12 Processes that You Can Automate to Boost Your HR Efforts

Even though human resources is all about people, its processes can heavily benefit from automation.

Not only can automation improve efficiency and plummet human error but it can also create a healthy workplace where people are spending significantly more time on the work that matters most and much less time on repetitive tasks.

And if there’s a department at your company that should have a healthy culture, human resources needs to be at the top of the list. After all, it’s their job to oversee the culture at your company.

That’s why we put together this list of 12 common processes that you can automate.

From hiring to onboarding to benefits to promotions to offboarding, read on to learn how to boost your HR efforts today.

Expediting the hiring process

1. Invite candidates to the next round of an interview or send them a rejection email

Facilitating the interview process, especially for multiple roles, can hog a lot of your time and energy.

For instance, putting together an email for each candidate who has either moved onto the next round of the interview process or has been rejected is a lengthy, multi-step process. Not only do you have to write every single email but you also have to create a bunch of Calendly and Zoom links.

Fortunately, with this Airtable base, you can complete this entire process with one click of a button.

Simply select whether you want to move on to the next step or not with the candidate. Make will then create a Calendly and Zoom link and email them to the candidates moving on, inviting them to the next round.

At the same time, Make will send a rejection email to the candidates who weren’t selected.

2. Create a Google Drive folder link and email it to a candidate so they can upload their completed assessment

Asking candidates to complete an assessment during the interview process is a standard yet crucial part of the hiring process.

Once you get a feel for your candidates’ background, fit, and soft skills, you need to evaluate their hard skills and see if they’re actually worth their salt.

However, manually creating a Google Drive folder for each of your applicants, writing a personalized email to them, and then sending it to them is tedious and time-consuming.

Fortunately, with the tools ClickUp, Airtable, Google Drive, and Gmail and Make to stitch them all together, you can automate the entire process.

In the scenario below, all you have to do is update a task in ClickUp that has the candidate’s email address, such as “Send John Doe assessment”.

Then, Make will automatically scan the following Airtable base for the same email address, create a shared Google Drive folder between your company and the candidate, and email it to them.

Nice, and easy.

3. Extend an offer letter or send a rejection email after your final round of interviews is conducted

After you conduct the final round of interviews for a role, you can extend an offer letter or send a rejection email with just one click of a button. 

When Make sees that you have selected “accepted” in the “final status” column in the Airtable base (the same that was used in the first HR process on this list), it will automatically create the offer letter in Pandadoc and send it to the candidate.

If you have selected “rejected” in the “final status” column, then it will send the candidate a rejection email and add them to a Mailchimp list so you can keep in touch with them and send them new job opportunities in the future.

Kicking off the onboarding process

1. Get the ball rolling with onboarding after a candidate sends you their signed offer letter

Once a candidate accepts your offer, there’s a lot of work to do to integrate them into the company.

You have to create a profile for them in your HR software, request login credentials for them from IT, and then send them a calendar invite to see when they can begin training.

Just because there’s a lot of work to do, though, doesn’t mean it has to take up a bunch of time.

In the scenario below, Make will scan the Airtable base used in the first and third HR processes to see if the “Signed contract received” box has been ticked.

If so, it will automatically:

• Create an employee in BambooHR

• Create an IT service ticket in Freshdesk that requests login credentials for them

• Email a Calendly link to the employee so they can book a time for training

App integrations are the ultimate time savers, aren’t they?

2. Add new employees to an internal email list

Internal newsletters keep your employees posted on the big-picture strategy of your company.

But manually adding each new employee to your company’s internal email list can be a mess of a process.

However, you can avoid this hassle with the scenario below.

Every time an employee is added to BambooHR, Make will automatically add them to your internal email list in Mailchimp. Simple as that!

Making sure everyone feels heard when it comes to their employee benefits

1. Collect employee benefit requests

If you want your company to be employee-centric, then you need to make sure people are heard, especially when it comes to their benefits and how valued they feel at work.

However, asking your employees to email their benefit requests to HR is a surefire way to let a bunch of them slip through the cracks and make your employees feel overlooked.

With the scenario below, though, you can ensure that this will never happen at your company.

After you set up a Typeform that your employees can submit their benefit requests through, Make will automatically copy their requests into this Airtable base.

Then, a Slack message is sent to the person who is in charge of handling benefit requests.

The result? Not a single person will ever pass by unnoticed.

2. Approve or decline employee benefit requests

When it’s time to review your employee benefit requests, the scenario below will allow you to approve or decline them and then notify the requester about their status with only a few clicks of your mouse.

Forget about fruitless back-and-forths between employees and HR teams that only bring frustration and delays.

Using the same Airtable base as the previous scenarios, select “Approved” or “Declined” under the “Request status” field.

If you have approved the request, then you need to select the email address of the person who will attend to the request, and Make will automatically email them about getting the ball rolling.

If you have declined the request, Make will automatically email the employee that requested the benefit and notify them about its status.

A straightforward solution for a problem that never ceases to bother your HR department.

3. Capture time-off requests and send Slack messages about them to managers

Fielding and addressing time-off requests should be at the top of any manager’s list. People don’t live to work. They work to live. And as a result, they need to recharge.

However, most HR platforms only notify managers about their employees’ time-off requests through email, which for a manager, is one of the worst ways to get their attention. Email inboxes are crowded enough!

With the scenario below, time-off requests can cut right through the noise.

Whenever a time-off request is submitted through BambooHR, Make will automatically copy them to a Google Sheet.

Then, it will send a Slack message about the time-off request to the employees’ manager.

This will save you from having three different parties (HR, managers, employees) playing telephone for something that can be easily taken care of.

Streamlining promotions

4. Inform HR about an employee’s promotion or department change

It’s crucial for HR to keep track of every promotion or lateral move that happens at the company. To stay on top of these changes, consider using the scenario below.

After you set up a Typeform for managers to submit employee promotions or department changes, Make will automatically copy the information into an Airtable base for safekeeping.

Then, it will create a task in the project management software ClickUp and assign it to the most relevant member of the HR team.

Lastly, Make will send a Slack message to them so they don’t miss it. Transparency and record-keeping are important, and more so when you can automate them!

5. Email finance to update an employee’s salary

Whenever someone gets promoted, they feel just as much excitement about the change in their job title and responsibilities as they do with their raise in pay.

Don’t take away the feeling of getting their first paycheck in their new role!

In the scenario below, you can ensure that your newly promoted employee’s salary will be updated as soon as possible.

In the same ClickUp task that was created in the previous scenario, all you have to do is update its status.

Then, Make will automatically email finance about updating the employee’s salary.

Completing the offboarding process on time

1. Send a Calendly invite to conduct an exit interview with an employee who has resigned

Exit interviews are an effective way to pinpoint your company’s blind spots and learn how to improve the treatment of your employees.

After all, if you want to hire the best employees and retain them, then you need to know why your current employees are leaving the company.

Using the scenario below, you can automatically send exit interview invites to your employees who are resigning.

Just use this Airtable base to type in their information. If you tick off the field, “Send exit interview invite”, for a specific employee, then Make will automatically create a Calendly link and email it to them.

Granted, not everyone will answer, but those who do will provide you with valuable feedback!

2. Email IT to remove an employee’s access to your systems after they resign

Once your employee’s exit interview ends and they have officially left your company, it’s critical to remove their access to your systems immediately.

With the scenario below, you can complete this task with one click of your mouse.

Use the Airtable base from the previous scenario to tick off the field, “Remove all access”, and Make will automatically send an email to the IT department that asks them to do so.

Taking the busy work out of human resources

From the hiring process all the way to the offboarding process, these 12 automated solutions can help your team automate the manual, tedious tasks in almost every facet of your work as HR professionals and maximize your efficiency and productivity. 

And in a department that has so many moving parts, automation is the key to streamlining your processes and transforming your team into a well-oiled machine. 

If you’d like to get started with HR process automation, sign up for a free account today!