The reality of Human Resources (HR) is that a significant amount of time is spent on tasks that take HR staff and managers away from the human element of the workplace. HR managers spend 14 hours a week manually performing tasks that could be automated. That’s nearly a third of their work week that could be spent connecting with staff and the organization.
McKinsey estimates that with today’s technology, 56% of all tasks and processes in HR could be automated. Digital workers play a key role in this automation, relieving human workers of much of the burden associated with data-heavy, repetitive tasks.
What Are Digital Workers?
Digital workers, sometimes referred to as robotic process automation (RPA), are software bots that use artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning to perform tasks that are repetitive and rules-based.
Digital workers can be programmed to perform individual tasks or to perform a series of tasks to complete an entire process from end-to-end. While there is some human intervention required in the early stages of this programming, once done, digital workers can function independently.
- The advantages of automating tasks and processes with digital workers are many:
- Increased speed
- Lower costs
- Elimination of errors
- Easily scalable
- Increased productivity
- Improved compliance
- Increased focus on organizational strategy
- A more human-centric workplace
Most importantly, digital workers are not meant to replace human workers, a common fear that is unfounded. Instead, it is a tool. The goal behind the adoption of digital workers is to have them work alongside human staff to increase efficiency and productivity.
Tasks Digital Workers Can Perform for HR
HR is an incredibly task-oriented discipline within an organization. As such, there are many different tasks digital workers can perform, such as:
- Identifying and pulling required information from a variety of documents
- Creating job descriptions and correspondence
- Comparing candidate applications with job requirements
- Generating employee IDs and setting up user accounts
- Performing data categorization and cleansing
- Collecting, integrating and syncing data from multiple systems
- Turning unstructured data into structured, usable data
- Verifying information and tracking attendance
These various tasks are foundational to many processes within HR. As such, they can have a significant impact on how quickly, accurately and efficiently these processes are carried out.
Use Cases for Digital Workers in HR
There are many different uses for digital workers in HR. It is a technology that can be used to automate tasks along every point of the HR journey, from hiring to employee exit. Here are examples of use cases for digital workers in HR.
Recruiting and Hiring
The process of recruiting and hiring can be extremely time-consuming and labor-intensive. Candidates for a job must be sourced and screened. Those who are the most desirable must then be nurtured on a deep level.
Engaging with these candidates and interviewing them is the most important part of the process. However, this direct connection can suffer when there are so many repetitive tasks to be performed during the hiring process.
Digital workers can take over many of the tasks associated with recruiting and hiring. Not only does the use of digital workers save time and money, it also increases the accuracy of finding candidates that match the job description and reduces the inevitable human bias that often makes its way into the hiring process.
Employee Onboarding
When a new employee is hired, there are many tasks that need to be completed to get that employee into the system and ensure they have the access, training and tools they need to do their job. This requires collecting data from multiple systems to create a new employee ID, user access, an IT setup, and more.
Performing these tasks manually to ensure a new employee is set up with everything they need to get started is very time-consuming. It also takes away time HR can spend face-to-face with new hires. Digital workers can carry a significant portion of the load through the automation of:
- Sending the onboarding documents
- Collecting information
- Assigning an employee ID
- Setting up the proper access rights for applications
- Creating a new email address
- Requisitioning IT equipment
- Scheduling training
Managing Employee Data
Employee data refers to all data an organization has for prospective, new, existing, and former employees, as well as for contractors. This data is all highly sensitive and must be properly managed to ensure it is accurate, protected and properly disposed of when it is no longer needed.
Managing all this employee data is a massive job that requires countless hours entering, updating and maintaining the data. Digital workers can take over the majority of the tasks related to managing employee data, including reading, copying, syncing and cleansing the data as required.
Other specific ways digital workers can be used in HR include:
- Assisting employees who are transitioning within the organization
- Keeping track of certification renewals
- Managing employee offboarding
- Tracking attendance and time worked
- Generating reports based on employee surveys
- Streamlining payroll
- Managing travel and expenses
Implementing Digital Workers in HR
When implementing digital workers in HR, it is important to follow a set of best practices that will help ensure success. This requires the following:
Establish a shared services model that has all HR actions and information residing in a centralized location for easy access.
Start with just a few select processes that are the best candidates for automation and increase your level of automation in stages.
Ensure you have the full support of the organization’s leadership every step of the way.
Establish realistic expectations, the desired outcome and ROI goals at the beginning.
Provide all HR staff, leadership and stakeholders with adequate training on the capabilities of the digital workers in use.
Discover How Automation Can Transform HR
HR departments are the lifeblood of an organization. It’s time for companies to embrace the technology at their disposal so HR staff can shift their focus from tasks to people.
Ampliforce has years of automation experience and is backed by a team of experts that can help you develop an end-to-end solution for your HR needs, without the need for third-party integrations. We ensure your custom solution meets your unique needs, and we offer full training and support.
Call us today and learn how automation can streamline your HR processes.