5 HR Automatization Trends We’ll Face This Decade

Samantha Clark is a Warrington College of Business graduate and she works for the professional accounting firm, ThePayStubs. She handles all client relations with top-tier partners and found her passion in writing articles on various finance and business-related topics.

The past ten years have been an essential catalyst in driving changes for employees and businesses. On top of that, since the global pandemic started, innovation and change became necessary for many verticals to survive. When it comes to Human Resources (HR), the global growth of remote work and technology-driven work has sparked important changes. 

Technology is again the primary focus for many organizations and teams of various profiles. Suddenly, all HR managers and employees had to work from home and use various tech solutions to transfer their work online. 

Sadly, these changes were necessary for many HR departments and companies to realize just how valuable new tech can be in their everyday tasks. Automation is the focal point of these tools, and with this in mind, here’s what we can expect in the future. 

5 HR Automation Trends: Changes You’ll See This Decade

1. RPA platforms will reign over other automation solutions

We’ll dive into the basics here for those who don’t know what RPA (Robotic Process Automation) platforms are and what their purpose is. 

RPA software manages software robots capable of doing automated work through interaction with digital systems and HR software. The core function of those platforms is the repetitive automation of rule-based tasks, which makes them invaluable for modern businesses.

RPA platforms are the next big thing in HR! According to Gartner, the RPA market is expected to grow steadily until 2024, despite the negative effect the pandemic has on the economy. 

The growth of RPA was steady in the last ten years, but it spiked in 2019. RPAs reached a revenue growth of almost 63%, and the growth trend continued through 2020 (11%). The final growth number in 2021 is expected to be around 19%.

The effect RPAs are going to have on HR is two-fold. First, they will help with data gathering and management as repetitive tasks get automated. Second, they will help HR adapt to the new automation paradigm and help them understand the new work landscape in which human employees work alongside AI to improve their capabilities. 

According to the 2019-2020 Sierra-Cedar HR Systems Survey, RPA application in HR grew around 50% compared to the previous year.

Even though there is a moderate fear of this new tech destroying jobs, it’s far more likely that it will just change how we approach HR. We’re still very far from having software that can assess talent and skill without human input. It’s just a new tool, so no need to worry.

2. Recruitment is the process with the most automation potential

Recruitment is one of the essential aspects of working in HR. The process isn’t terribly complicated, but it takes time, and it’s also very repetitive—perfect for automation, right? Well, we’re not quite there yet. 

According to Workato, we are currently automating only 6% of all recruitment tasks, but there’s significant growth in automation every year. Hiring teams lose the most time while scheduling interviews. 

Yes, this task is very straightforward when you are trying to schedule one person, but when there are many candidates, it can become a problem. Through automation, you remove the potential issues like overlapping interview dates and make the process smooth for the candidates.

In 2018, as many as 67% of HR agents interviewed by LinkedIn claimed that automation helps them save time. This number is expected to grow quickly as new ways of utilizing AI and automation make HR work easier and more precise.

3. The explosion of AI automation across all levels

HR’s tasks in the digital age are getting increasingly complex and demanding. With the digitalization of the business environment going into overdrive due to the pandemic, there’s even more pressure on HR departments to modernize fast. They need to provide an outstanding employee experience through recruitment, training, and onboarding.

Here are some ways AI can help with that: 

• Real-time data: Through automatic capturing and data processing, HR can anticipate inquiries and issues so they can have pre-made answers at the ready
• Personalized approach: Modern employees require constant access to HR resources with personalized information and schedules based on their needs and location 
• Empowered HR: Due to the automation of repetitive tasks, HR departments can do more work with fewer people and focus more on tasks that require a human touch
• 24/7 availability: We can now provide constant support through AI-powered chatbots without forcing HR agents to organize a 24-hour work schedule

Due to the switch to the cloud environment, we are facing an evolutionary period for HR. They will focus more on employee engagement strategies, productivity, performance, and wellness—all backed by concrete data that will be used in the decision-making process. 

According to the Global Human Capital Trends library, 38% of companies from 140 countries believe that AI and automation will be fully deployed in their organizations within the next five years. That’s an important fact to consider if you want to keep up with the best in the game.

4. Growth of automated analytics in HR 

We’ve already mentioned data-driven decisions and analytics in relation to HR but let’s take a closer look at the possibilities they open for modern departments. 

We can certainly take a look at the tech giant Google as the forerunner of many new approaches, including this one. Google used analytics to assess the leading indicators that outline a positive work environment. 

They also gathered performance ratings and employee feedback to compare them to productivity metrics within different leadership styles. They did this to determine the impact of different approaches on productivity and engagement. 

If we consider that we use analytics in website management, social media management, all kinds of ads, and many other aspects of digital business, we realize that data is just piling up, and the sooner we make it useful, the better. 

AI is going to be crucial for the next step. By using AI, we can separate data types, identify knowledge through the use of NLP, connect datasets, and more. As AI gets even more sophisticated, the amount of manpower we need to process large data dumps decreases, and the precision for it will only increase.

5. More companies will adopt payroll automation 

The 2018 Payroll Operations Survey offers us some interesting insight into payroll automation and its numbers in the US. When we look at US payroll operations across the board, in 2018, we had around 6% of companies using some form of payroll automation. The survey also shows that around 16% of those that don’t use payroll automation plan to start doing so in the future. 

There are several things that payroll automation can help with and why so many organizations are planning to make the switch. The first benefit of automation here must be the simplified data collection, as this is the most time-consuming aspect of the job. 

Furthermore, if your HRIS (Human Resources Information System) is connected to your global payroll, they would be using what we call an SSoT (single source of truth) within the same database. 

Data validation is also a factor when it comes to traditional payroll management. The HR department needed to cross-reference data in their spreadsheets and re-check payment info

before completing payments. AI can do this automatically, saving time and making the process more precise. We can also set automatic triggers to notify the HR department once a task is ready to be completed. 

The most prominent examples of this are pay stubs or payslips, which we can now automatically populate within the HRIS using a paystub generator and eliminate the tedious steps we needed to complete in the past.

Bonus: Free HR Templates

Conclusion 

We’re at a turning point where companies have finally started to invest seriously in new technologies and innovate their processes, including HR. The Covid-19 pandemic has pushed businesses over the tech tipping point, and now with the clearly defied benefits—there’s no stopping in the foreseeable future. 

The future of productivity and great talent acquisition rests in the hands of automation and AI specialists capable of moving HR into the 21st century. We’re ready for the next frontier, which is the perfect time to make the push. The pandemic shifted the way HR operates and the changes will become the standard for years to come.