Automation delivers an incredible number of business benefits. Sales, marketing, logistics, and production departments use it, so why not introduce it in HR as well? People are the driving force of an organization, while human-resource management is a complex and vital part of a company, comprising many processes and tasks that can be optimized successfully. Automation in HR: why is it needed?
Working in HR (Human Resources) means being responsible for employee well-being and satisfaction, recruiting new people, and keeping motivation high. These tasks matter enormously to the entire business: without people, there is no company, even the most highly automated one. HR professionals perform many tasks manually. Human-resource departments are generally not among the leading areas when it comes to
prioritizing process automation.
Customer acquisition, sales, logistics, and finance teams tend to come first, as opportunities to implement automation and
RPA (Robotic Process Automation), and their direct business benefits, are easiest to see there. Why, then, is HR process optimization needed? As noted above, HR professionals manage an enterprise’s human resources. Is that all, or is that an enormous responsibility? HR’s work is often not immediately visible, but it is critically important. Employees who are unmotivated or dissatisfied with company conditions will simply leave, causing substantial losses. Recruitment, onboarding, and training cost an organization far more than calculating a pay rise or bonus or introducing new benefits. HR staff cannot devote 100% of their effort to motivating and supporting people if they must enter, re-enter, and archive data; screen CVs; answer recruitment emails; report and analyze; calculate payroll; and manage leave requests and other documents—and these are only some of their daily duties. What is truly at stake is the company’s reputation among employees and candidates, which directly affects work quality and willingness to recommend it as an employer. Some people will always claim automation is a bad idea, probably because they fear change and job losses.
Such skeptics require a different approach and hard evidence that robotization will help rather than hinder them.
How does automation affect recruitment?
Recruitment is a complex, multistage process:
- Collecting internal requirements and preparing a suitable offer
- Searching for candidates
- Screening submitted CVs
- Contacting candidates
- An interview and optional stages, such as a practical assignment
- Making the selection decision and providing candidates with feedback
Recruitment more often than not takes a long time—weeks or even months. Automating some processes at the organization to which a candidate applies is therefore important because candidates value their time. Virtual recruitment assistants can provide application forms that support initial screening and immediately reject unsuitable CVs, or publish a new vacancy on multiple portals with a few clicks. Such an assistant—in other words, a robot—can also generate recruitment-performance reports and extract key data from numerous applications, emails, and CVs, substantially streamlining the recruiter’s work. Automation accelerates decisions, so when a company urgently needs the right specialist, RPA offers benefits to everyone: the business engages a new employee sooner, and the employee finds the desired job sooner. Shorter response times and automation of the first reply to an application email help create a positive, professional impression. No candidate will rate a recruitment process highly if it continues indefinitely and nobody ultimately receives feedback. Recruitment within 48 or 72 hours and interview feedback within 24 hours are now promoted and are received very positively, even by unsuccessful applicants. The experience leaves a good memory of the company that may matter months or years later if the same person again seeks a place in their preferred organization.
Implementing automation in human-resource management
Implementing HR automation after recruitment is the next step: the employee has been hired and starts work. Next comes
onboarding, introducing the person to their new environment, duties, and company culture. The first weeks and months are crucial for making the best possible impression. New hires value clear guidelines and specific information about what they must do and know to settle into work quickly and effectively. Assigning a
buddy as direct support is excellent practice, but new employees should also receive automatically a preferably interactive list of training, online-calendar meetings, and items to complete. An integrated, robotized process can send company information and materials at the right time, supporting newcomers and guiding them smoothly through their first weeks. What comes next? Automatic goal setting and a transparent development path in a dedicated internal system can provide excellent support and make every employee feel cared for. Knowing one’s position and what is required for a promotion or larger pay rise remains an invaluable motivator even after several years. Add automatic reminders and generation of documents and applications relating to medical examinations, new training, sick leave, and holidays; overtime calculation; business-trip settlement; and bonuses awarded according to clear system criteria. HR staff’s work becomes far simpler and less prone to error than if everything were performed manually. This directly improves satisfaction for everyone because automation strongly affects how other employees operate. If I want five days’ leave, I select them in the system and my leader clicks “approve”; HR receives a ready, electronically approved request entered into the system automatically. The same applies to electronic sick leave, where the system also recalculates salary at month-end.
Companies’ successes with HR process automation
Our
Mindbox inspiration catalog describes
use cases showing measurable benefits of robotizing and automating business processes, including HR (select Area -> HR). One of the most beneficial HR
use cases, especially in IT, is
working-time reporting. It makes it much easier to calculate workloads in a company operating on two tracks: employees either have a project and tasks for a specific client or are on the
bench, meaning they have no project, generate no revenue, and await assignment. For this model to be profitable, utilization must be forecast and calculated regularly to determine whether the company is making or losing money in a given month and whether it needs new projects, more leads, or, unfortunately, a review of headcount. Doing this manually is almost impossible and carries an enormous risk of errors. Another example is
generating employment documents. Hiring formalities are minimized because a robot creates every required document, including an employment contract and bank-account declaration, within seconds. Robots can also retrieve
electronic sick-leave certificates, enter them into the internal system, and submit any sickness-benefit application. A human checks the data, although another robot can perform that check too; the employee need not carry out the tasks personally, only supervise them. One IT company has repeatedly recorded a recruitment NPS of 80 to 100 points, with satisfaction surveys sent to every candidate, including those not selected. Satisfaction with the process has positive effects visible in ratings and referrals: CVs arrive even when there are no vacancies. A larger candidate pool lets the company match people to client projects with greater confidence, helping maintain high client satisfaction. We can say with certainty that
automation is not stopping; it is advancing. In 2022 and 2023, we observed the hyperautomation trend and a substantial rise in the popularity of AI applications and systems. This is unlikely to change and will probably accelerate. To remain competitive, enterprises of every type and size must take their first or subsequent steps toward complete digital transformation, and automation is indispensable. At Mindbox, we understand that beginnings can be complicated, so consulting an experienced specialist is best.
If you are looking for opportunities to implement automation in your HR department, we will be pleased to help. 
