Business Transformation: By automating everyday processes, modern HR can focus on people rather than processes and deliver a strategic, high-value service that simplifies interactions and elevates the individual experience.
HR is a people business, whether it’s helping employees with simple tasks or more complicated challenges. It involves hiring well and nurturing the best talent, providing career guidance, or developing and implementing learning initiatives. HR professionals care about establishing one-on-one relationships and are committed to helping employees and creating exceptional places for them to work.
So why do so many HR professionals fail to focus on the activities that genuinely attract them to HR? Ironically, trying to resolve all problems and issues individually makes it more difficult for HR professionals to do their job effectively. The problem is that too much time is spent “keeping the lights on”.
A study sponsored by ServiceNow’s State of Work reveals the extent to which productivity is drained within HR:
- Managers spend 15 hours – or two days – a week on administrative work;
- Five departments or more are involved on an employee’s first day on the job;
- It usually takes ten or more interactions to prepare for an employee’s first day on the job;
- 80% use tools like email or spreadsheets or face-to-face visits for routine work.
How To Change This Framework And Manage To Make Each Employee Feel Unique
Unlike other functions within a company, the HR department has a single customer. Every employee, from the CEO to a first-time intern, is a “consumer” of HR services. In a large organization, this could mean tens of thousands of employees, and everyone expects to be treated as an individual. Think how easy it is to buy products online or search for information on
Google Employees now expect the same experience in the workplace. They want instant access to HR services and information about training, benefits, policies and payroll anytime, with one click.
Due to its position at the heart of an organization, HR has the opportunity to become a true enabler of business transformation. As Peter Cheese, Executive Director of the Chartered Institute for Personnel and Development (CIPD), recently noted in a blog about the CIPD community: “HR has always sat in a unique place compared to other functions. It touches everyone in an organization and needs to collaborate closely and be part of management, as well as supporting and understanding the broader workforce.”
To unlock HR’s potential, teams need to recapture the two weekdays that are needlessly lost to endless, mundane tasks. Automating service management can play a vital role in the transition from management to strategy, giving HR professionals the freedom to focus on people, not processes. This is the perfect mix of administrative assistant and project manager, instantly responding to employee requests. Automating repetitive manual processes and managing complex cross-departmental activities, such as onboarding, is the way to conquer that weekly lost time. Service management never forgets or makes mistakes and always keeps up.
Automation Is The Solution
Automating is a leap in the way of managing. This measure allows employees to meet basic HR needs with a flexible and intuitive portal. It will enable them to find HR information and request service when and where they need it, just like the modern world offers thousands of services, from entertainment delivery: to human interaction.
This self-service approach gives employees 24/7 access to HR services from a desktop or mobile device, offering the same simplicity they find when banking online or ordering a taxi. Employees can see the status of their orders, which is constantly updated like the service management system. Instead of employee requests coming to HR through multiple channels, a portal becomes a one-stop shop that responds, automatically routes and tracks recommendations. The result? HR teams begin to focus their time and energy on high-value activities. It’s time for HR professionals to challenge existing processes and lead workplace transformations with a strategic approach that moves the business forward.
Also Read: The Advantages Of Server Less Technology