More companies see value in automating HR efforts

Professionals in the HR department invariably have a lot on their plates. Whether they're processing new documentation, managing or organizing timesheets, onboarding new employees and more, they're constantly pulled in a number of different directions.

As such, more companies are now automating various aspects of the HR professional's job in a way that takes a lot of tasks off their plates and allows them to better focus on other aspects of their work, according to HR Dive. Using AI and other technology – including automated workflows – HR professionals may find hours every week they previously didn't have available, providing significant added value for both themselves and other employees, as well as the company as a whole.

Growing demand
When companies shift more of the menial day-to-day tasks off HR professionals and start relying more heavily on automation and document management platforms to deal with employee records, their other skills will become more important, the report said. In this way, automation may actually create more demand for HR workers, rather than taking jobs away.

Understand the need
Of course, every business has its own unique situations to deal with – whether they're related to personnel or budgetary issues – so HR automation may not be on everyone's radar, according to CustomerThink. However, when companies sit down and evaluate how much time their HR pros devote to things other than their core functions of helping existing talent develop, the need for adoption often becomes more obvious.

Some telltale signs that things are piling up behind the scenes include when HR pros may take a day or more to get to all but the most important email messages, or if there are regular delays in getting just about any project off the ground, according to the report.

When more can be done to identify these issues, and realize they're not unavoidable, companies can put themselves in a position to improve their HR processes.