3 Things That Are Killing Your HR Team’s Efficiency

The role of Human Resources has evolved — once marked by administrative and day-to-day people management, modern HR now occupies a more strategic position serving to support long-term business goals.

At least, that’s the mission; in practice, many HR teams are struggling to function this way. According to EY, a staggering 86% of HR professionals’ time is spent on administrative work.

In this post I talk about three major things that are killing HR efficiency, and how to tackle them so your team can spend less time on administration and more on strategic work that drives business value.

1. Information “Rework”

A majority of the administrative work mentioned above involves HR professionals tracking down information and fielding questions. Often, these are the same questions with the same answers — asked by different employees. In mid-to-large size organizations, where many employees are asking these questions to many HR people, this could mean thousands of hours spent finding and communicating simple information.

Don't kill your HR Efficiency

Most of these questions don’t (or shouldn’t) merit direct HR attention. Things like checking vacation or accessing benefits information are better managed via centralization and automation.

HR leaders should focus on leveraging technology to make information easily available to employees through self-serve platforms that streamline information access and remove unnecessary human intervention.

2. The “Patchwork of Platforms”

I’ve talked before about HR’s patchwork problem. We have so many processes, tools, platforms and vendors that often serve a specific purpose but fail to work together seamlessly. What we’re left with is a “patchwork” that creates information silos and makes everyone’s life difficult:

What’s the solution to this patchwork? In simple terms, centralization. HR leaders can focus on making disparate systems and processes better integrated to reduce the time spent (and degree of difficulty) navigating the patchwork. This is one of the main reasons why we created LBi’s HR HelpDesk — to provide an intuitive tool that layers on top of existing systems and centralizes disparate HR functions into one easy-to-use interface.

3. Overly Complex Systems

It’s not only the number of systems that HR teams use that kill efficiency — it’s their complexity. Tools are difficult to navigate and difficult to learn, both for HR professionals and employees.

HR Efficiency

In a survey on HR software purchasing, 1 in 10 HR buyers said they don’t choose a system because it’s “too complicated”. Complex systems in turn result in poor user adoption. In fact, according to PwC’s HR Technology Survey 2020, 82% of companies struggle with HR tech adoption challenges.

82% of companies struggle with HR technology adoption challenges – PwC’s HR Technology Survey 2020

There is also the matter of implementation. HR software, particularly more complex HCM/HRSM systems, can take anywhere from 6 months to multiple years to implement. According to a SelectHub survey, 85% of respondents cited time-to-implement as the biggest challenge to purchasing new HR software.

When you mix software complexity, user adoption issues, and long implementation together, you get a perfect storm of high-cost software that takes too long to implement, is too hard to learn, and isn’t fully adopted.

What can HR leaders do? Make decisions that balance business requirements like features with user requirements like simplicity and ease-of-use. That’s what we’ve strived for with LBi HR HelpDesk. An enablement tool that sits on top of existing systems with lightweight but effective integrations, and agile implementation that takes a fraction of the time to get up and running.

Final Thoughts

Being aware of what’s dragging your HR team down is key to achieving efficiency. Employees shine when given the proper tools, and a lot of the current ones fail to meet changing (and current) needs. In an era of evolving technology, your tech stack should enable your people – not slow them down.

Looking to improve HR efficiency and make life easier for your team? Learn more about LBi’s HR HelpDesk here or request a demo today.

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