Five HR workflows to automate first (and two to leave alone)
Not every process deserves a workflow. These five pay back within a month; two others are better left to a conversation.
1. Vacation requests
The highest volume and the simplest chain: employee → line manager → HR. Add a calendar check so overlapping leave in one team is flagged before approval. Typical time saved: 20 minutes of HR work per request.
2. Onboarding paperwork
Contract, policy acknowledgements, equipment act, bank details — one packet, signed in sequence on day one instead of over the first week. New hires notice this more than any welcome gift.
3. Equipment handover
IT issues the act, the employee signs, finance gets a copy. Without a workflow this is where laptops go missing on paper.
4. Business trips
Order, advance, report — three linked documents. Automating the chain means the report is pre-filled from the order and the advance is reconciled without a spreadsheet.
5. Certificates and references
Salary certificates, employment references, copies of orders. Employees request them constantly; a self-service form with automatic generation removes the request entirely.
Leave alone: performance conversations
A form can schedule them; it should not replace them. Automate the reminder and the record, never the discussion.
Leave alone: dismissals
Legally sensitive and emotionally loaded. Use the system for the documents after the decision, not to route the decision.
Sequence matters. Teams that start with vacation requests reach 90% adoption in about a month; teams that start with onboarding — a process new hires can't refuse — reach it in weeks.