The University of New South Wales, Canberra defines administrative burden as an individual’s experience of a policy’s implementation as onerous. This can be simple things like application processes being unnecessarily long and difficult to complete, to more complicated things like a process having a significant negative emotional impact on a person because it requires them to relive traumatic events.
Those of you who have been in the HR or People Ops biz for more than a hot minute can likely attest that your daily administrative burdens certainly feel like reliving traumatic events, day in and day out.
But there’s good news on the horizon for all you manual-process-protagonists out there as organizations are starting to understand the importance of freeing HR leaders and their teams of the arduous tasks that today can be streamlined by tech or outsourced. More importantly, they’re starting to invest in the right solutions to liberate you from administrative madness while empowering your team to improve their level of service to your employee population.
What are some emerging HR industry trends & strategies?
As technology continues its unopposed and exponential rate of advancement, industry sectors that had previously been a silicon valley afterthought are finally starting to see the trickle-down benefits when it comes to administrative relief.
Automation and AI: When it comes to operational efficiencies there might not be two buzzier buzzwords than “automation” and “AI” right now. There are more and more HR departments across the globe leveraging both automation and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies to reduce manual administrative tasks. Data entry? See ya. Benefits administration? That can be automated too. Kiss carpal tunnel goodbye (note: we’re not doctors) and use automation to free up your time to focus on more strategic initiatives.
Examples: AI-powered recruitment tools, HR chatbots, Automated onboarding tools
Self-Service Portals: Self-service portals (like Rippling) allow you to free your time and your mind by empowering employees to manage their own HR-related tasks. These platforms make it easy for employees to be in charge of updating their own personal information, accessing pay stubs, requesting time off, enrolling in benefits, and accessing training resources when they need them. Self-service portals give HR leaders a window into all aspects of employee data, but removes the burden of having to track or manage it all. Give your employees the power to handle these tasks independently and save your team’s precious time and resources.
Cloud-Based HR Systems: The only things silos are good for are grains and migraines. There is no denying that the adoption of cloud-based HR systems has increased significantly recently as these systems offer centralized storage of employee data, making it easily accessible and reducing the need for dreaded manual paperwork. Cloud-based HR solutions also let you handle your biz HR remotely, enhancing your team’s flexibility and efficiency.
Outsourcing HR Functions: Outsourcing is far from an emerging trend, but it’s “what” can be outsourced that should have HR and People OPs leaders excited. Reducing administrative burdens by having experts outside your organization manage things like payroll processing, benefits administration, leave of absence management (hey, that’s us), and recruitment processes allows your team the freedom to focus less on file management and more on your people.
Examples: Leave of Absence management, Payroll management
Mobile HR Applications: While there’s always some hesitancy around downloading more apps on our phones, there are several benefits to leaning into HR solutions that offer a solid app experience. By giving employees the power to view pay stubs, request time off, take surveys and receive notifications, the employee experience improves dramatically while making life easier for HR leaders and your teams.
Examples: Top HR Apps
HR Analytics and Reporting: Every (high-functioning) organization wants to keep a pulse on the health and satisfaction of their employee population, but many rely on an HR department that isn’t equipped with the proper tools to do this easily. More orgs, however, are using tools to automate HR reports with real-time metrics and analytics, putting People Ops pros in a position to easily provide leadership with timely and accurate information on where the organization is doing well and where they can improve.
Free your time and the rest will follow
Staying on top of trends isn’t easy, and in many cases, it doesn’t seem all that fun because switching up “the way we do things” always seems like more work. But in today’s world it’s imperative that HR and People Ops teams stay on top of the latest strategies being implemented throughout departments across the country because the truth is making a change to the way you do things today can save you more money, keep you more compliant, make it easier to thrive in your position, and save you a ton of headaches by freeing you of administrative burdens.
About Tilt
Tilt is leading the charge in all things leave of absence management through easy-to-use tech and human touch. Since 2017, our proprietary platform and Empathy Warriors have been helping customers make leave not suck by eliminating administrative burdens, keeping companies compliant, and providing a truly positive and supportive leave of absence experience for their people.
