR processes has become essential in the business world of today, and for good reasons. Here are some of the main advantages of HR automation.
Improved efficiency
HR management largely depends on document-driven processes. When done manually, this can be time-consuming, repetitive, error-prone, and extremely inefficient. Paperwork can get “stuck” in a queue or on one person’s desk. What’s more, requiring people to come to the office or send in signed forms now seems redundant.
Automating HR activities increases productivity and efficiency across the business. This allows HR teams to focus on strategic tasks and advocate for employees through culture building, coherent communication, and effective people practices.
Actionable insights
HR automation enables you to track, collect, and analyze data of all kinds by pulling data from systems like your ATS, LMS, and performance management tools. For example, it can show that high performers tend to come from certain sourcing channels or that onboarding bottlenecks delay productivity. With this visibility, you can fine-tune recruitment, speed up onboarding, and optimize training content based on engagement or outcomes.
Reduced errors
Manual handling of payroll, timesheets, and leave calculations increases the risk of mistakes. Automated systems perform these tasks quickly and consistently, helping to reduce costly errors and maintain compliance and data accuracy. This also supports transparency and fair treatment.
Improved communication and collaboration
Automated workflows make responsibilities and task ownership visible, like who approves a job requisition or where a performance review is stuck. This reduces back-and-forth, helps teams coordinate more smoothly, and avoids missed steps or duplicated work.
Reduced paperwork and better record-keeping
Paper-based systems require printed documents that must be filed and stored physically. Automation minimizes the need for storage, lowers administrative costs, and makes it easier to retrieve records with just a few clicks.
Positive experience for job candidates and employees
When HR staff are bogged down by admin, they have less time to engage with candidates, leading to a poor hiring experience, even for those who get the job. Automation frees up HR to stay connected with applicants throughout the process.
Employees also benefit from automation through self-service. Leave requests, expense reports, and benefit updates can be handled more quickly. Employees can check their benefit status without waiting for HR to respond, leading to a smoother and more positive experience overall.
HR tip
HR automation won’t fix ineffective processes. If policies or workflows are poorly designed or based on flawed logic, automation will only speed up bad results. Review and improve your HR practices before automating them.
Challenges of HR automation
Transitioning into HR automation is notably beneficial but also comes with certain challenges. Being aware of these potential obstacles you may face will help you prepare to overcome them:
Initial cost
HR automation software, training, and system integration require a significant investment of time and money. These costs can be substantial, especially for smaller organizations. It’s important to secure leadership support early by clearly demonstrating how the long-term benefits, such as efficiency gains and cost savings, outweigh the initial expenses.
Integration issues
Unless you’re completely replacing your entire HR system, adding automation tools requires integration with what is already in place. For example, new payroll software might not sync well with your time-tracking or benefits platform. Getting different systems to “talk” to each other is complex and time-consuming. However, compatibility issues that result in data silos or extra input to keep everything consistent defeat the purpose of automation.
Employee resistance
Introducing new tools can disrupt familiar workflows. Some HR staff may worry about losing their jobs, while others might doubt whether the new systems will work as promised. Employees outside of HR may also hesitate to use self-service features, either due to unfamiliarity or discomfort with technology. This resistance can hurt morale and slow down adoption.
10 examples of automated HR processes
Any routine, repetitive, or data-driven HR process can be automated. Below are 10 HR automation examples and a few case studies of how companies use HR process automation to benefit them and their employees:
1. Recruiting
Recruitment involves several tasks that lend themselves well to automation, such as:
- Posting job ads
- Tracking responses
- Screening resumes
- Administering pre-employment assessments
- Sorting and prioritizing candidates based on set criteria
- Scheduling interviews and managing email workflows.
Automating these tasks reduces the administrative burden on HR teams, allowing them to focus on candidate engagement and decision-making.
Global financial services corporation Mastercard was experiencing rapid growth, which resulted in a surging demand for high-volume hiring. Because it relied on a career site that lacked a real-time connection to its CRM database, an overburdened system, and manual interview scheduling, the talent acquisition team worried it was losing out on top talent.
Mastercard implemented a talent experience platform that linked the career site to both the application process and CRM. It also rolled out AI-powered interview scheduling.
As a result, job seekers began interacting longer with the career site and applying more frequently. Mastercard reaped the benefit of this automation by gaining 900% more candidate profiles and 85% faster interview scheduling.
2. Employee onboarding
Employee onboarding involves many administrative tasks, such as collecting documents for verification, signing forms, providing equipment access to new hires, and submitting device requests.
HR automation can provide an easy-to-follow onboarding process checklist. This includes the ability to create automatically generated notifications, approvals, official PDF documents, and e-signed form collection.
Delivering devices and granting access to relevant applications with appropriate permission levels on day one gives new hires a running start. Onboarding automation enables automatic access based on predefined criteria. Additionally, it can allow employees to request expanded access and get approval from a manager as their responsibilities evolve.
KPMG didn’t have a preboarding process for new hires, which meant a long waiting period between signing their contract and their first day at work.
The company solved this issue by using an integrated and secure onboarding software solution. The onboarding process now starts as soon as the new employee signs the contract. New hires are automatically sent all the practical information they need to know from the app before their first day.
After two years of using the HR automation app, KPMG employees rated their hiring experience a 4.45 out of 5 and their first week a 4.12.
3. Offboarding
The offboarding process can often be overlooked, but it’s just as critical as onboarding. When done correctly, offboarding helps protect the company and leaves a good impression on former employees.
However, manual offboarding is time-consuming. There’s a potential for losing forms or having them completed incorrectly. In addition, there’s a risk of failing to protect the company from a compliance and security perspective. Automated offboarding ensures secure and streamlined employee departures.
HR automation software can extract data, validate information, and create an offboarding checklist to:
- Complete and upload documents electronically
- Schedule exit interviews
- Update personal information
- Arrange the employee’s final paycheck
- Create requests for company equipment to be returned
- Cancel access to applications on a set date
- Update the company directory.
4. Paid leave management
Manually calculating and approving vacation days can be problematic since it involves many tasks:
- Checking the employee’s leave balance
- Getting manager approval for leave requests
- Recording the leave for payroll circulation.
Additionally, if this falls on one person’s shoulders, there is much room for human error. Emails get forgotten, and there’s a risk of disruption when this person is on vacation or sick leave.
Leave management software can:
- Automate leave requests and approval through employee self-service portals
- Track leave balance with automatic updates
- Sync leave data with the payroll system
- Analyze leave data and produce reports
- Systemize leave regulations to maintain legal compliance.
5. Expense claims
Many employees dread mundane manual tasks, such as submitting expense reports, which negatively impact their satisfaction at work. Traditional expense claims require completing a detailed form, submitting receipts, and waiting for manager approval. These forms can be filled out incorrectly, misplaced, or piled up on desks.
HR automation digitizes the expense process. Employees can upload a photo of their receipt from their phone, while expense management software automatically extracts the required data (amount, merchant, tax, etc.). Once an employee submits this, the corresponding manager is notified immediately and can approve or reject it. A controller then checks if the details are correct and processes them with one click. This saves employees up to 70% in processing time on average, eliminates human error, and gives companies a real-time spending overview.
6. Payroll
Manually calculating the time or days worked, along with sick leave or vacation days, leaves much room for inaccuracies. This leads to employees being underpaid or overpaid.
HR automation can simplify the process by tracking and calculating everything automatically, simplifying payments, and making data much easier to access.
Construction general contractor Moncrief Construction Limited had a growing workforce that included both year-round and seasonal employees. The payroll system in place was based on paper timesheets that had to be mailed to the main office and manually entered by one person. It was not adequate to accommodate this larger, fluctuating staff.
By implementing an automated payroll system, employees could enter hours digitally on a desktop or mobile app. This made the payroll function quicker, easier, and more accurate and cost-effective. It also provided HR with comprehensive data and easy-to-understand reporting on overtime, time-off banks, and labor cost allocation.
7. Tax filing
There are different tax laws at local, state, national, and international levels, depending on an organization’s size and where it operates. This makes filing taxes complex, especially as laws are frequently altered and updated.
HR tax software, based on relevant federal, state, and local regulations, handles tax calculations and filings to ensure that employees and contractors receive the required information to complete the correct submissions. It also provides a digital file that is easy to locate in the event of an audit. This makes tax law compliance more accurate, less arduous, and much faster.
8. Timekeeping management
Tracking work hours manually is extremely inefficient. Timecards can get misplaced or be filled out retrospectively with less accuracy.
Timekeeping software stores employees’ profiles, attendance records, and other data. It can capture work hours in real-time with digital employee check-ins or computer activity monitoring. This information is automatically synced with payroll and even client billing or project management systems. Automated timekeeping makes the process simpler and more reliable, and produces immediate data analysis and reports.
9. Employee benefits
At some organizations, employee benefits administration, including health insurance, retirement plans, workers’ compensation, and other perks, entails repetitive processes and manual paperwork. Others use a benefits management service or a professional employer organization (PEO). Both of these situations can mean that employees have limited insight into the types of benefits available.
Automation provides a centralized system for HR to manage benefits efficiently, accurately, and in compliance. For employees, it tracks their eligibility situations and offers a user-friendly, self-service way to understand and participate in their benefit options.
Luxury spa and retreat company Canyon Ranch had a manual, paper-driven benefits enrollment process that needed a refresh to reduce redundancies and become more efficient. The HR team also wanted to engage its diverse and multi-generational staff with relevant benefits information.
Canyon Ranch adopted a benefits management platform that gave employees on-demand access to their benefits, resource materials, and online enrollment. It also automatically updates each benefit vendor’s database when changes or corrections are made on the employer’s end.
The outcomes of online benefits enrollment include annual savings of approximately 120 administrative hours and $10,000 in labor costs.
10. Employee performance tracking
Rather than gathering information from various paper-based sources, automated employee performance records provide immediately accessible data to determine raises, bonuses, disciplinary action, or termination. HR can track these performance records and give managers access to add notes, prepare for performance reviews, and ensure objectives are met.
Automating performance tracking streamlines the process, ensures it’s bias-free, enables accurate decision making, and provides a helpful reference point for both managers and employees.
Auditing, accounting, and consulting firm Mazars had some inefficiencies in its performance management process. These included how employee review forms were distributed and collected, converting performance data from forms to spreadsheets, and lacking a cohesive method for performance data reporting.
A performance management software product replaced Mazars’ outdated system with one-step information dissemination, automated reminders, an employee self-service portal, and instantaneous performance data reports.
This saved HR and managers all the hours they had previously spent issuing and tracking down forms, sending out reminders to complete appraisals, and locating and assessing performance data.
How to effectively implement HR automation
HR automation doesn’t take place overnight. It requires planning and deliberation. The following steps will help guide you in ensuring successful HR automation adoption and long-term value:
- Assess your current HR processes: Map out the workflows for HR processes such as payroll, onboarding, benefits enrollment, time-off requests, etc. Identify the main inefficiencies and decide where automation can make the most impact.
- Select appropriate HR automation tools: Research the available HR automation solutions that address your needs and accommodate your budget and technical capabilities. Also consider what the tools offer in terms of integration with other systems, scalability, user-friendliness, and vendor support. Be sure to obtain approval and buy-in from senior management, as well as input from IT teams and HR staff.
HR tip
Startups and smaller organizations should be cautious about investing in HR automation software that isn’t scalable. What works well now may become obsolete as the company grows.
- Plan for testing phase and launch: Outline each stage of the rollout with timelines, newly designed workflows, assigned responsibilities, and strategies for engaging stakeholders and facing potential roadblocks. Closely monitor the automation deployment to address issues promptly, refine workflows as needed, and minimize disruptions.
- Prioritize data security: Digital HR systems process and store sensitive employee information. Powerful cybersecurity measures are essential for safeguarding this data and complying with data protection regulations.
- Deliver comprehensive training: Ensure HR staff have a thorough grasp of how the tools work and which of their duties they apply to. Provide end-users with hands-on training and ongoing support to boost adoption rates and ensure optimal use of new systems.
- Maintain personalized service: Balance automation and self-service features with human interaction. Systems should provide content that includes methods for contacting an HR representative directly.
Over to you
HR automation is a transformative force that creates more efficient and accurate ways of working across an organization. It supports data-driven decision-making and enables greater consistency and compliance. This allows HR departments to become more agile and able to better serve the organization with efficiency and an improved employee experience.
Although a large portion of HR responsibilities are automatable, some can never be. The human mind is still irreplaceable in areas such as strategic planning and navigating the dynamics of complex employee interactions.
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