Top 5 Ways for HR Departments to Use Workflow Automation

HR departments are an integral part of maintaining effective, efficient teams within an organization. Their tasks are critical for success: recruiting, onboarding and offboarding employees, training and professional development, payroll processing, and vacation tracking, among many other responsibilities.?

A Gartner survey from early 2024 revealed that 38% of HR leaders were actively engaging AI automation in their departments—from the planning stages to pilot programs or active implementation. If you’re not yet considering AI automation, or if you’re in the early stages of planning, this blog uncovers the top ways that workflow automation can make your HR team more successful.

1. Improve Candidate Screening and Recruiting

HR offices at large organizations can find themselves flooded with job applications from hundreds of candidates each time a role is posted. Instead of allocating hours upon hours of recruiters’ time to sifting through endless applications, imagine if you could automate the screening process. An AI automation platform can compare applicant skills and qualifications against the criteria required for the open position, allowing HR teams to focus on more strategic tasks that require human input, such as assessing cultural fit.

2. Enhance New Employees’ Onboarding

It’s imperative to make a good first impression during the onboarding process for new employees. It sets the tone for expectations in their role and how they can progress. HR departments can use automated workflows to improve the employee experience from day one. An example of an onboarding workflow might include a welcome email with an onboarding kit,? training materials, mandatory HR forms, and other beneficial information. From there, the supervising manager would get notified to set up their introductory meeting, and a peer from the team could be assigned as a mentor. Meanwhile, IT setup will be initiated to streamline access to systems, all without HR lifting a finger.

3. Streamline Benefits Management and Payroll Processing

Every human activity is subject to human error, but few have a direct financial impact for employees in the same was as payroll processing. Setting up AI automation processes for payroll helps minimize human error, so employees are paid accurately and on time, every time. Kognitos can pull information from multiple sources to integrate timesheets, salary adjustments, and bonus calculations—all in a single workflow. Rather than spending time addressing clerical errors, HR can focus on more strategic activities like compensation structure and strategy.

4. Simplify Employee Data Management

Maintaining accuracy of employee data is an arduous task for human resources teams when it’s a manual process. But when it’s automated, HR personnel can be confident that employee records are accurate, up-to-date, and accessible at any point. When employees update their contact information in one system of record, for example, it could trigger an automated workflow to update their contact information in every database within the organization without manual intervention. This saves a lot of time for HR and eliminates the chance of human error during data entry.

5. Optimize Feedback and Employee Offboarding?

When an employee leaves the organization for any reason, it’s important for HR departments to efficiently collect their feedback. An AI automation workflow can send an exit survey upon resignation, followed by any other forms and notifications an employee needs prior to termination. When exit surveys are completed, the workflow can also aggregate data and analyze it for insights to help the HR team improve policies, training materials, and more.

The Impact of Automating Human Resources Processes

While HR automation doesn’t completely eliminate a human touch, it can drastically improve HR outcomes by freeing them from mundane, manual tasks so they can focus their efforts on the things that actually matter. Human resources personnel can engage their employees on a deeper, more human level when they aren’t bogged down by repetitive tasks.?

Kognitos can help transform your human resources function with HR automation. For more information or a personalized demo , reach out to a member of our team today. These top five use cases are a great way for HR departments to get started with automation, but the possibilities are endless.