Why HR Automation Is More Important Than Ever In A Post-Covid World

Driving efficiency, improving retention, and streamlining operations for an evolving workforce

HR departments that have emerged from the Covid-19 pandemic look a bit different from the ones stumbling into the crisis in early 2020. Organizations that couldn’t even begin to think about how they might manage remote employees are now operating highly efficient hybrid environments competing for talent in one of the hottest job markets in memory. Much of this transformation has been due to the widespread adoption of automation technology. While some forward-thinking organizations had already put their HR departments on a path toward digital transformation, others made their greatest strides under unprecedented external pressure.

What HR Teams Learned During the Covid Crisis

In a lot of ways, the pandemic was a massive stress test for HR departments. With very little warning, they had to rapidly adapt their longstanding processes to accommodate a remote workplace and ensure that employees would still be able to get the support and resources they needed. Many of these departments quickly discovered that their existing technology was not up to the challenge, but they also learned a few other things that made them reconsider how they incorporate technology into their operations.

Manual Processes Are Inefficient

Shifting to a remote environment immediately exposed just how much work HR teams are still completing manually. In some cases, processes depended so heavily upon physical paperwork that they could not be completed remotely. We talked to one organization, for example, that renewed employee contracts on an annual basis. Employees had to go to the HR office in person, sign out their prepared contract, and then turn it back in after filling in their information. Without an automated solution in place for securely managing documents and legally binding signatures as part of a digital workflow, they had no way of completing this vital task remotely.
 

Even in cases where tasks could still be carried out remotely, the manual nature of these processes still revealed plenty of opportunities for improvement. Paperwork that was once completed in the office and passed around for review could be scanned and delivered as email attachments, but this solution took even longer to complete, was prone to error, and created introduced security risks. Even worse, these processes proved to be “black boxes” that offered no visibility into the status of tasks or who was currently responsible for them.

Flexibility Is Essential

Uncertainty was perhaps the most enduring characteristic of the Covid pandemic. Organizations found themselves scrambling to adapt to the evolving threat as well as how to navigate the responses to it. Mask mandates, testing and tracking systems, and quarantining policies all changed significantly over the course of the first year, and things only got more complicated after the rollout of vaccines. An HR process that worked perfectly well one day often had to be changed a few months later in response to changing circumstances.

Few HR departments had the flexible technology in place to accommodate those changes. In far too many cases, their existing solution either lacked the necessary features to handle different use cases or was too complicated for HR professionals to modify without assistance from IT teams. This made it difficult for them to implement new processes like vaccine tracking as the need emerged. We worked with several organizations throughout the pandemic that were in search of automated workflow software that could be implemented and modified quickly to meet their evolving needs.  

Employees Need Support

One of the most remarkable trends that emerged during the pandemic was the unprecedented willingness of employees to leave their jobs in search of other opportunities. While HR departments have long been aware of the relationship between employee engagement and retention, the pandemic forced them to take a hard look at the overall quality of their employee experience. At a time when people needed support from their employers, many companies struggled to provide that help due to clunky, inefficient processes that undermined their connections with employees. Complicated onboarding experiences started new hires off on the wrong foot, while unresponsive systems made it difficult to access important benefits and other resources when they were needed most. 

The same was also true of HR professionals themselves. With so many labor-intensive manual tasks taking up their time, there were few opportunities for thinking outside the box or developing new ways to keep employees engaged. Transitioning to a remote environment during the pandemic proved overwhelming for many HR professionals. They couldn’t continue to do that tedious work while also creating the processes needed to deliver an engaging employee experience in a remote or hybrid workplace. Where automated workflow tools would have allowed them to streamline many of those tasks, they were often stuck trying to gather and manage employee information over countless emails, error-prone spreadsheets, and complicated technology platforms that didn’t communicate with one another.

Why Automation Technology Matters More Than Ever

Many HR departments got their first taste of what automated workflow technology can do for them during the pandemic. We worked with multiple organizations to help them implement an automated health tracking solution that allowed them to gather information about vaccination and testing status, route it to their system of record, and generate documentation all without manual intervention. In nearly every instance, they quickly recognized how they could adapt the same basic workflow concepts to other HR processes to improve efficiency, reduce manual errors, and give valuable time back to employees.

As companies begin to transition away from the pandemic footing and plan for a future that will likely be a more hybrid environment, they should keep the lessons of the last two years in mind when thinking about the necessity of automation technology. There are many benefits to be gained from replacing outdated manual processes with streamlined digital workflows:

Increased Retention

Automation helps make everyone’s lives easier. Employees can submit information, access records, and get the support they need much faster when it doesn’t have to go through a manual process that could easily get hung up because somebody missed an email or forgot to complete a vital task. And if HR professionals can hand boring, repetitive manual tasks off to an automated system, they can spend more time focusing on boosting engagement, building a better workplace culture, and enhancing the overall employee experience to improve retention numbers.

Improved Collaboration

Most HR processes involve managing a huge number of forms, documents, and signatures. When those materials are handled manually or spread across multiple systems, it can be difficult to track and determine the status of any given task. Automation workflows make it much easier to locate important information quickly and prompt people to take necessary actions, which enhances both communication and collaboration.

Enhanced Efficiency

The typical HR department has several processes running at once to keep records updated, circulate documents and signatures for review, and gather a variety of information from employees. These tasks are very time-consuming if they’re being done manually, which prevents HR teams from focusing on other priorities. Automation platforms can incorporate these repetitive steps into digital workflows that take much less time to finish and require less direct attention, allowing HR departments to scale their capacity without undermining service quality.

Better Security

Shifting to a remote environment exposed a lot of security shortcomings in HR processes. Even before the pandemic, too much sensitive employee information was being shared over email and stored locally on vulnerable devices. Automated platforms with the security features in place to meet key compliance standards can help keep that information safe and secure. Once information goes into those secure systems, there’s no need for it to come out again as the platform provides all the tools to access and route sensitive data safely.

Hybrid Friendly

Many organizations will never go back to the way they did things before the pandemic. The hybrid workplace is here to stay for a large percentage of industries, and HR departments need to implement the tools to easily manage that workforce. With automated workflow platforms, they can set up digital forms, documents, and signature capabilities to allow employees to engage with HR processes no matter where they’re located. This helps improve the overall employee experience and streamlines HR operations, providing a level of flexibility to adapt to changing circumstances that did not exist widely prior to the pandemic.

Preparing for an Uncertain Future

One of the biggest lessons coming out of the pandemic is that HR departments need to prioritize operational agility when exploring potential technology solutions. In order to respond quickly to evolving organizational needs, HR professionals must have intuitive, easy-to-manage tools at their disposal that they can adapt for multiple purposes. The days of submitting a ticket to IT and waiting for weeks to have them set up a new solution are firmly in the past. Thanks to no-code automation platforms, HR administrators can build their own digital processes based on operational needs and start using them right away.

The great thing about these automation tools is that they’re inherently expansive. We’ve seen organizations implement digital workflow capabilities for a specific task only to immediately realize that they can use the same solution for a variety of use cases. In many instances, they’ve been able to eliminate redundant and expensive software that doesn’t provide the same level of flexibility. Streamlining the HR tech stack also has the benefit of freeing up the budget for other priorities that can improve employee experiences and provide new benefits like expanded learning and development resources.

As more HR departments continue their digital transformation journey in the aftermath of the pandemic, automation technology is sure to play a much greater role in driving efficiency, improving retention, and streamlining operations for an evolving workforce.

Steve Wilson is the President at OnTask,  a division of Accusoft, to make workflow automation simple and accessible for HR professionals. Connect Steve Wilson