Technology has been and will always influence the success of every business. Over the years, technology has and still improves external and internal communication, the efficiency of daily operations, and the security of the business—ingredients that can catapult a business to its long-term success.
But because the human resource focuses on people, there has been a lot of debate on whether businesses should automate their human resource management. Should you solely depend on technology for your human resources management? Or should you stick to traditional practices?
If you’re wondering which route to take, this article can help. Listed below are the pros and cons of automating your human resource management.
Table of Contents
Pros
The advantages brought by automating human resource management is one of the reasons why businesses spend resources in newer technologies. Continue reading the section below to know what these advantages are.
- Increased Productivity
Human resource involves many repetitive tasks, namely calculating payrolls, verifying timesheets, and checking leaves. Manually doing these tasks every day requires a lot of time and effort from your staff and prevents them from accomplishing significant business goals.
Increased productivity is one of the biggest benefits you can experience when you automate your human resource management. By using HR software and other related tools, your staff will only have to input data once and search for data whenever needed using the same platform. This can help them save time from manually creating and checking data necessary for payrolls and timesheets.
- Reduced Errors
Aside from being time-consuming, manually working with data is also prone to mistakes or errors. The more people involved in the process, the more at risk the data is for inaccuracies.
Your data will be at a lesser risk for errors when you automate human resource management. As mentioned, automation will require lesser manual labor from your staff. Additionally, it protects your data from errors often committed by staff who overlook numbers or are too tired to input information.
- Data Confidentiality And Security
The HR department deals with sensitive and confidential information every day, which is why security should be prioritized. For example, details about a sexual harassment case involving employees should be kept confidential as this can put the business in a bad light when exposed to the public.
Data security is something you can get when you automate your human resource management. Automation tools can be set to ensure that it only provides access to authorized individuals in the business. This can give you peace of mind knowing that HR-related reports and information are secured and can only be viewed by limited personnel.
Additionally, automating your human resource management can help protect your data from losses caused by fires or computer failures. With automation, you can back up crucial data to various cloud storage services and still access it even emergencies arise.
Cons
While automating human resource management might seem like a good solution, it also comes with drawbacks. It’s important to identify what these drawbacks are to help you determine if automating your existing HR processes is the best way to go.
- Requires Training
The key to maximizing automation is having the proper knowledge on how to use such tools. Investing in HR software and other HR-related apps will be useless if none of your staff knows how to navigate or use them fully.
One of the biggest drawbacks of automating human resource management is the training it requires. This means that you need to invest time and money to train your staff on how to leverage technology in their HR functions. This can be very time-consuming and expensive, especially for small or new businesses.
- Might Dehumanize Processes
Human resource is a people-centric practice. HR staff should interact face-to-face with an applicant to assess if they’re a fit for the position and the company culture. It’s also crucial for the HR staff to conduct face-to-face interviews to evaluate if the applicant’s body language matches their answers.
Automating human resource management can curtail human interactions, preventing HR staff from assessing the attitude of an applicant towards the job they’re applying for. This will also prevent HR staff from connecting with the applicant on a more personal level.
- Down Time
Automating human resource management will require the use of computers and software systems. These platforms are prone to technical difficulties, which can result in downtime.
When there is a power interruption in your area, HR staff won’t be able to access and use these automation tools. An HR staff won’t be able to update employee information or schedule interviews when there’s no power. Moreover, they can’t produce reports if apps and tools are unavailable due to technical difficulties or system updates.
Experiencing downtime can significantly hurt your business as this can bring the entire HR operations to a halt. This can create many detrimental effects on your business, especially if you’re in dire need of hiring another staff or if you’re about to make crucial business decisions.
Think Long-Term
Automating human resource management has its drawbacks, but the benefits outweigh the time and money your business will spend on introducing automation tools. Aside from improving the operations of your HR department, automation can significantly help your business stand out from the competition and stay relevant in the industry.
