Given the near-universal need to make the workplace productive, engaging, and satisfying as organizations respond to numerous pressures to attract, retain, and effectively manage their workforces, the employee experience (EX) reigns as a primary opportunity. A significant element is making the work processes that define much of that daily experience more straightforward to navigate. Given that much of the frustration about HR stems from process-based experiences, focusing on HR process improvement can help drive and promote it as part of the employment brand and employee value proposition (EVP). Facing talent shortages and high turnover, easing administrative burdens and requirements for managers and employees also reduces distractions and increases attention to business-focused efforts related to task completion and goal achievement.

Leveraging business-based improvement methodologies

The notion of improving HR processes rests on well-documented business process improvement methodologies that have had a significant impact since William Deming’s work with Japanese manufacturers starting in 1950. He focused their workflow improvement efforts internally between departments and externally with suppliers and customers. This revolutionary work turned post-war Japan into a global economic power. It was introduced and popularized in the early 1980s in the U.S., with similar outcomes for its industries. 

The credibility of applying such methods and techniques to HR processes that impact every employee is substantial. Using well-regarded, widely understood, and objectively-based process management techniques can make the function more respected. A focus on HR process improvement also communicates to leadership and line employees a commitment to leveraging and engaging them in designing their preferred experiences, making administrative processes less onerous to navigate, and operating as efficiently and cost-effectively as possible.

Critical HR processes that require attention

While much is written and published about continuing to enhance and build strategic HR capabilities and impact, the most common elements of the HR function are its recurring cycles and processes around employee attraction, hiring, management, development, and out-processing. With annual turnover rates between 5% and 20% and employment figures ranging from 50 to 10,000 or more, the number of transactions in any given company throughout the employee lifecycle can be in the hundreds of thousands. Add to that the increasing calls for more frequent performance check-in meetings, agile workforce and talent planning sessions, training and development activities, and the time spent interacting between employees, and those processes become a substantial part of their work responsibilities.

The flow of processes can be best outlined through the lens of the employee journey and the talent management practices used to build their careers, including:

• HR planning: Forecasting and managing hiring, administering leaves and absences, assigning shifts and overtime, succession planning and management, assessing skills gaps, and developing mitigation plans. 
• Recruitment: Marketing, attracting, processing, assessing, selecting, and hiring candidates, including candidate relationship management, applications, screening, referrals, testing, interviewing, decision-making, and preparing offers. 
• Onboarding: Processing, acclimating, and indoctrinating new hires into the company’s systems, databases, processes, and culture.
• Performance management: Clarifying roles and responsibilities, setting goals, coaching and directing, identifying development needs and opportunities, and assessing and documenting performance.
• Compensation and benefits: Setting pay rates, managing merit increases, communicating and enrolling in benefit plans, filing claims, and allocating rewards and recognition.
• Learning and development: Identifying needs, linking gaps and aspirations to content, assessing and building managerial and leadership skills, developing resources and courseware, and managing access and delivery. 
• Employee and union relations: Managing complaints and disputes, handling inquiries, responding to legal and regulatory charges, and managing union contracts and relationships. 
• Offboarding: Out-processing administration, handling reference checks, managing alumni communications, and relationship management.
  
  

Common issues with HR processes

The list of complaints that any HR professional, especially those in the centers of excellence (COEs) and HR Shared Services (HRSS) organizations that typically “own and operate” the processes, is relatively standard. Recruiters hear about burdensome and time-consuming data entry requirements for applicants; benefits administrators field complaints about difficulties navigating and comparing benefit plan options and costs online; managers and employees voice objections to overly detailed requirements for performance evaluations; and leaders and HRBPs dislike the depth of succession planning assessment and documentation obligations. The primary concerns that serve as a checklist of improvement indicators for process owners can be summarized as follows:

• Too many handoffs and back-and-forth that can stall process cycle times.
• Too much cross-functional oversight and involvement, with line managers, HR, and Finance needing input, review, and approvals.
• Too many decision-makers or approvers, such as multiple levels of management.
• Too slow cycle times lead to untimely decisions and frustration.
• Overly complex system interfaces and data entry requirements.
• Data reentry across non-integrated and related systems, such as new-hire paperwork and performance appraisals.

Another operational question that HR leaders should focus on is whether the existing processes either disempower managers or overpower them. For example, 

• Does the process or system take judgment out of their hands? Or does it provide guidance and data that help them make quick, quality decisions?
• Does it burden them with unnecessary administrative steps to accomplish the core elements of each task?
• Does the associated system have them look up an employee's data and then enter it into another system?
  
  

There is potential for real impact from process improvements

Improving HR processes can drive significant benefits for the organization. Case studies abound demonstrating how different companies have improved their efficiency, employee productivity, the cost of doing business, and effectiveness through targeted process redesign and automation. In fact, McKinsey asserts that 56% of traditional HR processes can be automated to save process cycle time and money. 

Going further, KaiNexus suggests that business process improvements drive very attractive results, including 36% of all improvements impacting quality, 31% increasing staff and customer satisfaction, 25% saving time, and 13% saving money (30% of which are annually recurring). Given that the methodologies for identifying improvement efforts all involve measurement and data, the opportunity to achieve measurable, objective impacts is significant.

Implementing improvement efforts using proven methodologies

Many proven methodologies exist for HR process improvement, with process guides, training, and implementation support available. The most popular and well-established include:

• Continuous Process Improvement (CPI) engages employees in reviewing processes and identifying incremental changes in a continuous cycle of identify, change, measure, and repeat.
• TQM focuses on customer satisfaction, employee solution engagement, process discipline, and data-driven error and bottleneck removal.
• Six Sigma follows a 5-step process (with tools) to identify and remediate process inconsistencies and product or service defects.
• Lean uses Six Sigma tools and methods to focus on process speed and flow. Related approaches include:
  • Agile is associated with Lean by focusing teams on quickly adopting workflow improvements through continuous process efficiency, data on effectiveness, and feedback.
  • Kanban is a workflow management practice used to define, manage, and improve product and service delivery in real time.
• Kaizen uses five steps to assess and improve processes, making them more efficient, cost-effective, and quality-oriented through incremental, regular improvements.
• PDCA is a four-step “agile” process (“plan, do, check, and act”) that rapidly designs and pilot-tests process improvements in a small and controlled manner before selecting the best for broader implementation. 
• Business Process Management (BPM) is a more general model focused on streamlining and automating repetitive tasks to reduce time and costs and improve productivity.
• SIPOC Analysis (suppliers, inputs, processes, outputs, and customers) is a process-mapping-based approach that shows all inputs, outputs, connections, and decision points in a workflow or process to identify how best to align the process with its participants and end-user needs.
  
  

Generally, each of these follows a similar flow:

1. Identify the problem process to be evaluated and improved
2. Assess the process for inefficiencies, non-value-added steps, cycle time barriers, and substandard outcomes
3. Redesign process flows, responsibilities, and automation opportunities
4. Measure improvement
5. Solidify and track the process for continuing or lasting improvements
   
   

They all focus on varying degrees of the process and emphasize efficiency, error reduction, bottleneck elimination, cycle time reduction, waste reduction, and redundancy minimization. The most impactful ones include the insights and requirements of end-users and stakeholders. At the same time, some focus on rapid problem identification, ideation for resolution, and pilot testing to accelerate solution definition and creation.

Choosing the “right” pathway for HR process improvement

Finding the most suitable approach is less about the methodology, as most use similar (and equally effective) steps to understand the problems, generate potential solutions, implement, and measurably track improvement. The primary choices between methodologies are based on the project timeframe (rapid prototyping vs. more comprehensive development) and the extent to which to include impacted employees (as data sources or development team members). That said, adopting any model and undertaking of this scale requires awareness and preparation from experts and implementers with field experience. From there, many considerations and lessons emerge.

1. Understand that this calls for a culture shift

Improving HR processes using methodologies developed for engineering, business, and operations, and leveraging data analytics, can be a challenging “sell” to HR teams. It requires explanation (what it is), context (why we’re doing it and its value), instruction (how to do it), in-process coaching (tools and methods used), support (collecting, computing, and analyzing data), and resources (access to tools and experts). Guidance needs to be provided regarding the effort's mission relative to broader organizational cultural aspirations, such as asking, “How does this process support or act as a barrier to achieving our culture?” “Does this currently communicate that we trust our managers or employees?” and “How much flexibility do we have to address unique individual or workforce segment needs?

2. Treat this as a continuous process

This is not a one-stop solution. Best-in-class approaches inform this as a practice that can shape the growth and adaptation of HR processes, mirroring the evolution of a company’s business and culture. Consider the list of HR processes above; it becomes clear that if each process is reevaluated and upgraded annually, it will take 12-15 years for most organizations to cycle through them all. Perhaps of equal value, it is an excellent development vehicle for HR and line managers, as well as employees who can benefit from cross-functional learning and exposure, experience in evidence-based, data-driven decision-making, team or sub-team leadership opportunities, and cross-organizational network building.

3. Create a focus on the end-user 

Regularly evaluating and improving HR processes creates a sustainable, highly desirable focus on the end-user as a “customer,” supporting the value of employee experience (EX) and candidate experience (CX), which in turn generate superior outcomes. These methodologies rely on data generated in part from existing employee listening strategies such as engagement surveys, post-process and system-use pulse surveys, focus groups, and executive skip-level employee sessions. This can also be augmented by human-centered design and design thinking approaches to identify issues, understand typical users and their expectations, skills, and needs in the process, and inform solution design inputs.

4. Use data to prioritize process improvements and understand weaknesses

Understanding where HR process improvement can start can hamstring many, leading to insights into using data to determine prioritization targets. The key to prioritizing processes for enhancement depends on several factors, starting with the “pain points” people are experiencing and reporting, and then assessing which ones have the highest relative impact on business operations and goals. The opportunity to generate advanced (e.g., regression) analyses of process performance's impact on business outcomes is substantial but often represents too big a reach for many HR teams.

Instead, use employee-experience methods to generate “journey maps” and identify “moments that matter” (MTMs) to understand which processes are candidates for optimization. Then, leverage employee surveys, complaints, and system trouble ticket logs to prioritize processes. Pay close attention to feedback from the employee segments most critical to operations and use their input to rank-order potential processes to study and upgrade. Further, the IT team’s reports on HR system usage patterns can be used to identify those with low usage, high (mid-process) abandonments, and error or rework rates, thereby objectively identifying trouble areas.

5. Create process maps to inform design and enhancements

Process mapping is an elegant and highly effective way to visualize and simplify workflows when improving HR processes. Particularly when they have vertical “swim lanes” that identify the participants in each step, they provide the quickest way to discover and evaluate process hand-offs, approvals, system inputs and outputs, approval levels, data entry points, and decisions. These can reveal unnecessary administrative steps, opportunities for system-fed policy decisions, integration opportunities, and opportunities to minimize human-intervention approvals. Further use of RACI (“Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, and Informed”) charts can clarify the value-add (or lack thereof) of each participant’s actions and responsibilities within the process.

6. Engage workers and process experts in solving their own issues

The power of employee involvement in HR process improvement cannot be understated. Having end-users provide insights into pain points or failures, unwieldy steps, and system interfaces sends a message about how much the organization values their insights, expertise, and input. Another form of design thinking, engaging end-users ("employee involvement"), builds trust and confidence in its use and can help with change management efforts related to adoption and acceptance rates.

7. Fix the process first, then automate or re-automate

In all cases, automating a poorly designed and ineffective process creates a new source of frustration that can only impede the reason automation was installed—to improve process efficiency and effectiveness. This means a process should be updated and optimized before a new technology is selected. With that, system requirements can be generated against a solid process, and vendors can be down-selected based on their ability to provide features and functions that directly enable and support that design. An additional consideration is the need for one-size-fits-all vs. tailored process solutions and interfaces, which should be documented before systems are considered. Examples might include different performance management processes, criteria, and forms for salespeople or executives, separate from those for all other employees.

8. Integrate systems with overlapping data needs

The topic of automated systems looms large in improving HR processes, as they are extremely common and can exert substantial influence on process design. While redesigning processes, address a common complaint upfront by identifying overlapping data used across HR processes and ensuring it is available for auto-population into required forms and supporting materials in the target system or module. Social security numbers for payroll and employee benefits are a good example, as is data related to job title and grade, which is used across recruiting, performance, succession, and other systems or modules.

9. Consider the use of AI technologies 

As HR systems are updated with increasingly advanced capabilities, the influence of AI and machine learning on HR process improvement can be substantial. Robotic Process Automation (RPA), for example, enables automation of repeatable tasks, such as using “chatbots” or cognitive agents to guide candidates through a more efficient application process or to handle employee inquiries. Other applications include “bots,” which can automatically transfer ATS data into the HRIS, draft offer letters, and set up new employee profiles in the payroll system.

10. Plan on measurement as a standard element

Measurement is crucial to improving HR processes within the assessment, design, improvement, continuous monitoring, and reporting steps. Measures of efficiency (time, volume, cost), effectiveness (frequency of use, ratings of utility and satisfaction), and outcomes (impact on productivity, performance, skill growth, and talent availability) are equally valuable as KPIs for monitoring.

11. Manage change in a disciplined manner

Any improvement effort represents a change, as does the updated process design. HR process improvement efforts typically affect many, if not all, employees and, as a result, require a structured and thorough approach to communicating the effort, its business rationale and changes, training managers and employees on its proper use, and engaging leaders and employee influencers to drive acceptance and adoption. Changes without a comprehensive strategy that supports the effort can lead to uneven application and use varying levels of support, and an under-optimized return on investment.

Relevant Practices & Tools

Core Change Management Practices to Engage Stakeholders and Drive Sustained Adoption. >

Simply put, Change Management – sometimes called Organizational Change Management, Behavioral Change Management, or Change Enablement – is a set of activities to help... more »

Using Technology to Deliver Streamlined HR Services and Insights. >

HR Technology has advanced to a level where it is currently capable of offering scalable productivity gains in processing HR transactions, with emerging technologies capable... more »

Driving Adoption of the Digital Future to Optimize the Return on Digital Investments. >

The digital transformation will deliver a new way of operating for the business. It establishes a new status quo for what employees expect, how they work individually or in teams... more »

Establishing a Core Talent Management Strategy to Set Priorities and a Strategic Roadmap. >

As a company defines its business strategy, each function must align its objectives and actions to support its strategic goals. Talent management strategy is a key process that the HR function... more »

The Stakeholder Engagement Plan Template: Identify Needs and Activities to Support Stakeholders During Digital Transformation. >

Analyzing stakeholder interests and the impact of digital transformation efforts on them is critical to proper engagement planning... more »