The progressive development of technology – including artificial intelligence – and the greater availability of advanced IT systems dedicated to HR processes encourage companies to automate and thus improve the efficiency of recruitment and human resource management. How to automate HR processes? How does artificial intelligence change and improve the operation of HR departments?
Typical tasks of HR departments
Human Resource (HR) departments often go unappreciated, with their roles reduced to recruitment. However, they are vital pillars of any company, as organizations rely on their people, competencies, and potential. Skillful HR management is crucial for an organization’s success. Without a competent HR team, implementing a successful strategy is nearly impossible.
The Broad Scope of HR Responsibilities
While HR departments do spend a lot of time searching for suitable candidates, conducting interviews, and managing the recruitment process, their responsibilities stretch far beyond that. They are tasked with building the organization’s image as an attractive employer (Employer Branding), motivating employees, creating and rolling out training and onboarding policies, shaping the work culture, identifying key employees, and providing business recommendations.
Soft HR: Shaping Organizational Culture
The tasks mentioned above fall under soft HR, which focuses on creating a positive work environment and fostering employee development. This includes strategies for effective motivation, developing a strong organizational culture, and ensuring that the right people are in the right roles.
Hard HR: Handling Logistics and Compliance
Hard HR involves more logistical and compliance-related tasks, such as preparing contracts, calculating salaries, managing holiday entitlements, resolving disputes, and ensuring that all personnel policies comply with current laws. These tasks are essential for the smooth operation of any organization.
How to Automate HR Processes: Repetitive Tasks
Many tasks in the field of human resource management undoubtedly require experience, appropriate competencies, and a thorough understanding of the current and future needs of the company. Thus there is no way to automate them fully. New technologies and artificial intelligence, however, can be perfect wherever there are repetitive and routine tasks that can be relatively easily “translated” into rules that are easy to understand for a robot or an algorithm. What specific tasks are we talking about?
Automate Document Flow
An excellent example would be the automation of document flow. HR departments in large organizations process huge numbers of contracts, forms, and applications every day – we are talking about recruitment and payroll documents. Analyzing these and then transferring them to the company’s IT systems not only takes a lot of time but also carries the risk of human error.
By automating document flow, companies can improve efficiency, generate measurable savings, and effectively mitigate risks.
Use Autoresponders
Autoresponders are also commonly used solutions which automate the work of HR departments. We are, of course, talking about automatically sent emails at various stages of the recruitment process – confirming the reception of applications, informing about the next steps, or thanking for participation in the process. Solutions which automate the selection of candidates for specific positions are less common, but this is likely to change in the near future.
Learning Management Systems (LMS)
A Learning Management System platform is, beyond question, another important tool automating HR work. LMS in your HR department allows you to effectively automate processes related to onboarding new employees and increasing the competencies of current ones. It is also a way to efficiently conduct compulsory training sessions (e.g. health and safety courses), monitor the level of training completion, identify competency gaps in the company, as well as conduct various surveys among employees.
Thanks to automatic training allocation rules, each new employee is automatically assigned an appropriate set of courses and even reminded to retake them after a specified period of time (e.g. after a year). Consequently, on-boarding processes will be much shorter and more effective.
How To Automate HR Processes With AI
Modern technologies increasingly influence the functioning of companies and permanently change the way they operate. This revolution also affects HR departments, where artificial intelligence (AI) is already widely used today. AI’s ability to streamline processes and enhance efficiency makes it an invaluable asset for HR professionals.
Candidate Selection Automation
Artificial intelligence is used to select candidates for particular positions. Modern tools effectively scan advertisement content, search for specific keywords in the company’s CV databases, and identify the most suitable candidates. Such solutions can operate on a much larger scale, looking for candidates in both company resources and external sources like LinkedIn. They can also analyze reference letters and materials from potential candidates on social media.
Use Case: Enhancing Recruitment Efficiency
A multinational corporation used AI to scan thousands of resumes and LinkedIn profiles to fill a highly specialized engineering position. By setting specific keyword criteria and leveraging AI’s data processing capabilities, the company identified top candidates from a global talent pool within days, significantly reducing the time-to-hire and ensuring they found the best fit for the role.
Document Flow Automation with OCR
OCR (Optical Character Recognition) technology is another example of AI use in HR. This technology reads the content of scanned files (e.g., ID cards or passports) and automatically inputs personal data into corporate HR and payroll systems. This automation saves employees time and minimizes the risk of errors.
Use Case: Streamlining Employee Onboarding
A large retail chain implemented OCR technology to handle the onboarding process for seasonal workers. By scanning and automatically entering data from documents like IDs and tax forms, the company sped up the onboarding process, enabling new hires to start their roles faster and with fewer administrative errors.
How to automate HR processes: Chatbots in HR
Chatbots are a slightly different but equally interesting example of AI in HR. HR departments receive daily repetitive questions about benefits, remuneration policies, holidays, labor law, etc. Many companies, especially those with large workforces, are implementing chatbots to handle these inquiries. Chatbots free up HR resources, allowing the department to focus on more critical and less automatable processes.
Use Case: Improving Employee Support
A tech company deployed a chatbot to manage HR-related queries. Employees could quickly get answers to questions about vacation policies, benefits, and payroll without waiting for an HR representative. The chatbot not only improved response times but also allowed HR staff to dedicate more time to strategic initiatives like employee engagement and development programs.
Benefits of AI in HR
Artificial intelligence in HR offers several advantages:
- Efficiency – AI tools operate on a large scale and speed up processes.
- Accuracy – Automation minimizes the risk of errors.
- Resource Allocation – Chatbots handle repetitive queries, allowing HR staff to focus on strategic tasks.
- Scalability – AI can search for candidates from both internal and external sources, enhancing recruitment efforts.
Use Case: Comprehensive Training Management
A healthcare organization used an AI-driven Learning Management System to automate training for its staff. The LMS assigned mandatory training modules, tracked completion rates, and identified competency gaps. This system ensured that all employees remained compliant with industry regulations and continuously improved their skills.
What changes can employees of HR departments expect?
On the one hand, process automation in HR is an opportunity to improve work efficiency significantly, and on the other hand, to reduce the risk of human error, which is highly probable in monotonous tasks requiring extreme precision.
No one should be surprised that the constantly evolving technology and modern IT systems, designed with HR departments in mind, may cause concern among specialists in recruitment and human resource management. Are their fears justified? It’s undeniable that, since automation frees resources, it creates room for redundancy, but this happens relatively rarely. Most often, a technological revolution in a company leads to a change in the current nature of the HR department’s work.
Not Using Automation Yet? Time to start!
Tedious and repetitive tasks are essential but time-consuming. Performing these tasks manually often takes away from more creative activities. Automating such tasks can positively shape HR duties, making their work more creative, demanding, and satisfying.
Humans will remain crucial in decision-making processes for a long time, especially in recruitment, training, and motivation strategies. The human factor is hard to replace in recruitment and assessment. While computers and IT systems will increasingly assist with these tasks, they cannot completely replace the human touch.
How to automate HR processes as soon as possible? Implementing advanced solutions like Samelane LMS can streamline HR processes, allowing employees to focus on more strategic and fulfilling work.
