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The Myths and Truths of HR Process Automation

Written by Matthew de Klerk | 2 Sep, 2022

When it comes to Automation and bots in the world of work, there's a lot of fake news out there. In this blog, we'll address some of the biggest myths and misconceptions about automation, and shed some light on the often more complex truth behind them. 

Myth: Automation will replace humans and endanger job security.

Truth: RPA and other forms of HR Process Automation are not intelligent.

Automation cannot perform like a human worker. It cannot make executive or creative decisions, and it's no substitute for the complexity and potential of a thinking human. Automation simply takes over hours-long, repetitive tasks thereby freeing up staff for the jobs that this bot cannot do – jobs which are often far more critical to long-term business objectives (such as hiring, nurturing sales prospects, or improving operations at a macro scale). More importantly, automation in general it acts as a force multiplier, allowing a set number of staff to become far more productive and focused in other non-data/non-repetitive tasks, rather than reduce the number of staff needed to do a finite amount of work.

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Myth: Implementing automation takes a long time and a lot of effort.​

Truth: The timescales and effort required for automation are not necessarily overwhelming.

Depending on the size and scope of the processes you’re looking to automate, there are countless low- or no-code options, pre-built automation solutions, and off-the-shelf packages that can automate your most critical breakpoints & tasks in just days of development, with no downtime, very little business disruption, and no need for dedicated development personnel.

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Myth: Automation is expensive and can’t be done on a shoestring.​

Truth: Low- and no-code approaches to targeted automation are very achievable, even on tight budgets. 

In reality, there are countless low-code, no-code, and other automation solutions that can be rolled out strategically to successfully automate critical HR and business processes at an acceptable budget. In our own expertise in the last 20 years of automation expertise, we've seen clients achieve significant value from automating just one or two small but critical work processes. What’s more, the ROI of RPA and other automation tools typically gives returns in even the short to medium term, cutting costs & reducing your overheads in the short-term for long-term gains.

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Myth: If you want automation to be effective, you need to automate most of your work and organisation.

Truth: There’s no need to automate everything all at once.

Very often, automating a handful of small critical processes gives as significant ROI and organizational benefits as large-budget, cross-department Digital Transformation megaprojects, with none of the cost or organisation-wide disruption. Complexity for the sake of complexity can make business worse, so when planning your automation strategy you need to be as strategic and process-focused as you can.

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Myth: Automation is very difficult to plan, deploy, and implement.

Truth: These days, anyone can build automation tools, even without coding experience.

The modern no-code movement means that anyone can build automation solutions, and the wide range of specialist organisations in the automation industry means that it is relatively easy to find someone who has extensive experience and success building solutions just like the one you’re after.

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Myth: Automation requires multiple tools and tech stacks.

Truth: You can automate hundreds of simple tasks and bottlenecks with a single tool.

While many automation solutions employ multiple tools and technologies to bring additional functionally, power, and features to the automation solution, many of the most successful automation projects are as simple as preprogramme bots built in a single technology like Power Automate, which is just one part of the incredibly potent Microsoft Power Platform suite. Additional technologies are nice to have, but they’re by no means mandatory for the central automation functions.

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Myth: Automation needs dedicated developers and IT staff supporting a brand-new IT system.

Truth: Third-party vendors and support teams can deliver one-off, robust systems and long-term support without a total infrastructure overhaul.

Cloud-native platforms, low- and no-code automation, and highly specialised third-party development organisations and support services mean that you can quite easily build and host even highly complex automation solutions without the massive costs of hiring new IT staff or building new IT infrastructure.

 

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