Putting The Robot In “Human” Resources

We tend to think that HR is something that is done by, well, humans. The name kind of suggests as much. But the truth of the matter is that so much of what we think of as human resources is now readily carried out by our faithful robots friends, doing our bidding. Check out these HR processes you should automate, immediately.

Expense Claims

Before automation came along, keeping track of employee expenses was a seriously time-consuming endeavor. Whole departments were tasked with making their way through Excel spreadsheets, finding out who had claimed what and how much. What’s more, because everything was done by hand, human error soon crept in, and businesses made mistakes when filing for VAT which officials assumed were deliberate attempts to evade tax. Suffice to say, the whole thing was a disaster.

But all those manual calculations are coming to an end. HR software now exists that can scan individual receipts, process the information they contain using machine learning, and then automatically enter expense claims into whatever accounting software a company is using. A process that would have once taken many hours to complete can be done on the fly, with employees or admin staff simply taking pictures and the robots doing the rest automatically. In short, it’s a miracle.

Training Requests

Today’s modern employees expect a lot from their employers. They want to be trained throughout their stay so that they can move up the skill ladder and find a higher paid position. In the past, this would have required a lot of work on the part of an HR department, which would have had to allocate rooms for training, invite trainers and deliver courses.

Now, though, that type of training is increasingly being replaced by employees managing their own training through HR portals. Employees can often apply for training through the HR system and then once the training is complete, update their records themselves.

Offboarding

It can be a tricky time for HR department when an employee leaves the company. There’s all of the termination documents that must be signed, as well as the return of equipment, like laptops and keyfobs. Automating these tasks makes the process of offboarding a lot easier using document management systems as well as tracking company resources in their possession.

Timesheets

Timesheets have been an integral part of life in HR for many decades now. But they are also incredibly inefficient and inflexible. Calculating how many hours a person has worked using a piece of paper or an Excel spreadsheet is difficult. As a result, many companies are now turning to automated timesheet systems. These are updated when a worker clocks in and all the HR department needs to do is check them over before signing them off and making payments. This reduces the chance of making errors.

There’s also the added benefit that HR departments no longer have to update an employee’s personal record. All the data is stored in helpful tables, meaning that the time that they have worked can be easily accessed.