How much time does your HR team waste on tedious manual tasks? From managing the recruitment process to organizing onboarding, hiring managers have a lot on their plates.

With so many tasks to juggle, HR teams end up spending their valuable time on admin instead of nurturing their employees. So what’s the best way to improve employee experience whilst still keeping on top of the necessary HR activities?

That’s where the magic of HR automation comes in. With some simple workflows, hiring leaders can easily automate those time-consuming tasks and streamline processes.  

Research suggests automation can save workers up to six hours a week and an estimated $4 million dollars annually. Not only can companies save money that can be reinvested elsewhere, but they can also reallocate their time to meaningful activities.

This means putting the "human" back into "human resources" and giving employees the time and support they need to feel valued at your company. 

The importance of automation in HR

Whether managing a small locally based team of 50 or a globally distributed and remote team of thousands, HR leaders are often burdened with a multitude of tasks that can quickly become overwhelming.

HR automated solutions like FireStart can help take the hassle out of HR tasks:

• Keep track of daily tasks the HR team needs to complete.

• Have all employee information in one centralized place.

• Stay up to date with the rapidly changing workplace environment.

• Attract and retain top talent.

• Reduce employee churn.

• Get time back to spend on in-person activities.

• Save time by automating repetitive tasks.

• Find joy again in your daily role by reducing menial admin tasks.

• Reduce resource drain across departments.

With HR automation software, businesses can streamline manual processes and implement workflows that boost productivity and efficiency.

Let's start automating

By introducing clever new workflows, HR teams can automate repetitive tasks and free up time for meaningful activities that improve the employee experience.

Today’s savvy hiring managers are leveraging HR automation solutions like FireStart to put the "human" back into "human resources."

If you’re unsure of where to start with HR process automation, why not try out these cornerstone processes? 

HR onboarding for new employees

Automating your HR onboarding process can help reduce the resource drain on your internal HR team while also supporting them to work more collaboratively with other departments.

In fact, automation in HR onboarding is a great way to:

• Make new hires feel welcome in your company.

• Increasing employee engagement.

• Improve employee retention.

• Ease the recruiting process.

• Create a stronger workplace culture.

When a new member of staff joins the company, the employee onboarding process can be quite tedious whether that’s dealing with on-site or with remote staff.

Empower employees to easily transition into their new roles with FireStart's automated onboarding template that saves time. 

1. Easily source employee data

Gathering all the necessary data such as email addresses and social security numbers is essential so that every new hire can start on time.

Often, collecting employee data takes up hours of an HR manager's time, especially when long email chains are involved.

A complete employee data sourcing form can automate this previously manual task without laborious follow-ups.

The drag and drop form builder in FireStart makes it easy to design and customize the form for all the information your HR teams require.

The form can then be sent automatically to each new hire's inbox for streamlined communication.

When the employee returns the form, the HR manager can easily keep track of all the employee's responses and forward them to the relevant departments.

2. Set up IT accounts and equipment

Arranging IT equipment for a new starter can be a tedious, time-consuming task that is often delayed by because of the back and forth with IT.

Automation actually helps HR managers to get new joiners' equipment delivered to them even before their first day.

HR managers can ensure that all new starters get their equipment on day one by setting up an automatic task. FireStart sends the form to the new employee so they can request all the equipment they need, then the IT department receives the task to approve and collect the equipment.

Lastly, the new employee is notified via email to pick up their equipment on a certain date. You can even set up automatic notifications if the equipment is delayed to keep everybody in the loop.

With FireStart, it's easy to start putting remote working efforts into action by self-servicing the employee onboarding experience.

This way, you can collect all the information you need to easily onboard your next new hire without laborious email chains, pesky post-it notes, or annoying calendar reminders!

3. Introduce new employees to the company

A great way to encourage collaboration is to automatically update internal staff members when a new team member joins with an introductory internal newsletter. Send out an automated email to the new joiner to collect quotes, anecdotes, and pictures for the newsletter.

With FireStart's customizable forms, HR managers can drag and drop the correct fields in for the newsletter information needed by the marketing team.

Once set up, the form will instantly be sent out to every new joiner via email. In only a few moments, HR and marketing teams can work seamlessly together to ensure that every new employee feels welcomed.

4. Register new employees in minutes

It's important for any company to remain compliant when hiring new members of staff.

Employees must be registered with the appropriate government bodies before they can start their first day of work. Any incorrect details could mean delays or legal consequences for the business.

FireStart's customizable forms and automatic tasks make registering employees easy.

HR managers can utilize the data filled in previously by the employee, which is then automatically sent off to accounting.

FireStart moves the data through the forms in the process, meaning no more copy and paste errors for a seamless registration experience.

HR offboarding for departing employees

Employee offboarding is a sensitive process that has to be dealt with in the right way to benefit both the business and the departing employee.

Often the offboarding process is left to the last minute, or worse still not implemented, leading to knowledge transfer gaps, compromised security, or a negative last impression.

HR offboarding workflows make it easy to:

• Assist existing employees with their departure from the company and leave a positive last impression.

• Organize and prioritize the many alignments that come with offboarding and employee.

• Automate repetitive ad-hoc tasks.

• Keep track of all upcoming and completed tasks in one place.

1. Send out automatic exit notifications

When an employee decides to leave a company and informs HR, it can be a difficult process to navigate.

To squash rumors and ensure everyone in the company is on the same page, it's important to notify internal teams and stakeholders of the departure. With integrations, HR managers can send out quick notifications of an employee's departure as it arises.

Integrate FireStart with messaging platforms like Microsoft Teams or Slack and create custom messages to notify the company. The message will be sent out as soon as the process starts running, so HR teams don't have to worry about forgetting to update other employees amongst the other offboarding tasks on their to-do list.

2. Gather feedback before the exit interview

Before an employee leaves your company, it's important to gather feedback about their employment journey.

Knowing exactly why your talent is deciding to leave can help the business improve retention in the future, helping to conserve resources and create a better all-around company culture.

Sending out an instant exit survey can help HR managers gather all relevant feedback from exiting employees.

With the employee able to give feedback in a constructive way, departing employees are less likely to feel disgruntled and pose less of a risk to the business.

Before the exit interview, HR managers can send out a survey to gain some insight into the situation. More preparation means exit interviews can go smoothly, with all pieces of information on hand.

Whatsmore, employee feedback about their role and the nature of the business can help HR teams pinpoint where company culture can be improved, to avoid workplaces becoming toxic.

3. Finalize IT equipment returns on time

Returning all IT equipment before a departing employee leaves the company for good is essential. Businesses need to ensure that all equipment that is loaned out is accounted for to discourage possible cases of theft.

With a customizable form, FireStart makes it easy to keep track of who has returned their equipment, and which pieces are still outstanding.

In the offboarding workflow, HR managers can drag and drop in the fields they need to keep track of equipment returns.

The information inputted into the form is then sent out as an automatic email to the departing employee. This way, both parties have a checklist of everything that needs to be returned by their final working day.

4. Always remember to send out recommendation letters

Sending out recommendation letters to the departing employee is a nice way to keep the relationship mutual before the end of the contract.

While it is a nice touch, oftentimes sending a recommendation letter can be the very last item on the offboarding to-do list because it takes some time to coordinate with managers and other responsible people for input.

In FireStart, sending an automated recommendation letter is done automatically in the workflow, so HR teams don't have to remember to coordinate it. Simply set up your ideal form and automatically send it out to the relevant managers or supervisors.

A list of the employee's main tasks and feedback from the supervisor is sent straight to the HR manager's inbox, so now all they have to do is write the letter.

Once the letter is finalized, it can be sent straight to the employee via an automatic email before the last working day.

5. Deregister departing employees

Ensuring a smooth exit is even more imperative if you work with sensitive information.

Avoid risking digital vandalism, knowledge theft, and negative reputation by adding actions in the workflow to remove permissions from departing employees.

FireStart provides a customizable reregistration form in the offboarding workflow that makes it easy for HR professionals to securely deregister employees from payroll without taking hours of resources.

The form is pre-filled with existing data provided at the start of the process. All the HR manager has to do is check the information and send it off to payroll to ensure that all outstanding issues like unused holidays or overtime payment is taken care of.

HR teams can now rely on business process management tools that all departments can feed into to ensure exiting employees can complete their notice period seamlessly.

Start simplifying your HR processes

With process automation software from FireStart, it's never been easier for HR leaders to simplify their task management and implement intuitive workflows to boost productivity.

HR teams can avoid wasting their time on tedious admin tasks and instead give individual employees the dedicated time and support each one needs to feel empowered.

When HR departments are more efficient, employees benefit from better working experiences and the whole workforce can enjoy a more enriched company culture.