We’ve all had that moment of workplace deja vu where a single email or HR approval suddenly triggers a feeling that we’ve done this thousands of times before. Unfortunately, in the world of HR, we probably have.

Many of the most basic HR activities, such as changing an address or bank account, require multiple approvals before processing. We trust managers to retain full teams of expensive talent, but make them get approval to take day offs. What’s really the bigger risk? Our employees are qualified, trusted people who manage six-figure sales deals, organize massive campaigns, and make million-dollar hiring decisions, but burdensome HR systems prevent them from taking care of their day-to-day lives.

The world of HR is a world of systems. From the core system that houses base employee data to additional systems for talent management, compensation, expenses, or time management, it seems like every function has a separate system to handle it. As HR professionals, we need to reduce the clutter and remove the inefficient processes bogging down workflows.

A Problem of Excess

There’s nothing inherently wrong with extra functionality, but siloing each service to a different location helps no one. Too often, HR systems today are built as destinations, not services, confusing people who want simple solutions for simple requests.

For example, an HR portal really only makes sense for an HR professional. For everyone else in an organization, it’s just another bookmark to add to the list. We all have those accounts we only use once or twice a year, like an old Yahoo! account that only sees the light of day in fantasy football season. The more HR systems that match that description, the more frustrated employees become.

The prevalence of these complicated processes explains why adoption rates for enterprise HR systems are so low. Intranet, HR portals, self-service, expenses, benefits — the list goes on, and most employees tune out halfway through. We are using the wrong tools to communicate with employees, and they are tired of expanding the “HR” folder in their browsers.

Initiating Effective Change

To get to the root of the problem, we need to ask ourselves: What are we trying to optimize? Do we want to improve productivity for everyone, or just for HR professionals?

Making life easier for the greatest number of people means taking a people-centric approach, designing services that go to the people rather than asking the people to go to the systems. In a time when everyone is used to advanced consumer technology, requiring separate self-service portals for reporting expenses and requesting vacation feels like an archaic chore. There’s a reason you get everything on Amazon — it’s easy!

And it is not just processes. The same chaos applies to employee communication. Make employee experience a priority. Your people do an amazing job, and they deserve simple interfaces and systems designed to empower them, increase engagement, and drive productivity.

To simplify your HR systems, follow these three steps:

1. Aggregate processes to be people-centric. Your people have jobs to do, and most of them weren’t hired for their abilities to navigate impossible company systems. They were hired to meet customers, help patients, sell products, and build innovative products. Aggregate and condense systems for them to use on their smartphones.

2. Personalize experiences and information. Your people are actual human beings with feelings, habits, roles, and responsibilities. Personalize the communications they receive so they actually take the time to read them. Their smartphones know what they like for breakfast; the least you can do is personalize their company updates to be relevant to their job functions.

3. Reduce, then reduce more. Most organizational processes start with sound logic, but many become burdensome quickly. No one needs to approve 19 line items on an expense report totaling $19.47. If this employee is really someone the company trusts to take care of its best customers, is that employee really a risk to expense a pen twice?

Don’t let systems take over your department. Aggregate your important processes, personalize your communications, and strip away all the unnecessary burdens preventing your team members from working at their best.

Daniel Kraft is the president and CEO of Sitrion. Sitrion provides award-winning mobile productivity solutions for the digital workplace, making work better for working people every day. Sitrion solutions unify and extend communications, information, and processes directly to mobile devices from business systems like SAP, Oracle, Microsoft, and Salesforce. Daniel is a public speaker on topics involving employee engagement and productivity and was featured on .