12 Best HR Workflow Automation Tools

Hiring and onboarding new staff is an extensive process. HR teams must collect and manage a variety of information from both candidates and internal stakeholders before, during, and after onboarding. Research shows that 88% of organizations still use manual processes for tasks like onboarding.

 Not only are these tasks time-consuming, but they can also create a disorganized and error-prone environment for both HR and new employees. HR workflow automation can alleviate the pains of manual onboarding processes and improve the experience for everyone involved. 

By automating workflows, organizations can streamline onboarding, eliminate unnecessary tasks and dependencies, reduce errors, and create a more organized process to enhance productivity and keep new employees happy. In this guide, we’ll explore HR workflow automation and AI workflow management in detail, share its benefits, and look at how to start automating your HR workflows. 

Table Of Contents

• What HR Workflows Can Be Automated

• Benefits of Automating HR Workflow

• 6 Tips for Automating HR Workflow

• 12 Best HR Workflow Automation Tools

• Supercharge Your Researching Ability With Otio — Try Otio for Free Today

What HR Workflows Can Be Automated

1. Streamlining Job Postings for Fast and Accurate Recruitment

Automated HR workflows can help your human resources department post job ads faster and more accurately. When an employee resigns or quits, the sooner they find a replacement, the better. Automated workflows can reduce the time it takes to post job ads and recruit your next hire. Part of this process is posting job openings on multiple online platforms. Instead of manually posting openings to various job boards, social media sites, and career pages, you can use automation software to do this quickly and accurately. This software can integrate with the websites of your choice so that you can automatically post your job ads, promote the ad on your social media pages, and target the most relevant job boards and applicants. This way, you can maximize exposure and have a bigger and better pool. Automated HR workflows such as these optimize your hiring process, which means you can run fewer hiring cycles and save on recruitment costs.

2. Automating Employee Onboarding and Offboarding

One of the most automated and complex HR workflows is employee onboarding. With a multi-step workflow, you can add an employee to your Human Resources Information System (HRIS), and an organization email account will be created automatically for them. The first few emails they receive will include the onboarding material. Consider it a starter pack for joining, including a welcome message, employee handbook, necessary company policies, and contact details for senior staff. 

The automaton software system can also collect e-signed forms, generate official documents, deliver devices to them without IT support, manage your employee data in one place, update it automatically, assign their onboarding schedule, send notifications to your new hires, set up payroll and benefits, and give them access to employee portals. The offboarding process all starts with an employee’s leave notice. 

The company can choose to retain the employee by counter-offering. Otherwise, the automated HR workflows will kickstart revoke access to portals and tools, schedule exit interviews, prepare exit documents regulating equipment returns with checklists of the requested items, update employee information, and send surveys to former employees to ask for feedback.

3. Automate Leave Requests and the Approval Process

Leave management is one of the best-automated HR workflows, as it prevents missing leave request emails and disrupting operations. For example, the automation software system can check an employee’s leave balance whilst abiding by the company policies to ensure a minimum available workforce for each department. Once done, it can automatically notify an employee’s manager for approval or rejection. 

4. Automating Leave Tracking

With the right automation software system, you can automatically record employee paid leaves for payroll circulation and classify them according to the type of leave, such as sick and maternity leave. Then, the platform calculates and updates your employees’ remaining paid time off. Additionally, it consolidates all this information for easy access.

5. Performance Review Processes Made Easy with Automation

Consider automated HR workflows for the performance review process. This can be done simply by creating custom performance review questions for employees and managers to fill out. Then, you can set the automation software system up to send the company-wide surveys on set dates, thus establishing a regular review cycle. After that, the analytics and statistics feature in the automation software system can supply you with the data necessary to establish or refine your HR strategies. Additionally, the program will store past performance reviews, enabling you to track employee progress easily. Accordingly, you can issue raises and bonuses, take disciplinary action, or terminate your employees’ agreements. Either way, the decision will be bias-free because the tracked employee performance data from your automated HR workflows gives you a great reference point.

6. Automating Employee Recognition Processes

Consider this: your managers and employees log into your employee recognition app to send a virtual clap to their employee or colleague for the effort they put into their latest team project. This form of employee recognition helps foster a positive company culture that every organization strives for. You can do so by implementing an automated reward system (ARS). This software rewards employees for their achievements and milestones based on defined criteria. Think bonuses, days off, public accolades, e-gift cards, and experiential gifts. An ARS integrates with the HR software you already have to track your employees’ performance, identify rewardable achievements, and issue a personalized reward. For instance, you can send employees gifts on their work anniversaries to promote company loyalty.

7. Reporting Expenses? No Problem with Automated HR Workflows

Reporting expenses can benefit from automated HR workflows, positively impacting your employees. These include employee wages, office expenses, legal and professional services, insurance and tax, and meals. When you digitalize the expense reporting process, your employees can upload documents within an employee self-service portal from their end. Then, the software will notify the relevant manager to approve or reject the expense. You can also use an integration platform to automatically create an account for new hires using the expense reporting software or app. 

8. Automating Payroll Inquiries for Better Accuracy

One of the automated HR workflows you need is payroll inquiries because there’s less room for error, and employees promptly get paid the correct amounts. You can outsource it or integrate your HR system with the payroll system. With such automated HR workflows, handling payroll inquiries about withholding amounts, time-offs, pay rates, and accumulation rates becomes a piece of cake. You can easily keep track of these payments, and the automation software system will withhold any necessary amounts for tax purposes. 

9. Tracking Time and Attendance Automatically

When you have automated HR workflows for time and attendance tracking, you avoid missing or delays in approving or rejecting a leave request via Slack or email. Instead, you get automated sheets with real-time updates. Even better, an automation software system with attendance tracking can benefit remote and hybrid teams, supporting team-wide visibility into who’s working at any given time. Employees can take their well-deserved time off without impacting business operations. 

A time-tracking automation software system also allows you to track how many hours your team has worked per week. To illustrate, you can log your employees’ work hours manually or automatically and track attendance and absence. Your HR personnel can benefit from the data and insights generated by these automated HR workflows. They can calculate the company’s absenteeism rate and notice alarming trends, such as when employees take too many or too few days off. With these insights, they can schedule meetings with such employees to discover the underlying cause. Then, they can take mitigating and actionable steps to optimize team productivity and labor costs.

10. Getting HR Documents Signed? Automate It!

As mentioned earlier, you can create automated HR workflows for signing forms. Using an automation software system makes onboarding less stressful for new hires and the HR team, requires little to no physical paperwork, and accommodates hybrid or remote working models. An automated software system can send new hires the relevant HR documents (such as employee handbook, offer letter, confidentiality agreements, and employment contracts) and request their digital signatures. Then, the platform automatically collects e-signed forms, generates HR documents in PDF format, and stores them automatically within your HR management system.

Benefits of Automating HR Workflow

Increased Efficiency and Productivity Across Departments

HR workflow automation enhances efficiency and productivity by replacing laborious manual tasks with short and straightforward automated processes. For instance, automating onboarding tasks allows HR teams to operate more quickly and focus on strategy instead of repetitive tasks, enabling other departments to become more efficient. For example, new hires can automatically be ordered and sent the necessary equipment or granted access to specific tools. 

According to a Workato survey, onboarding automations are particularly popular among HR professionals, especially identity and access provisioning-based automations. Manual onboarding, especially if you’re welcoming a team member from another country, can take days due to complex bureaucratic processes and documentation management. Still, onboarding can be completed in one day when automated through your HR software. 

Enhanced Consistency Across Multiple Locations 

For global teams, it’s critical to create consistent processes across different locations to provide an equitable employee experience and enable teams from other countries to collaborate efficiently. HR automations allow international teams to ensure that an employee from Nigeria or China follows the same process and has the same experience as the one in the US or Brazil. For example, you automate the process of approving leave requests. In that case, an employee doesn’t have to communicate back-and-forth with their manager until they agree on dates and handover of current projects. An automated process here saves time for both parties and facilitates asynchronous work.

Higher Accuracy and Reduced Errors 

Automated HR processes decrease the likelihood of human error, resulting in improved payroll processing, more accurate data to work with, and more. When you move away from paper-based procedures and automate, for example, collection of compliance documentation and tax calculations, you reduce the possibility of an HR employee misplacing a document, filing taxes incorrectly, miscalculating an employee’s compensation, and overlooking an employee’s leave request. More accurate processes also lead to higher employee happiness, given that salary delays or wage inaccuracies often cause dissatisfaction among workers and even lead to them looking for a new job after repeated mistakes.

Lower Human Resource Management Costs 

Automated HR processes help companies reduce labor costs due to the decreased need for manual work. According to SHRM, 16 of 21 standard HR processes, from recruitment to exit interviews, can be automated almost wholly. This means you can achieve more with fewer resources and a more significant headcount in your HR department. Automation also eliminates the need for manual data entry, reducing the risk of errors and enabling HR professionals to work more efficiently and avoid costly compliance issues. 

Automated systems track and manage employee data, contracts, work permits, and other compliance-related documents more accurately and efficiently, reducing the risk of penalties, legal disputes, and reputational damage resulting from non-compliance. Human resources automations helps your company stay fully compliant with employment laws and tax regulations no matter where you hire by ensuring you create locally compliant contracts, provide access to the correct employee benefits, fill out and submit documentation correctly, meet all the deadlines, and keep records organized as required. 

Incorrect worker classification, not meeting visa and immigration requirements, and data privacy violations are common non-compliance mistakes global teams often make, leading to serious legal issues. You’ve done great work mitigating non-compliance risks with automated documentation management and compliance processes.

Improved Employee Experience 

Overcomplicated processes and waiting too long to respond to an inquiry can harm employee experience. Using automation to streamline HR processes and enabling self-service options for employees can boost your overall employee engagement, satisfaction, and retention. HR process automation allows employees to update personal information, submit a leave request, see the organizational chart, retrieve or submit documentation, and access payslips. With automation, HR services can be accessed 24/7, regardless of employees' location or time zone, without the workers being limited by traditional office hours. Increased accessibility to HR resources fosters a sense of autonomy and enables employees to address their needs promptly, contributing to a more positive employee experience. 

Access to Data-Driven Insights 

When there’s a lack of data consolidation, HR managers need to base their decision-making on intuition, which isn’t reliable, or spend too much time collecting the necessary data from different sources. Automation allows the HR staff to gather, organize, and analyze data from various HR tools automatically, allowing the team to gain real-time insights into the workforce more quickly. These insights help identify workforce trends and potential areas of improvement, which can be particularly important for employee performance management. Some HR systems also allow you to create automated reports that you can easily share with the leadership team or team managers so that they can base their internal initiatives on this data as well.

Improved Data Security 

Storing and sharing confidential information online is always a risk, and the process becomes even more complex when a global, distributed team is involved. HR automations allow you to gain better control over who has access to which information and ensure compliance with data privacy laws in different regions, like GDPR in the EU. Keeping all documents and signatures in one secure place means better protection than keeping employee data scattered in multiple spreadsheets, where you have poor control over who accesses the files. Enabling SSO (single sign-on) is also a good data security measure because it lets you block access to all the connected tools and apps in the case of a breach, which is faster than blocking manually one by one.

A More Compelling Case in Front of Investors 

A global team with stable, consolidated processes that keep up with HR technology trends is more likely to gain investors' trust or get stakeholders’ approval for business decisions. Automating your HR workflows and working on making your business as efficient as possible proves your scalability and preparedness for future challenges, which helps build your case before any essential decision-makers. Automated processes contribute to a happier workforce, help optimize business expenses, mitigate compliance risks, and provide accessible data for the stakeholders, further supporting your case for the company’s growth, sustainability, and overall performance.

Boosted Internal Communication 

Automations support async communication, which is critical for distributed teams that operate across different time zones. HR management systems integrating communication tools are key since they enable automatic reminders and notifications and facilitate different processes, such as PTO scheduling or viewing the company’s organizational chart. An automated communication process usually means you have a single, centralized source of information. That allows global teams to access the latest updates and stay informed about organizational changes, fostering transparency and alignment across different locations. Self-service, AI-powered knowledge bases foster self-sufficiency and allow global team members to find answers independently, reducing dependence on direct communication for routine inquiries. They enable employees to access important information regardless of whether their team members are online, including FAQs, training materials, policies, and best practices.

Support for High-Level Planning 

HR processes are closely connected with other business operations. Once you automate HR functions, you’ll also facilitate high-level business workflows, making the entire organization more efficient in decision-making and strategy execution. By automating administration and reducing paperwork, you also decrease the time and effort required to complete any HR tasks, extending the efficiency to payroll, benefits administration, and talent management. Streamlined processes reduce delays, minimize errors, and enable employees to focus on higher-value activities. For example, automated HR reporting enables faster and more accurate data collection and analysis, which means any other department that relies on data from the HR department can access it sooner and complete their tasks faster. 

Faster Adapting to the Future of Work 

Gartner predicts that 70% of companies will implement process automation by 2025, which means automated HR is the future. The sooner you invest in proper tools to automate your HR operations, the more significant your competitive advantage will be. Automated workflows will enable you to prepare for the future of work and facilitate global hiring, which sustained its momentum throughout 2022 and is still on the rise. Once your knowledge and tools are in place, there are no bounds to what you can do and build to support your workforce. You will be able to unlock future programs, scale, and iterate alongside your business and hiring and other workforce strategies.

Knowledge workers, researchers, and students are overwhelmed by content overload and left to deal with it using fragmented, complex, and manual tooling. Otio solves this problem by providing researchers with one AI-native workspace. It helps them: 

1. Collect many data sources, from bookmarks, tweets, and extensive books to YouTube videos. 

2. Extract key takeaways with detailed AI-generated notes and source-grounded Q&A chat. 

3. Create draft outputs using the sources you’ve collected. Otio helps you to go from the reading list to the first draft faster. 

Along with this, Otio also enables you to write research papers/essays faster. Here are our top features that researchers love: AI-generated notes on all bookmarks (Youtube videos, PDFs, articles, etc.), Otio enables you to chat with individual links or entire knowledge bases, just like you chat with ChatGPT, as well as AI-assisted writing. Our tool has web scraping capabilities that allow you to access a wide range of data sources beyond traditional academic papers and search engines. This feature enables researchers to collect diverse information from sources like bookmarks, tweets, books, and YouTube videos, streamlining the process of curating and analyzing data for research purposes. Let Otio be your AI research and writing partner — try Otio for free today!

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6 Tips for Automating HR Workflow

1. Transform HR Workflow Automation With Otio  

Otio is here for you if you want HR workflow automation to be correct. Knowledge workers, researchers, and students are overwhelmed by content overload and left to deal with it using fragmented, complex, and manual tooling. Otio solves this problem by providing researchers with one AI-native workspace. It helps them: 

4. Collect many data sources, from bookmarks, tweets, and extensive books to YouTube videos. 

5. Extract key takeaways with detailed AI-generated notes and source-grounded Q&A chat. 

6. Create draft outputs using the sources you’ve collected. Otio helps you to go from the reading list to the first draft faster. 

Along with this, Otio also enables you to write research papers/essays faster. Here are our top features that researchers love: AI-generated notes on all bookmarks (Youtube videos, PDFs, articles, etc.), Otio enables you to chat with individual links or entire knowledge bases, just like you chat with ChatGPT, as well as AI-assisted writing. Our tool has web scraping capabilities that allow you to access a wide range of data sources beyond traditional academic papers and search engines. This feature enables researchers to collect diverse information from sources like bookmarks, tweets, books, and YouTube videos, streamlining the process of curating and analyzing data for research purposes. Let Otio be your AI research and writing partner — try Otio for free today!

2. Establish Clear Goals for HR Workflow Automation  

To kick off a successful HR workflow automation project, pinpoint your goals. Do you want to save time for your HR team, boost payroll efficiency, or accomplish other objectives within your organization? Document these HR-related aims to track progress effectively.  

3. Assess Current HR Tools and Processes  

Conduct an assessment of your HR team’s existing processes and tools. This step is crucial to understanding what aspects require automation and identifying inefficiencies.  

4. Develop a Strategy for Automating HR Workflows  

After identifying the inefficiencies and gaps in your current HR workflow, devise a strategy to automate these processes. Ensure that your team agrees with the proposed changes. It’s also essential to consider a change management plan to gain support from the broader organization for the new HR workflows.  

5. Implement the New HR Workflows  

The method of implementing your new HR workflows depends on your organization’s specific needs. To reduce disruption, consider a phased rollout, starting with a single process or specific HR function before extending to other areas.  

6. Regularly Review Progress  

Post-implementation review is critical. After your new HR workflows are in place, evaluate their effectiveness. Gather feedback from your HR team and the broader organization, and make necessary adjustments. This ongoing review ensures your HR automation strategy's continuous improvement and effectiveness.  

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12 Best HR Workflow Automation Tools

1. Otio: The AI Research Assistant for Academic Writing 

Knowledge workers, researchers, and students are overwhelmed by content overload and left to deal with it using fragmented, complex, and manual tooling. Otio solves this problem by providing researchers with one AI-native workspace. It helps them: 

1. Collect many data sources, from bookmarks, tweets, and extensive books to YouTube videos. 

2. Extract key takeaways with detailed AI-generated notes and source-grounded Q&A chat. 

3. Create draft outputs using the sources you’ve collected. Otio helps you to go from the reading list to the first draft faster. 

Along with this, Otio also enables you to write research papers/essays faster. Here are our top features that researchers love: AI-generated notes on all bookmarks (Youtube videos, PDFs, articles, etc.), Otio enables you to chat with individual links or entire knowledge bases, just like you chat with ChatGPT, as well as AI-assisted writing. Our tool has web scraping capabilities that allow you to access a wide range of data sources beyond traditional academic papers and search engines. This feature enables researchers to collect diverse information from sources like bookmarks, tweets, books, and YouTube videos, streamlining the process of curating and analyzing data for research purposes. Let Otio be your AI research and writing partner — try Otio for free today!

2. BambooHR: The All-in-One HR Management Software  

BambooHR is an all-in-one HR system that allows organizations to automate numerous HR processes. With BambooHR, you can track hours worked, manage benefits enrollment, and automatically run payroll, all from a single platform. These capabilities eliminate the need for manual data entry and approval processes across numerous HR tasks, freeing your HR team to focus more on other essential responsibilities. Key features Applicant tracking tools for a more efficient recruiting/hiring process Manager and employee self-service tools that make it easy for your employees to find the information they need Detailed reporting and analytics for tracking employee well-being, engagement, and satisfaction Helpful integrations with many other HR tools  

3. TalentLMS: The Learning Management System (LMS) for Employee Training and Development

Building a robust employee training and development program no longer requires manually consolidating individual classes and training materials. TalentLMS is a learning management software that helps you train and develop employees. Features include customizable training course design and gamification tools that encourage employee learning. You can also set up individual learning paths and assign course libraries to different groups of employees.  

4. Zenefits: The All-in-One HR Software for Benefits, Payroll, and More  

Zenefits is another all-in-one HR platform, but it is most widely used for its top-tier benefits administration, payroll, and talent management capabilities. In addition to its user-friendly and helpful self-service functionality for employees, Zenefits supports HR teams and company leadership, helping you find the best benefits packages for your business.  

5. EverythingBenefits: Benefits Administration Automation  

At any given time, benefits administration requires managing employee benefit elections, renewing and setting up new plans, working with carriers, and understanding the maze of compliance requirements. EverythingBenefits automates nearly every benefits administration process, from open enrollment activities to monthly invoice reconciliation and COBRA administration.  

6. Gusto: An Automated HR Platform for Small Businesses  

Gusto is a platform that provides HR automation tools for payroll and benefits administration, time and attendance tracking, and hiring/onboarding. For a more efficient hiring process, Gusto makes creating job postings and offer letters easy via customizable templates. From there, Gusto streamlines the onboarding process via custom onboarding checklists and the ability to integrate with applicant tracking software.  

7. Fuse Workforce Management  

When you’re responsible for a range of HR activities, having one tool to help you get it all done improves efficiency and enables you to deliver consolidated reporting. The Fuse Workforce Management platform unites time and attendance management, human resources management, and payroll into a complete human capital management (HCM) software solution. Powerful dashboards and reporting capabilities enable decision-making and planning, giving you a real-time view of your workforce.  

8. Lever: The Recruiting Software That Brings Humanity Back to Hiring  

Lever is a talent relationship management platform and applicant tracking software designed to optimize an organization's recruiting and hiring processes. Along with automating numerous recruiting and hiring tasks, Lever also serves as a centralized platform that organizes candidate information and makes it easy for your team to manage candidate interactions. This makes it easy for your company to begin building positive relationships with its new hires the moment the recruiting process begins.  

9. AllyO: Recruiting Automation for a Better Candidate Experience  

Recruiting automation helps you attract, assess, and select candidates so you can more effectively compete for talent. AllyO recruitment and chatbot software automates candidate scheduling, engagement, and surveys so you can deliver a positive candidate experience and make hires faster. It also includes a text recruiting module and an ATS rediscovery feature that allows you to revisit previous candidates and maintain a healthy talent pipeline.  

10. Culture Amp: Employee Engagement and Company Culture  

84% of employees who feel their company culture is positive are highly engaged — compared to just 22% of employees who don’t report a positive company culture. If you want to boost the employee experience at your company by establishing a better workplace culture, check out Culture Amp. With Culture Amp, you can access tools designed to help with employee engagement, satisfaction, and well-being. Culture Amp also allows organizations to scale their culture and values via goals/OKR tracking, templates for 1:1 meetings, tools for requesting and providing feedback, and a Skills Coach for helping managers improve their leadership skills.  

11. signNow: E-Signature Software for HR  

Whether hiring employees, enrolling them in benefits, or communicating new policies, you need employee signatures on various related forms. signNow offers e-signature automation for HR forms, employment contracts, and HR policy acknowledgments. Instead of sending forms back and forth over email, employees can use one cloud-based tool to sign and securely store sensitive HR forms and other documents.  

12. WorkBright: The Automated Remote Onboarding Platform  

After an employee accepts your offer, it’s essential to ensure each gets the benefit of effective onboarding. The WorkBright platform delivers fully remote onboarding, allowing you to manage new hire paperwork and employee file management from anywhere. Features include automatic reminders for key onboarding deliverables and mobile features for employee self-service.

Supercharge Your Researching Ability With Otio — Try Otio for Free Today

Knowledge workers, researchers, and students are overwhelmed by content overload and left to deal with it using fragmented, complex, and manual tooling. Otio solves this problem by providing researchers with one AI-native workspace. It helps them: 

1. Collect many data sources, from bookmarks, tweets, and extensive books to YouTube videos. 

2. Extract key takeaways with detailed AI-generated notes and source-grounded Q&A chat. 

3. Create draft outputs using the sources you’ve collected. Otio helps you to go from the reading list to the first draft faster. 

Along with this, Otio also enables you to write research papers/essays faster. Here are our top features that researchers love: AI-generated notes on all bookmarks (Youtube videos, PDFs, articles, etc.), Otio enables you to chat with individual links or entire knowledge bases, just like you chat with ChatGPT, as well as AI-assisted writing. Our tool has web scraping capabilities that allow you to access a wide range of data sources beyond traditional academic papers and search engines. This feature enables researchers to collect diverse information from sources like bookmarks, tweets, books, and YouTube videos, streamlining the process of curating and analyzing data for research purposes. Let Otio be your AI research and writing partner — try Otio for free today!

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