8 essential HR workflows you need to automate

Your HR management solution should be the hub of all your employee-centric processes. But sometimes your HR processes include other essential operations, and in these situations, it’ll save you a lot of time and effort if your HR management application is connected with your other apps.

To build workflows with other solutions, though, your HR app needs to support native integrations with the apps you’re looking to integrate with. But your HR software might not support all the apps you use at your organization. If you invest in an integration platform like Zoho Flow, however, you’re free to choose the apps that work best for you, while leaving the heavy lifting to the integration platform.  

Let’s look at some essential HR workflows you may be using: 

1) Getting HR documents signed

There are important documents that need to be signed and stored in your HR management application, like when an employee accepts an offer letter, or signs a confidentiality agreement or some other document related to company policy.

This workflow will involve a digital signature application and your HR management system. You can set up the integration on your integration platform, so that whenever a document is signed, it’s automatically stored in your HR management app.

2) Sending automatic notifications to your team chat

With an integration platform, you can build a workflow where a notification is automatically sent to a team’s chat channel when someone applies for leave through your HR management app. You can also configure similar notifications for when someone joins or leaves the company. 

3) Onboarding new employees automatically

When a new employee joins, you probably have them go through your onboarding materials, so they know the values, policies, and conduct expected of them. This might then be followed by sending them further educational resources and guidelines.

You can automate this onboarding process using a multistep workflow, wherein once the employee is added to the HR management app, an email account is created automatically, and then these onboarding materials are sent as their first few emails.  

4) Processing payroll

You’ll want to create a payroll account for new employees once they’re added to your HR management application. You can use your integration platform to configure this workflow so that an account is automatically created in your payroll app as soon as a new employee is added to your HR management app.

You can also configure your payroll app to detect changes to things like designation and salary, as soon as they’re made in the HR management app.  

5) Reporting expenses

Your expense reporting app needs to include all the employees working in your organization—and that means you’ll need to keep creating a new user in your expense reporting app every time there’s a new hire. With an integration platform, you can build a workflow where a new account is created for the employee in your expense reporting app as soon as they’re added to your HR management app. And changes to an employee’s designation automatically get reflected on the expense reporting app as soon as it’s changed in the HR management app.  

6) Generating invoices for timesheets automatically

When you’re working with clients, you need to bill them according to employee timesheets. Here, you can set up a workflow between your HR management app and invoicing app, such that whenever a timesheet is submitted, an invoice for the timesheet is generated in your invoicing app and automatically emailed to your clients. This way, you don’t have to even worry about opening your invoicing application, as billing clients will take place automatically.  

7) Bringing new employees to your employee recognition app

Some organizations have an employee recognition app, where teammates are encouraged to publicly praise their colleagues for contributions that might otherwise go unnoticed. These kinds of apps help in building a company culture of appreciation and encouragement.

Instead of manually adding new hires to your employee recognition app, you can build a workflow where an account is automatically created for a new employee as soon as they’re added to the HR management application.

8) Collecting feedback after employees leave your organization

It’s always good practice to ask ex-employees about their time at the organization, what they liked, and what could use some improvement. You can set up a workflow where former employees are automatically emailed a survey asking for feedback after they’ve been removed from the HR management app.  

While these are some of the most common workflows, you can build any number of unique workflows using an integration platform that suits the requirements of your organization. Please write to support@zohoflow.com if you need any help getting started with Zoho Flow.