Reshape the Employee Experience with RPA and AI in Human Resources

In HR and People Operations, we often talk about the “moments of truth” that shape the total employee experience. These moments cover everything from the initial touchpoints during recruitment, through onboarding, ongoing development programs, and regular performance reviews.  

Looking at today’s market, it’s more important than ever to streamline and optimize these interactions. Intense competition for talent and the so-called “Great Resignation” are placing added pressure on HR functions to ensure positive connections at every stage of the employee journey. 

We’re also seeing a shift in employee expectations. Compensation remains a key motivator, but many new hires prioritize corporate values, equality, diversity, and opportunities for personal growth. In a recent report, Deloitte revealed 68% of employees value personal well-being above than progressing their career. And only 56% believe their employer is doing enough to support their physical and mental health. 

AI-powered HR automation is the way forward 

The reality is that there are a myriad of manual tasks involved in recruitment, onboarding, and day-to-day talent management that are meant to engage and retain employees. These tasks, such as data entry, cross-checking multiple interfaces, and completing routine paperwork, tend to complicate and slow down interactions with candidates and established employees. As a result, HR teams tied up with manual work run the risk of creating negative experiences during the critical moments. 

This is where robotic process automation (RPA) and AI can help. AI-driven RPA enables you to automate many of these tasks, unlocking time for HR to connect with employees in a more enriching way and to create stronger, more positive engagement during the moments of truth.  

For example, using HR process automation to handle the manual work can create more opportunities for team members to hold one-to-one interactions and feedback sessions with employees, or spend  more time connecting with new hires. It’s worth noting that Gartner research shows employees that feel connected to their company improve their performance by up to 22%. 

Here at UiPath, I’ve collaborated with my colleagues to create an in-depth white paper on the value of RPA and AI to the HR function: How automation strengthens your corporate culture. We explain how HR automation can help you to re-imagine the moments of truth—improving employee engagement, increasing HR productivity, and building a more-cohesive culture. 

Key use cases: recruitment and onboarding 

Let’s look at two areas where automation can have a major impact: recruitment and onboarding. 

During the recruitment process, HR teams often spend 50% of their time sourcing and screening huge volumes of résumés, and entering data into applicant tracking systems (ATS). Meanwhile, candidates expect a speedy, personalized response to their applications. 

AI-powered automation can do the heavy lifting here, following pre-defined rules to read the résumés, capture and enter data 24/7 to the ATS, and send progress updates to applicants. Companies embracing RPA and AI have improved quality of hires and reduced time-to-fill, and crucially candidates enjoy more responsive service and a more positive experience. RPA and AI can also help to remove human behavioral biases in hiring, contributing to compliance and diversity targets. 

For HR teams, onboarding typically means large volumes of communication with multiple departments, such as payroll, IT, legal, and training. This can leave teams overstretched and unable to deliver the level of support needed to ensure new hires quickly find their feet and feel at home within the organization. 

AI-powered automation can accelerate these onboarding tasks: sending messages, creating email addresses and user accounts for new employees, and ensuring access to key applications. Pressure on HR is lifted and more capacity is available for welcoming and guiding new starters—helping them to feel included and engaged with the organizational culture from day one. 

More than this, automation can help new hires build connections within the company in their first 30 days, as well as enabling them to work productively. For example, chatbots can answer key questions about company values and processes, and help new employees to build networks and link with appropriate mentors. 

Increasing HR capacity, improving employee well-being 

Beyond these use cases, you can extend RPA and AI across the employee journey. As RPA handles the data entry and administration tasks, HR team members will find they have more capacity to build employee engagement, such as promoting health and well-being, productivity, and personal development. This is all made possible by embracing RPA and AI—the time for HR automation is now! 

To read the white paper, just tap the link, and feel free to connect with me here on LinkedIn.