Finding the right starting-point for business process automation
is always a challenge, particularly when keeping the budget low is
a priority. BPA (Business Process Automation) becomes
profitable when a high volume of processes are automated, but how
do you get to that point quickly to maximize ROI?
The Human Resources department is the answer. HR processes
by their very nature are common to all employees so the processes
you choose to automate there will reach the largest audience and
return the highest value.
Some great processes to start with are:
- Employee On-boarding
When a new employee joins the company, they need a lot of
attention and provisioning. Things like network access and
permissions, scheduled meetings with their manager, payroll and
holiday setup and probationary evaluations all need to be planned,
executed and tracked.
- Leave Requests
Everyone goes on holiday and most people use at least one sick
day a year. That adds up to a lot of leave requests that can
soak up valuable man-hours processing paperwork and updating
financial applications associated with payroll. Automating
the leave approval process and integrating it with the payroll
system can potentially pay for the BPA solution within the first 6
to 12 months!
- Annual Evaluations
When employees receive timely, regular evaluations from their
managers they’re more effective and happier in their jobs.
Training, career planning and skills development are all a function
of these meetings and play a big part in the success of the
individuals and the company they work for. Additionally,
automating these processes ensures compliance with employment
regulations and provides an audit trail for historical
reference.
Using a SharePoint product like Nintex Workflow to build and
manage BPA solutions like these keeps costs even lower, since no
additional hardware is required and installation typically takes
less than twenty minutes. Best of all, your business users
are empowered to automate their own processes since the tool is
drag-and-drop: draw it, don’t code it.
