Robotic Process Automation in HR Management: Brief Overview

Robotic process automation is here to stay. It has effective solutions and high ROI. The integration of RPA in your HR software will increase the longevity and productivity of your organization.

What Is Robotic Process Automation?

Robotic Process Automation (RPA) uses software robots on a physical or virtual machine. It has a defined set of instructions for the robots or bots to follow.

RPA bots are capable of stimulating most human-computer interactions. These bots carry out thousands of tasks without a single error and at high volume and speed. Following are the three bot categories:

Pro bots: Follows simple and repetitive commands to process data.

Know bots: They collect and save information from the web.

Chatbots: They are like virtual agents to answer client questions in real-time.

RPA is like a humanless virtual workforce. They are capable of the following tasks:

Files and folders transfer.
Log on to any application.
Connect to systems application programming interface (API)
Copy-paste data.
Pull-out and process structured and semistructured content from documents, PDF, emails, and forms.
Read and write to databases.
Scrape data from the web.
Open emails, messages, and attachments.
Automated calculations.

Robotic Process Automation in HR Software

The 4th industrial revolution is reforming the industrial landscape. As technological innovations transform the world, the HR department should also embrace automation and other technological advancements. They are more efficient and cost-effective. RPA has endless possibilities in the HR processes. It can take care of onboarding and offboarding tasks, updating employee information, and other HR tasks.

The integration of RPA in HR related Software enables better service to the employees and managers. It ensures the HR processes comply with required regulations and standards.

RPA facilitates quick initiation and completion of the HR processes. Digitization of data and auditing the process data makes it more efficient.

Identify suitable HR processes for RPA.

It is very crucial to identify the HR processes that are suitable for RPA. The following four steps will help you to determine a suitable HR process for RPA:

Validate: The first step to identify the process suitable for RPA is to validate the HR processes that are mature and standardized.

Assess: The second step involves assessing the quality and quantity of work done by RPA compared to humans. Organizations can analyze RPA potential based on:

The amount of human interaction in the HR process.
Do you need software to execute the process?
If the activity clearly defines the business rule.

Evaluate:

The third step is to evaluate the RPA relevance in the HR process. RPA is perfect for high transaction volume tasks with low complexity. Transaction volume refers to the number of activities performed in a day. Complexity refers to the total time needed to complete the tasks.

Classify:

The last step is to classify suitable HR processes for RPA. The RPA approach should be highly relevant and potential for the HR process.

Potential of RPA in HR processes:

Best HR software will have integration of robotic process automation. Following four HR processes have a high relevance of RPA in them:

Talent acquisition:

High RPA potential in talent acquisition processes are

1. Publish job posting on the company portal and website:

Bots post all current openings with the job descriptions on all the platforms. It helps the HR department to be more visible and reach the right talent. RPAs also help to gauge a particular platform’s performance. It gives more priority to high input portals.

2. Candidate screening and schedule interviews:

Right candidate screening is a time-consuming process. The HR department gets a lot of resumes for job openings. The HR department can use robots to make the process less time-consuming.

Robots gather all the resumes and compare them with the job requirement. Predefined rules guide the overall selection process. It also stores potential CVs in the database. RPA technology has made all the process paperless.

3. Automated candidate notification and new hire process:

After candidate screening, selected candidates receive an interview schedule. Rejected candidates will receive rejection emails. RPA will inform the candidate of interview results.

4. Analyze, arrange, and generate new hire data:

Handling Data is a tedious job. RPA technology makes it easy to handle huge data. It reduces human errors. Bots perform the data cleansing at regular intervals to assure data compatibility across various databases.

5. Offer letter mailing:
RPA mails offer letters to all the selected candidates. It makes it paperless and informs the candidate with all the necessary information. Bots also email the rest of the documents that need to be filled by the candidates.

6. Data collation from different systems for onboarding:

RPA is capable of simplifying the onboarding process. It collects all the necessary information and updates it on all the systems. The HR department can gather the needed information from various platforms at the same time.

Performance management and talent development:

Processes with huge RPA potential in Performance management and talent development are:

Review performance and mail it to the employees and managers:
RPA helps the HR department to evaluate performance management. It helps to set up your goals. Performance reviews are automatically sent to the employees and their respective managers.
Data scrutiny:
When the robots handle the data it is essential to check the credibility. RPAs have a set of instructions that they follow to check the credibility of the data. All the performance reports go through scrutiny checks to avoid errors.
Schedule performance interviews:
The HR department needs to update the employee with their performance. RPAs schedule performance interviews with all the employees. It also helps to identify and share qualitative feedback on areas of improvement and strengths.
Circulate predefined performance reports with the managers:
RPA helps to define the goals to achieve. When the goals are predefined your team will be aware of what is to be achieved. The HR department can share these goals with managers across all verticals to achieve their respective goals.

Benefits and compensation:

High RPA potential in benefits and compensation processes include:

1. Automated update of payroll:

Manual handling of the payroll can increase the risk of errors. Online Payroll Software integrated with RPAs helps you to calculate accurate payroll according to the employee inputs.

2. Data feeding of payroll and other monetary rewards:

Finance is a very crucial part of any organization. It has direct and indirect legal obligations on the organization. All the financial transactions get stored on online payroll software to avoid discrepancies and loss of data.

3. Net and gross salary calculations:

The company budget is crucial to draft the net and gross salary of the employee. If it goes beyond the company budget the whole finance will go for a toss. RPA helps in the calculation of net and gross salary that aligns with the company budget.

4. Payslip distribution:

The salary shouldn’t be disclosed to a third party. Payslips have sensitive and personal employee information. Online payroll software updates and shares payslips with a particular employee for quick and easy access.

5. Deposition of Dues:

Deposit of additional dues like provident fund, retirement benefits, insurance, the tax deductions can be hectic. RPAs will help you to deposit all the necessary fund’s hassle-free.

6. Validation of time and attendance data:

The online Attendance Management System helps to calculate the exact hours spent by the employee in a given month. RPAs validate the data and calculate the payroll accordingly. It also informs the respective managers of the inconsistencies of a particular employee.

7. Inform employees on benefits through notifications:

Organizations provide benefits to an employee over and above their salary. Benefits are provided in various forms. RPAs notify the employees of the benefits they can avail of and utilize.

8. Utilized benefits analysis reports:

Used benefits reports are just a few clicks away. With the help of RPA technology, no one can utilize the same benefits twice.

9. Email notifications of recognition and reward nomination forms:

Rewards and recognition play a vital role to achieve more productivity and retain employees. All the employees get an automatic update of all the rewards and recognitions.

Employee relations:

Processes with high RPA potential in employee relations are:

1. Track employee grievance requests:
Employee grievance is vital to maintain a happy workforce. An employee management system integrated with RPA will help you to track employee grievance and to provide an appropriate solution to it.

2. Notification of process status and completion:
Once an employee raises a claim request it needs to be approved by various departments. All claims and compensation requests raised will be available to track on a single platform.

3. Take periodic employee surveys:
The workforce is like an engine for an organization. Employee surveys help to improve your work environment. RPAs take periodic surveys and implement a solution on an immediate basis.

4. Make reports for management action:
RPA will help to collect all the data and share it across the management team so that they can come up with a strategic plan to resolve any issue.

HR operations:

High RPA potential in HR operations include:

1. Exit requirement notification:

Ensuring a smooth exit process is the responsibility of the HR department. RPA helps to provide a smooth offboarding process. It takes care of generating exit documents, revokes system access, and calculates the full and final settlement of the employee. Robot process automation leaves no chance of errors.

2. Missing data and non-compliance notification:

Missing data and non-compliance are very severe issues. RPA also notifies the HR department of missing data and non-compliance. It helps them to fill up the gaps for efficient functioning.

3. Auto approval of Standard expense:

Organizations have various standard expenses to pay every month. RPA will approve all the standard expenses. Bots will only allow the instructions set by the concerned authority.

RPA Benefits in HR management:

1. Cost-effective:

Organizations can cut down on company costs in the HR department.

2. Internal control:

Organizations are in control of compliance checks and audit trails.

3. Payback period:

The integration of RPA in the HR system has a really short payback period. Organizations can achieve ROI in a year.

4. Capacity:

Organizations can increase the capacity according to business needs.

5. 365 days operations:

Robotic process automation is available for your service 24*7, all 365 days a year.

6. Speedy operational processes:

RPA makes sure the turnaround time (TAT) is less. It also increases the service speed.

7. Automation:

Automation takes care of all the tedious and repetitive tasks. It supports the effective use of your resources.

8. Improved quality:

RPA decreases human errors and allows resources to concentrate on expectations.

All in all :

Robot process automation has a broad scope for automation in the HR process. It has high potential and relevance in talent acquisition, performance management, talent development, payroll, employee relations, and hr operations. RPAs have longevity, are highly efficient, and are cost-effective. RPA is beneficial for all HR departments to grow exponentially and be more productive.