Automation can make cents

In today's turbulent times, reducing costs and improving customer service is the mantra for corporate survival. CEOs and business units expect HR functions to be more streamlined and strategic.

Many HR managers, baffled by challenges, will wonder, "How to deliver better services for less money."

I'd like to highlight how this can be easily achieved through automation and its benefits.

1. Capture vital staff information: Many organisations do not have correct staff data. Hence, the first step is to have a personnel records dossier, which allows you to maintain employee data. This data will allow HR managers to know their workforce better and plan efficiency strategies.

2. Automate routine administrative work: HR is admin heavy. Most of the time is spent doing routine administrative work and answering staff queries. Key admin processes should be automated with core modules such as attendance, payroll, leave, expenses and benefits. This will allow HR to focus on strategies.

3. Let staff serve themselves: The best service is self service. HR should strive to introduce self services for key modules. Enabling staff to update their own personal information, view pay slips, view benefits policies, request leave and training dramatically reduces the burden of requests, inquiries and paper work. This can be easily achieved by using workflows of most current HR systems. This is also good practice and cuts overheads by removing dependence on HR executives.

4. Empower and develop the workforce: Deploying advanced HR modules such as learning management, training, recruitment and performance management will allow HR to capture data on key development aspects.

5. Implement HR analytics: Having a core HR system is the first step. Using it to run your HR analytics provides you with much insight to deal with employee situations.

Implementation of automation will allow HR to transform from being operational and admin heavy to being streamlined and strategic. Key benefits of HR automation are:

1. Speeding up customer service: One of the most important benefits is improvement of customer service and allowing business units to be more efficient. For medium to large enterprises benefits of quick service can be significant and results in the improvement of employee satisfaction will show returns immediately.

2. Improving service quality: Automation and self service brings significant improvement in quality and professionalism shown in dealing with a staff situation. Standardisation is key to achieving quality services.

3. Reducing operational HR costs: Automation is one of the best ways to achieve savings. Employee and manager self service provides the fastest return on investment in any enterprise automation project.

4. Making HR strategic: HR automation provides the opportunity to free up HR executives' time to work on developmental aspects, and increases the potential to act as a formulator and contributor to strategy. The final HR goal should be to achieve workforce excellence.

- Sanjiv Anand is the Managing Director and Chetan Parekh is an Associate Director with Cedar Management Consulting International.