Looking for ways to save HR time? If you feel like your plate is overloaded with hiring, onboarding, performance review, employee training, and other essential HR tasks, the good news is you can get a break by applying these effective, time-saving methods.
Use a Time Tracking App
As an HR executive, it’s important to have the right tools to track time for all employees. For instance, using a time tracking app helps to reduce the number of internal processes in place. The best time tracking apps are equipped with features that help you create and manage schedules on the go.
Using a time tracking app also comes with other benefits. It boosts employee efficiency and enhances team workflow by highlighting time-consuming working processes that require improvement. In addition, time tracking ensures accuracy, helping to prevent costly mistakes that take up more of your precious time.
Automate Essential Processes
One of the best ways to save HR time is to automate essential processes. This is how HR save organizations time and money on a large scale. In this day and age where technology has transformed the business world, your HR department no longer has to rely on manual and time-consuming processes.
You can leverage various HR software to eliminate repetitive tasks and create more room in your schedule for value-adding tasks. For example, one area that greatly benefits from automation is recruiting and onboarding. Onboarding software allows HR personnel to communicate important information to new hires quickly and efficiently. If you use a save hr time calculator, you’ll be surprised at how automating essential tasks can free up a lot of time.
Streamline Your Communications Process
While communication is always encouraged between employees and the HR department, it can complicate things if communications processes are not streamlined. The important thing is to eliminate redundant communication between HR and employees. This can be done in several ways, for instance, using a save HR time template that helps you draft communication quickly and easily.
Usually, you can eliminate a lot of back and forth by scheduling a quick video chat or face-to-face meeting. This allows you to efficiently address important matters and avoid misunderstandings that may arise when sending an excessive number of emails or texts.
Outsource Some HR Tasks
When you outsource specific HR functions, you reduce the time spent on administrative tasks, leaving your department with more time to focus on core businesses and employee-oriented duties. Outsourcing HR functions doesn’t mean the department is failing to do its job.
Instead, it’s a smart move that acknowledges some experts can deliver quality work for the organization, which is how your company stays competitive. Outsourcing functions like payroll, communication, and IT hiring is a great way to save HR time, even when you have dedicated HR personnel. Outsourcing also provides valuable insight into the effectiveness of HR policies, allowing you to revise and update your policies accordingly.
Delegate Tasks
While it’s true that HR executives should keep their finger on the pulse of the department at all times, that doesn’t mean they should multi-task and personally oversee every HR function. This is a waste of time since your team is ready and willing to take over some tasks.
Remember, HR, at its essence, is about having proper people management skills to run a well-oiled and productive team. The only way to do this is to allocate tasks to your HR team based on skillsets and the type of training received. This is a better way of being in control that will leave you with more time on your plate.
Streamline Your Payroll
Late HR hours spent on payroll can be a huge headache. This is especially so if your payroll schedule involves paying employees more frequently. For example, if you process payroll manually and pay employees via checks, you have to log in an excessive number of hours each month.
Paychecks involve a lot of printing, signing, packaging, and mailing, all of which you can avoid by switching to automated payment methods, such as direct deposit. If you have unbanked employees, you can still pay them via payout cards, that can be loaded with funds instantly. You can, therefore, save HR time by paying employees at the touch of a button.
Don’t Get Bogged Down In Meetings
Meetings are a common event in the office, but sometimes they waste valuable time. So, if you need to save HR time, you should take a step back and evaluate how you run meetings. Consider how long your meetings take and if there’s a way to quickly communicate what needs to be said so that everyone can get on with their day.
If you have multiple meetings scheduled, is there another way to consolidate these meetings and save time? Overall, the best thing to do is to schedule meetings for critical matters only to avoid discussions that interfere with productivity by dragging on and on.
Simplify Employee Expense Reimbursement
Employee expense reimbursement is often a necessary part of running a business. Sometimes employees use their money to pay for company expenses, and you have to reimburse them later. However, this can consume a lot of your time as you try to process all submitted claims manually.
If a lot of back and forth is required, this process takes even longer. The best way to simplify employee expense reimbursement is to be proactive. Automate employee expense reimbursement using the right tools and software. You can also provide employees with preloaded payout cards, so they don’t have to submit expense claims in the first place.
Focus On Boosting Employee Retention
One of the main functions of HR is to improve employee retention. This is a significant priority for businesses looking to save money and time. After all, a lot of time is spent recruiting, onboarding, and training an employee. When your department invests a lot of time into hiring, the last thing you need is for those new hires to leave the company after a brief stay.
That means you need to invest more and more time as the cycle continues. The only way out is to raise employee satisfaction. Get employee feedback to find out what employees need from HR to feel happy and fulfilled in their roles. When employee satisfaction is high, this can go a long way towards preventing untimely staff exits.
Create a Conducive Working Environment
A working environment full of distractions will result in plenty of inefficiencies. This is just one of the many time sinks your HR department can face. When your team is engaged in daily tasks, can they maintain the required level of attention and concentration?
Or, do they have to spend more time on tasks than they would because of distractions, such as too much noise or a flurry of activity nearby? The best practice is to eliminate these distractions where possible. It would help if you also encouraged your team to maintain a neat workspace as this helps improve productivity.
Reduce Conflicts and Aggression In the Workplace
The HR department should be proactive about lowering the occurrence of aggression and conflicts in the workplace. You should also check the effectiveness of HR policies regarding conflicts and aggression in the workplace. The aim is to avoid situations that can escalate, resulting in costly and time-consuming lawsuits.
Try And Go Paperless
If your organization has set some sustainability goals, you can kill two birds with one stone by reducing the amount of paper in your department. Paper documents take more time to handle as you need to print, file, recover or shred them. The process takes even longer if paper documents are somehow misplaced.
When you go paperless, retrieving certain documents won’t be time-consuming. This can be a significant time-saver, especially if you’re a large organization that processes and stores large amounts of data.
Take Some Time Off
It’s understandable to feel overwhelmed when trying to run your HR department efficiently. However, as you attempt to streamline human resources, you should also take a much-needed break.
When you feel like there is too much on your plate, soldiering on only worsens the situation, leading to burnout and reducing your ability to be time-effective. So, it’s best to take a step back and give yourself room to refocus and breathe. You’re already doing a great job!
Get Started and Save HR Time With These Valuable Tips
The HR department shoulders a lot of responsibility and handles many time-consuming processes. Applying these tips will help your HR department stay on top of the workload without feeling overwhelmed. When you streamline human resources, you save time, money, and effort, and that’s always good for your company’s bottom line.
