Since many companies have recently had to record considerable losses in turnover, the topic of cost optimization is once again becoming increasingly important. In order to save costs, there are various possibilities. Striking measures here are, for example, the reduction of employees’ working hours, dismissals or the stop of new hires. Another approach is process optimization, which can sometimes also counteract the dismissal of employees. The use of modern technologies can be extremely helpful in this respect and lead to significant cost savings if they are implemented and used correctly. Human Resource Management is one of the concrete starting points that are very well suited for the implementation of such technologies due to various repetitive and rule-based processes.
Gartner, a consulting and market research firm, confirms that HR leaders are focusing their current efforts on more effective use of technology and on reprioritizing and downsizing HR services and processes. I would now like to show you how HR processes can be optimized with the use of modern technologies.
Repetitive routine work as an opportunity for process optimization
If you take a closer look at a company’s HR department, you can often see that HR employees are frequently occupied with routine work and have very little time to deal with applicants and employees in a truly comprehensive manner. So although these routine tasks are important, they take away the time of HR professionals for other essential and very valuable activities such as humanistic, strategic and innovation-oriented activities. These include talent development, retention and policy implementation.
According to Ernst and Young, 93% of time spent by HR professionals is spent on repetitive tasks. An impressive 65% of rule-based HR processes have the potential to be automated.
This literally cries out for the use of software robots or Robotic Process Automation (RPA) for HR processes that are repetitive, rule-based, error-prone and time-sensitive. HR departments can be promised that processing costs can be reduced and the quality and efficiency of individual processes can be increased.
Automation of the application process with RPA and AI-OCR
Many of these processes with great optimization potential are rather document-heavy. In addition to the evaluation of software robot initiatives and technologies, another technology comes into play here – OCR. With OCR (Optical Character Recognition), you can read out text contained in documents and prepare it for further processing.
Talent Sourcing
The screening of CVs and the pre-selection of candidates is a particularly time-consuming task. A single new hire costs a recruiter on average about 3 days. Thus, the personnel selection process is one of those processes that has the above-mentioned characteristics and is therefore ideally suited for automation.
So, call for the implementation of suitable technologies. With OCR software such as the one from Parashift, for example, you can carry out batch processing after the application dossiers have been received, thus classifying all documents and extracting relevant data, which you can then use as the basis for matching them with your job requirements using RPA software. Once compared, you can calculate similarity scores or other metrics to assist you in the selection process.
Automating the screening process saves recruiters a lot of time and tedious work. This also has positive consequences for the applicant. The shorter processing time means that the applicant can be notified earlier, which gives a positive impression. The automatic comparison with the job requirements also ensures the best fit for the job, based only on qualifications. Subjectivity no longer becomes a problem. But from certain perspectives, we do not want to fool ourselves, this can also be judged rather negatively. Because it tends to prevent the possibility of “growing into the job”.
Document Management
Even after successful talent sourcing and hiring, modern technologies such as OCR and document management systems (DMS) help to optimize relevant work processes in human resources management and generate significant added value for employees and employers.
Prime examples of such processes include target agreements and performance appraisals, salary discussions as well as commission agreements, contract adjustments, sick leave or vacation, training and further education initiatives and others. If you have a seamlessly integrated setup, where your DMS system is equipped with advanced extraction technology, you can make any interface where such documents flow more autonomous and therefore more efficient. This way, not only can you create a flawless digital personnel file that is always up-to-date, but you can also create a centralized collection point for documents that come in by mail, internal delivery, email or other channels, increasing your response time, security and privacy by minimizing human interaction and controlling it through authentication and monitoring.
By implementing these technologies, your organization can therefore take an important step towards automation, adapt to change and regain valuable capacity in HR that can be attributed to the actual important tasks in HR, ultimately helping to hire better talent and retain and develop good employees.
If you would like to optimize your application processes in HR yourself and thus reduce processing times, costs and error-proneness, please contact us. We will be happy to support you in the process of identifying potential starting points and subsequently developing suitable solution designs.
