Most HR automation projects I see start in the wrong place: with a demo. A vendor shows a beautiful system, the company buys it, and a year later half of the work still lives in spreadsheets next to it.
I do it in the opposite order. First the list of processes, then the priority, then the money, and only after that the system. This guide follows that order, with the formulas and numbers from my course.
If you only need to rank your processes, jump to the free priority tool.
I do it in the opposite order. First the list of processes, then the priority, then the money, and only after that the system. This guide follows that order, with the formulas and numbers from my course.
If you only need to rank your processes, jump to the free priority tool.
What is HR automation?
HR automation is moving HR processes out of paper, email, chats and spreadsheets into systems where requests, approvals, notifications and data transfers happen without manual work.
“Automated” is not a yes-or-no state. In the course I rate every process on a scale from 0 to 5:
Not everything needs level 5. The scale only makes you answer two questions about each process: where is it now, and where should it be?
“Automated” is not a yes-or-no state. In the course I rate every process on a scale from 0 to 5:
- 0 — Manual. Paper, email, a messenger.
- 1 — Spreadsheet. Excel or Google Sheets.
- 2 — Data in a system. The record lives in a system, but the steps are done by hand.
- 3 — Workflow. Request → approval → notification, all inside the system.
- 4 — End-to-end. Data moves on to the next system by itself, nobody types it twice.
- 5 — With AI. The system suggests or performs a step, a person keeps control.
Not everything needs level 5. The scale only makes you answer two questions about each process: where is it now, and where should it be?
Which HR processes can be automated?
Almost all of them, which is exactly the problem: you cannot do everything at once. In the course we work with an inventory of 56 HR processes in 11 groups:
Shadow tools are the private spreadsheets and apps people keep next to the official system. Double entry is any place where the same data is typed twice.
You will not get this from documents. Sit down with the people who do the work and ask:
- planning and org structure
- recruiting
- hiring paperwork and onboarding
- employee data
- time and absence
- compensation and benefits
- performance
- learning
- engagement and communications
- moves and exits
- analytics
Shadow tools are the private spreadsheets and apps people keep next to the official system. Double entry is any place where the same data is typed twice.
You will not get this from documents. Sit down with the people who do the work and ask:
- “Show me on the last real case.”
- “Where do you enter the same data twice?”
- “What do you keep for yourself, outside the system?”
Why you should not automate a broken process
A robot vacuum in a cluttered flat gets stuck in cables and toys. Clear the floor first. A system does not repair a process, it only runs it faster. Michael Hammer put the idea into the title of his Harvard Business Review article: “Don’t Automate, Obliterate”. So first ask whether every step of the process is needed at all.
Do the same with the systems you already pay for. List each one with its owner, annual cost, licences bought, licences active and the renewal date. The last three columns turn a list into an audit. An illustration with round numbers: 300 licences bought, 190 active, $8 a month each. (300 − 190) × $8 × 12 = $10,560 a year for seats nobody uses.
And accept that some things stay manual. When I joined iDeals, I wrote down everything we wanted to automate — about 34 processes, from taxi expense reports to recruiting, onboarding, 360 and the LMS. I analysed 30 systems and held 10 demos. Part of the list I postponed on purpose: bonus calculation stayed in Excel and the activity calendar stayed in Outlook.
Do the same with the systems you already pay for. List each one with its owner, annual cost, licences bought, licences active and the renewal date. The last three columns turn a list into an audit. An illustration with round numbers: 300 licences bought, 190 active, $8 a month each. (300 − 190) × $8 × 12 = $10,560 a year for seats nobody uses.
And accept that some things stay manual. When I joined iDeals, I wrote down everything we wanted to automate — about 34 processes, from taxi expense reports to recruiting, onboarding, 360 and the LMS. I analysed 30 systems and held 10 demos. Part of the list I postponed on purpose: bonus calculation stayed in Excel and the activity calendar stayed in Outlook.
What should you automate first? The priority formula
Give every process four scores from 1 to 5.
Impact — who feels the result.
5 — all employees, money or legal risk · 3 — one team · 1 — the effect is barely visible.
Ease — how hard it is to do. In the course this score is called Effort and the scale is reversed: 5 means easy.
5 — a setting in a system you already own, up to a week · 3 — a new low-cost system or an integration, 1–3 months · 1 — a major project, 6+ months.
Frequency — how often the process runs.
5 — every day · 4 — every week · 3 — every month · 2 — once a quarter · 1 — once a year.
Think of a toothbrush and a Christmas tree: you use the brush twice a day, so an electric one pays for itself; the tree you assemble once a year.
Pain — what goes wrong when it is done by hand.
5 — errors in money or documents · 3 — slow, but without errors · 1 — nobody complains.
Impact — who feels the result.
5 — all employees, money or legal risk · 3 — one team · 1 — the effect is barely visible.
Ease — how hard it is to do. In the course this score is called Effort and the scale is reversed: 5 means easy.
5 — a setting in a system you already own, up to a week · 3 — a new low-cost system or an integration, 1–3 months · 1 — a major project, 6+ months.
Frequency — how often the process runs.
5 — every day · 4 — every week · 3 — every month · 2 — once a quarter · 1 — once a year.
Think of a toothbrush and a Christmas tree: you use the brush twice a day, so an electric one pays for itself; the tree you assemble once a year.
Pain — what goes wrong when it is done by hand.
5 — errors in money or documents · 3 — slow, but without errors · 1 — nobody complains.
Priority = Impact × Effort × Frequency × Pain
The result runs from 1 to 625.
250 and above — red zone: automate in the next quarter.
100–249 — yellow zone: put it in the plan for the year.
Below 100 — green zone: leave it alone for now.
This formula is the method of my course, not an industry standard. Five processes from the course example:
One check question for every candidate: if this process becomes automatic tomorrow, who will be the first to notice?
- Leave request: 4 × 5 × 5 × 4 = 400 — red.
- Employee letters on request: 3 × 4 × 5 × 4 = 240 — yellow.
- Onboarding checklist: 5 × 3 × 3 × 5 = 225 — yellow.
- Headcount report: 3 × 4 × 3 × 3 = 108 — yellow.
- Annual review: 4 × 2 × 1 × 4 = 32 — green.
One check question for every candidate: if this process becomes automatic tomorrow, who will be the first to notice?
How to calculate the ROI of HR automation
Hours saved = (minutes before − minutes after) ÷ 60 × operations per year
Money saved = hours × hourly rate
Payback, months = one-off costs ÷ net saving per month
Hourly rate — the annual cost of an HR employee including taxes ÷ 2,080 working hours.
Net saving per month — (money saved per year − subscription per year) ÷ 12.
An example from the course. Every input here is an assumption — put in your own. A company of 300 people automates four processes:
At $20 an hour that is 632 × $20 = $12,640 a year.
Subscription: 300 people × $2 × 12 months = $7,200 a year.
Net saving: ($12,640 − $7,200) ÷ 12 = $453 a month.
Setup costs $3,000, so payback is $3,000 ÷ $453 = 6.6 months.
Hours are not money yet. Freed hours turn into money only if HR spends them on other work or the company does not hire one more person. Say in the business case what the 632 hours will go to.
And translate the price into something a CEO can picture. My old line: two dollars per person a month is two cups of coffee. It is hard to imagine a sane business owner who will not spend a cup of coffee per employee to make that employee’s work much more efficient. The $2 is an example from my past, not today’s price list. Then build the case: the need, the solution, what it costs, what it returns.
- Leave requests: 900 a year, from 15 to 3 minutes each = 180 hours.
- Employee letters: 600 a year, from 25 to 5 minutes = 200 hours.
- Onboarding: 60 a year, from 240 to 60 minutes = 180 hours.
- Headcount report: 12 a year, from 480 to 120 minutes = 72 hours.
At $20 an hour that is 632 × $20 = $12,640 a year.
Subscription: 300 people × $2 × 12 months = $7,200 a year.
Net saving: ($12,640 − $7,200) ÷ 12 = $453 a month.
Setup costs $3,000, so payback is $3,000 ÷ $453 = 6.6 months.
Hours are not money yet. Freed hours turn into money only if HR spends them on other work or the company does not hire one more person. Say in the business case what the 632 hours will go to.
And translate the price into something a CEO can picture. My old line: two dollars per person a month is two cups of coffee. It is hard to imagine a sane business owner who will not spend a cup of coffee per employee to make that employee’s work much more efficient. The $2 is an example from my past, not today’s price list. Then build the case: the need, the solution, what it costs, what it returns.
HR automation tools: what each class does
Vendors change, classes stay. These are the classes from my course with examples of systems. It is a map, not a ranking.
I described how I compared systems for my own shortlist in Choosing HRIS: the Mike Pritula experience.
- Core HRIS — the main employee database: profiles, org structure, absences, documents. BambooHR, HiBob, Personio, PeopleForce.
- HCM — core HR, payroll, talent and analytics in one platform. Workday, SAP SuccessFactors.
- ATS — vacancies, candidates, hiring stages, offers. Greenhouse, Ashby, Lever, Teamtailor.
- LMS and LXP — an LMS assigns and tracks training, an LXP picks content for the person. Docebo, 360Learning, TalentLMS.
- Performance — goals, 1:1s, reviews, 360. Lattice, Leapsome, 15Five.
- Engagement — engagement and pulse surveys, comment analysis. Culture Amp.
- HR service delivery — employee requests, a knowledge base, a bot. ServiceNow, Leena AI.
- Integration tools — “if this, then that” links between systems: hired in the ATS, created in the HRIS. Zapier, Make.
I described how I compared systems for my own shortlist in Choosing HRIS: the Mike Pritula experience.
How to automate HR processes step by step
- Inventory. List the processes, their owners, frequency, minutes per case and level from 0 to 5.
- Audit. List the systems you pay for: licences bought and active, renewal dates, duplicates, shadow tools.
- Priority. Score Impact × Effort × Frequency × Pain and pick the three red processes.
- Business case. Hours, money, subscription, payback in months.
- One source of truth. Every fact about a person lives in one system; the others read it. One field — one owner.
- Implementation. Vendors name the stages differently, the order is the same: Discovery → Design → Configuration → Integration → Migration → Testing → Launch. Clean the data before you migrate it.
- Launch in parts. Start with what matters most to employees — for example, the vacation balance and the leave request. Gather a pilot group of advanced users and think through what employees gain.
- Measure use. Active users = people active in the last 30 days ÷ paid licences × 100%.
Champions. People from the business, not IT support: those colleagues already go to with questions. My course rule is one champion per department or per 50 people.
Managers first. Train them before their teams — teams copy what their manager does.
A switch-off date. Buying broccoli is not enough while there are chips in the cupboard. Every launch announcement names the date when the old way — the email, the spreadsheet — stops working.
Ninety days after launch I sort systems into three zones by active users. Again, the course method, not an industry norm: 70% and above — keep; 40–70% — fix within 90 days; below 40% — investigate, starting with the question “does the old way still work?”
What does a 12-month HR automation roadmap look like?
In the course every quarter has two parts: a foundation — something invisible that makes data correct — and a showcase — something employees notice. One example:
- Q1. Single source of truth and data cleaning in the HRIS · self-service leave requests and employee letters.
- Q2. A candidate hired in the ATS becomes an HRIS profile without retyping · accounts ready on day one.
- Q3. An automatic leaver process · onboarding courses assigned by role on day one.
- Q4. The mover process: access changes with the role · a usage dashboard and a quarterly review of systems.
Seven mistakes in HR automation
- Starting with a demo. Ask yourself which of your systems appeared earlier than the process it was bought for.
- Automating a broken process. Remove the unnecessary steps first.
- Everything is a must-have. Then nothing is.
- Starting with the biggest project. The annual review scores 32. The leave request scores 400.
- Presenting hours as money. Say where the freed hours will go.
- Leaving the old way open. While the spreadsheet works, people will use the spreadsheet.
- Forgetting the mover. Everyone automates hiring and exits. Role changes are forgotten most often, and old access rights pile up like keys on a ring.
Automation is not a purchase. It is a sequence: processes, priorities, money, one source of truth, and only then the system and the launch. The full path — the audit of your HR stack, choosing systems of each class, integrations, rollout and a 12-month roadmap with ROI — is in my HR Automation Course: HRIS, LMS and ATS Training.
