The Future of ‘Human’ Resources with RPA and Intelligent Automation
Our UK & Ireland Sales Director, James Ewing recently wrote an article for HR Review discussing how HR departments can benefit from automating their most repetitive and time-consuming tasks in order to focus on more meaningful tasks. You can read the full article here: James Ewing: The Future of “human” resources.
In today’s dynamic and digital workplace, it is crucial that HR departments are able to support their organisation’s employees and operations by adapting to the requirements of the modern enterprise. This includes helping their business prepare for and onboard emerging technologies such as robotic process automation (RPA) and artificial intelligence (AI).
Making the Most of ‘Human’ Resources
A recent study of 1,000 HR professionals found that 72 per cent said a lack of automation hindered their organisations success. RPA has the potential to relieve HR employees from mundane, data-heavy and repetitive tasks, such as payroll, workflow administration and new employee onboarding, freeing them up to focus on the more meaningful, value-based tasks, enabling businesses to get the most out of their HR departments. However, in order to reap the rewards of automation in HR, there are a number of considerations businesses need to think of first.
Automating HR in Practice
The Södertälje Local Authority is a great case study of how automation can re-invent the way the HR department works for the better. The organisations hired Ragnhild the robot in their HR department to work on their payroll. The robot executes mundane, time-consuming jobs that deal with data in large volumes. Södertälje Local Authority’s employees said that because Ragnhild’s tasks are the same as that of other departments’, scaling up would be a smooth process.
They added that with the addition of Ragnhild to the HR department, personnel have been able to focus on the processes in HR that needed to be developed and therefore, did not feel threatened that Ragnhild might make their work redundant. The robot was able to work 24/7 and on multiple processes at a time.
Getting Over Cultural Resistance
One of the most prominent barriers to RPA adoption across businesses has been cultural resistance to change and HR is no different. People and organisations alike theorise that automation will eventually replace humans and put people out of work; however contrary to popular belief, this is not the case.
Getting HR departments onboard with automation initiatives early can help go a long way towards helping organisations get over this deeply rooted opinion. It is up to IT and management to work together to express the value of RPA to their organisation and clearly define how it fits into their overall digital strategy and transformation. Acclimatising HR to the benefits of RPA and intelligent automation early can enable them to play a pivotal role in this process; ensuring that employees are aware of how automation projects are making their lives easier.
Face tomorrow’s challenges with Digital Workforce by your side. Contact us to unravel the automation potential hiding in your organisation.