As HR’s job get even more complex in the wake of the pandemic and other business transformations, HR practitioners and leaders are strategizing for ways to enhance efficiency without losing any value. For many, automation may be part of the solution.
At a core session at Thursday’s HR Tech Virtual, leaders from employee experience platform Leena AI shared data on HR automation generated from the organization’s work with clients Coca-Cola, Nestlé and P&G. Leena AI found that HR teams at the three companies spent about 50% of their time responding to employee queries, and those requests to HR fell into three categories: policy, simple transactional or complex transactional.
Approximately 30% of requests at the three organizations were policy-related—health insurance provisions, 401(k) policies, how to update an address; meanwhile, 45% were considered simple transactional—how to apply for leave, access pay stubs or check a leave balance. About one-quarter were considered complex transactional, requiring help from someone in HR with specific expertise, and could include issues like the application of state or federal regulations, nuances around work-from-home policies or help with a 401(k) transfer.
What it means for HR leaders
The HR work needed to respond to policy and simple transactional queries is often repetitive and operational. “So, why not automate those processes?” asked Shan Parsan, head of sales in the U.S. at Leena AI.
The company’s dashboard aims to “tie it all together,” Parsan said, offering a “unified” experience for employees to find the information they need across a range of HR-related topics as well as complete tasks. With the platform’s virtual assistant and ticketing tool, HR was able to resolve 65% of policy queries through automation and more than 90% of simple transactional questions. It also automated about 20% of complex tasks.
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Parsan said the three organizations witnessed a 34% ticket reduction within the first year of going live with the platform and saved 50% on employee time in the first six months of implementation.
The platform’s ability to help organizations streamline access to information and processes is a boon for both employees and HR, he added.
“The longer it takes for me to receive a response [from HR], you dwell on it. That can lead to me being frustrated as an employee,” he said. “On an HR perspective, about a third of those queries are repetitive—now HR’s inboxes are getting full and they’re losing time on focusing on strategically aligning on other projects within the organization by handling these tasks that they shouldn’t be focused on.”
Registered attendees can view the full demo session here. Registration remains open through March 4 here.
