A Slam Dunk: How HR Automation Is a Win-Win for HROs and Their Clients
With the NCAA basketball tournaments approaching, we have automatic on the mind. After all, any team that wins their conference gets an automatic bid.
In everyday life, it’s easy to forget about automation.
That’s because it follows us just about everywhere we go these days, so it’s not surprising that we might occasionally take it for granted even if it makes our lives easier.
House getting too cold for your liking? The thermostat tracks our comfort preferences and automatically kicks in to warm things up. Driving up to a stop light in the middle of the night? The light automatically changes to green if there are no other cars on the road.
Some automation changes initially catch our attention for their “novelty,” but then become fully integrated into our lives.
For instance, remember the first time you saw a robotic vacuum cleaner? It probably turned your head as you turned the corner. Now, you probably turn a blind eye.
How about a robotic delivery machine, which is becoming more common on college campuses in particular where pizzas aren’t going to eat themselves? At first, you probably watched the device ambling down the sidewalk, but now you just ignore it and let it keep rambling on by.
If you live in a state like California or Arizona, how about the first time a driverless vehicle pulled up next to your car at a red light? At first, you probably did a double-take thinking “What happened to the driver?” Now, you just ignore it and keep on chewing your Doublemint gum as you wait for the light to change.
Then and Now
The point is you might have oohed and ahhed about these automation advances then, but you probably don’t even remember those first occurrences now because those automations are so much a part of your everyday life.
Automation isn’t a new concept by any means. People have been looking for ways to make people’s lives easier and more productive since the days of early mankind when someone found a wheel can make things a lot easier to move stuff, but things really picked up during the First Industrial Revolution, which started in the late 18th century. That’s when steam-powered innovation and automation entered agriculture, industry and many other areas.
Today we find ourselves firmly planted in the Fourth Industrial Revolution, which is based on digitization driven by data, connectivity and analytics that empower people and processes to be more efficient and make better decisions.
Let’s put a pin it that, and we’ll return to it shortly.
Automation in Unexpected Places
Today, automation can be found in just about every industry. Still, there are some somewhat surprising technologies out there disrupting even some of the oldest industries.
Aquaculture: There are some new technologies that promise to enhance the counting, sizing and tracking of aquatic organisms. Other tech is designed to help fish farms recycle water more efficiently while minimizing water consumption and pollution. We can’t say if the tech works swimmingly but just imagine if that automation could scale.
Barbecuing: Tech ’cue might not sound too surprising, but when you see things like a “grill” that cooks food vertically—at 1,600°F—with a touchscreen where you can input what you’re cooking and your preferred temperature for the cook on the food item, it might make your mouth water a little.
Pet Monitoring: Miss your pet while you’re away? Of course you do, but probably not as much as they miss you. At least one company offers a product that is designed to automatically notify you when your dog is barking. It even gives you the option of “tossing” your bestie a treat from the device either to reward them, comfort them or spoil them. Don’t worry, cat owners, there’s a version for you, too. Hey, we wouldn’t spin a yarn!
Automation in HR Technology
As you’re discussing your tech capabilities with your clients and prospects, keep in mind that all the great tech at your fingertips becomes an automatic conversation-starter, including:
- HR Administration: PrismHR HR Administration software enhances accuracy and consistency with a single employee file that helps eliminate inconsistencies and data duplications. When a record is changed, the employee’s file is automatically updated to save time as well.
- Onboarding: Under the PrismHR Onboarding solution, job applicant information feeds directly into the Onboarding solution so data from the applicant is automatically converted to new hire to help streamline the onboarding process, which has traditionally been a time-consuming endeavor for businesses.
- Report Center: There’s no better way to create dashboards and gather key HR-related information than PrismHR’s Report Center. Through the Data Warehouse, you and your clients can get information quickly through data visualization that generates automatic insights for better business decisions.
- Workforce Management: The PrismHR Workforce Management solution includes a powerful Recommendation Engine to alleviate scheduling stress on employees and managers alike. It also offers Auto-Scheduling to make scheduling easier and more efficient, and Swap and Drop, which helps automate the employee shift-taking/shift-declining process.
And Just for You …
How about some extra automation to help you power up your business?
- Customer Relationship Management: PrismHR’s ClientSpace is a powerful CRM tool that can help you accelerate the sales cycle and automate complex pricing structures. The system allows you to manage client cases, assign tasks and automate workflows while increasing collaboration throughout your organization.
- Data Bridge: Getting HR-related data to third parties in a secure environment is essential. PrismHR’s Data Bridge automatically extracts, transforms, validates and securely transfers enrollment data to carriers and providers.
The Fourth Industrial Revolution is all about using data for efficiency and making better business decisions. That’s automatically a win-win for you and your clients.
In fact, it’s a slam dunk.