How to Avoid Unforeseen Human Resources Costs
Is your organization looking for a way to reduce HR costs and improve productivity? There are many unforeseen Human Resources costs that businesses fail to account for. Everything from failing to upgrade your HCM system to utilizing a paper-based filing system can leech time and money from your HR department.
If you want to cut costs without cutting heads, you’re going to need to get creative. Here are a few of our favorite strategies for preventing unforeseen Human Resources costs:
Identify and Support Efficient Workers
It’s no secret that your organization’s ability to not only hire but also retain the “best” people for the job plays a significant role in how resources are utilized. Employees that work hard and provide tangible results are an invaluable tool when it comes to reducing your operational costs. Efficient workers complete tasks more quickly and at a lower cost than their counterparts. For this reason, it’s important to support these workers by giving them the tools to continue succeeding in the future. By doing so, you can insulate your organization against common industry challenges, such as a shortage of qualified workers or the growing cost to hire.
Is the Inability to Retain Workers Hurting Your Business?
According to the Society for Human Resource Management, the average company spends $4,129 per-hire and takes 42 days to fill a job opening. By retaining high-quality workers, you can avoid these time and monetary costs. Why not let your competitors worry about finding and attracting new talent while you forge a path forward into the future? Keep in mind, every “bad” hire is also detrimental to your bottom line. Randstad reports that the cost to replace a bad hire can cost organizations up to 10 times the salary of the outgoing employee.
Of course, maintaining workers is a challenge. Employees are constantly looking for new opportunities that offer higher compensation, more fulfillment, or a less intensive workload. It’s nearly impossible to tick all of these boxes without investing in technology to help make work feel a little less like work. For example, your organization can invest in burgeoning digital technologies to eliminate repetitive busywork. Some highly effective digital solutions include:
- Enterprise Content Management (ECM) to serve as a single, integrated platform for housing an array of beneficial technologies, including those to help your organization manage content efficiently, automate processes, and incorporate remote workers.
- HR Automation to streamline hiring, onboarding, and ongoing employee engagement.
These are just two examples of the technologies that are being used to reduce the workload that burdens most employees. By eliminating the steps of your business processes that only serve to frustrate your employees, you can experience faster workflows that save you money while also improving working conditions for star performers.
Keep a Pulse on Your Training Initiatives
ECM and HR Automation are a few examples of technologies that reward star performers by streamlining and standardizing common tasks. For example, if a person spends four hours a day manually keying invoices into an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system, the time can be reclaimed by automating tasks. While technology can prove highly beneficial for bringing new workers into the fold, this doesn’t mean you should rely solely on it to improve your working practices.
Ongoing Training Improves Productivity and Increases Retention
It’s imperative that organizations keep a pulse on their training initiatives, especially once new technologies have been introduced. Your employees need to be trained on the nuances of your process and the technology you are utilizing to get the job done. Training accomplishes two primary goals:
- Improve productivity.
- Increase retention.
The first of these goals is accomplished because workers that take part in ongoing professional training opportunities gain the skills and knowledge they need to succeed. This becomes even more critical when content management and automation are being utilized to complete tasks.
The second goal is a residual effect of ongoing training. Training brings teams closer together. It instills a sense of camaraderie and clearly establishes goals that teams can work toward together. It also populates your employee pipeline with qualified candidates if an employee decides to seek a new opportunity.
Eliminate Unforeseen Human Resources Costs With Automation
Roughly half of all businesses are utilizing some form of automation to help eliminate unforeseen Human Resources costs, but with so many variations of automation available on the market, it can be hard to tell which technologies provide the greatest ROI.
As we mentioned above, automation is effective technologies in not only reducing costs but also retaining employees. When implemented correctly, automation helps make work more satisfying for your employees. Best of all, beyond the initial cost of the software license and implementation, automation provides continuous savings on a daily basis that only grow over time. You can increase accuracy and speed, mitigate processing errors, and reduce the cost to process documentation from start to finish.
When implemented solely in HR, automation can reduce costs by one-third. Everything from recruitment to screening to assessments and payroll can be automated. That means fewer paper-based distractions for your HR department and a renewed focus on acquiring and retaining top talent.
Promote Talent From Within Your Organization
Another effective way to avoid unforeseen Human Resources costs is by promoting talent from within your organization. Promoting from within is less expensive than seeking external talent. Furthermore, it gives you the opportunity to develop employees that are tailor-made for your specific business processes and technology. There are two key statistics that all organizations should be aware of when considering whether to hire internally or externally:
- Deciding to hire externally occurs 18 percent more often than promoting internally.
- External hires are 61 percent more likely to be fired from their new jobs than those who are promoted from within the company.
Build on Your HR Cost Savings in Other Departments
Your Human Resources department isn’t the only place you can save money. From Accounting to Finance to Customer Service and Shared Services, your organization can eliminate unforeseen costs by supporting employees with ECM, automation, and other business-critical technologies designed to streamline and standardize workflows. In a nutshell, these technologies help you work smarter, not harder, all while saving resources and increasing retention.
