Process automation is the next frontier in the evolution of any business. This step gives organizations a grip on the most valuable resource of any business, which is time.
First thing first: automating routine tasks
One of the most routine processes in a company is a recruitment department operations. Before the interviews can take place, all incoming resumes need to be filtered, interviews need to be scheduled, invitations need to be sent out, etc, etc. These are the tasks beg to be automated, so that HR department can run efficiently and stay lean. Recent report from KPMG (Klynveld Peat Marwick Goerdeler) clearly demonstrates that all functional processes of personal management can be completely automated. Out of standard 21 responsibilities of the HR professional KPMG has determined that only 5 are less well suited to automation than others. Those are:
- Design and implementation of business processes.
- Personnel and business strategies
- Operational effectiveness
- Change management
- Team relationship building
Another recent study conducted by The Hackett Group clearly shows that majority of HR departments can effectively cut expenses by average of 17% and save time dedicated to routine tasks by 26% by proper automation of HR processes. This increases efficiency and increases service quality provided to the clients. And this principle very much applicable to the in-house HR departments as well. It is a shame, though, that it is currently not possible to automate the process of automation itself. In our past case study we talked about customizing HR module for Acumatica ERP to meet the needs of our client. In the 3 months of that project, our team was able to build and deploy a large system of automation for employee time tracking, cost calculation, billing clients, and other helpful optimizations. More on this study you can learn from this post. In this case, though, we’re covering one more extension that our team has developed that automates and streamlines the work of the HR Recruiter.
Automation, not over-automation
Here is the set of requirements that was identified by the client for this extension:
- Create always up-to-date database of candidates. It is indispensable to have detailed information on the date and results of each call, email and every interview. Such system of record provides a necessary basis to effectively plan for the follow up steps and gives talent a good impression of the interviewing organization.
- Quality control and effective training for HR personnel. Every candidate is added to the system at the point of initial contact and the system guides the interview process step by step from application to hire.
- Candidate profile automation. Unique and interesting approach was applied to the process of populating candidate profile within ATS Module. To Automate the process, a special sub-program (parser) was written to read through uploaded resume and automatically populate proper data fields in the candidates profile.
Short deadlines usually mean there is no time to waste!
To deliver the project in a single month a 3-member team of seasoned professionals was chosen: architect, developer, and tester. Because all members of the team worked previously on the customizations within HR module specifically, they were able to hit the ground running on the project. In the majority of our projects we utilize BDD ( Behavior Driven Development) approach. BDD is an agile process that encourages team members to closely collaborate and use concrete examples to build an understanding of how the application should function for the user. The architect converted all of the requirements into the use cases and carefully went through with the client over those, ensuring the correct understanding of end-user experience. Now that the team understood the exact needs of the client, a great deal of time can be saved by concentrating on coding the project as opposed to going back to the client to clarify the requirements. Developer codes the UI and functionality and QA executes the testing scenarios, all based on the same set of use cases. After taking the delivery of the module extension, the client was eiger to sit down with us and review other possible areas of the ERP that can be automated for his business. Subscribe to our feed on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter to read our new posts on this and other cases. And as always, if you have any questions or comments on this or other cases we publicise, drop us a line using the contact form below this post. We’re always excited to hear from you and gladly respond to your comments.