Manual to Automated: How HR Tech is Saving Crews Valuable Time
The article explains how manual HR processes in construction companies—such as sorting resumes, filing new hire forms, calculating payroll, tracking hours, handling leave requests, and entering performance data—consume excessive time, increase errors, and hinder growth, while adopting automated HR technology can save valuable time, reduce costs, improve compliance, and address hiring challenges faced by over 60% of firms still relying on manual methods.
Manual processes are hurting your HR teams. Every day staff spend hours completing tasks by hand like:
- Sorting through paper or email resumes
- Filling out and filing new hire forms
- Using spreadsheets to calculate pay, taxes and payroll deductions
- Tracking employee hours with paper timecards
- Handling leave requests via email
- Entering and storing performance data by hand
It may seem like no big deal to tackle these jobs manually; you’ve probably done it this way for years, like many others. In fact, more than 60% of construction companies still rely on manual HR processes, at least in some part, according to an Arcoro survey of 300 contractors.
While these tasks might feel manageable day-to-day, the cumulative impact on your business is significant. Using outdated, manual processes can’t propel your business forward, it can only hold it back.
How Manual Processes Cost You
Manual processes end up costing your company money, time and overall efficiency. When data is entered by hand, it takes much more staff time, wasting salaries and losing productivity. Consider the annual salary of team members who must enter data manually. If a manual process takes 50% longer than an automated one, over time the waste quickly adds up.
Plus, a higher amount of error occurs with manual processes. If those processes are used to maintain compliance, the wrong data or missed deadlines could lead to penalties and fines.
What’s more, manual methods will become unsustainable as your business grows, creating bottlenecks and making it harder to support a larger workforce.
Adopting automated methods for HR processes can pay off, both literally and figuratively.
Automate Recruiting Efforts
Hiring is a necessary but time-consuming part of the job; especially as crews struggle to hire more workers. According to a research report by Arcoro, 65% of construction companies cite finding and hiring the right candidates as their number one HR challenge. Automating this task with applicant tracking software (ATS) can be a game changer.
Not only does an ATS automatically post job descriptions across multiple job boards but its mobile capabilities allow foremen and supervisors to review applications from the office or field, significantly saving time.
One Arcoro Hire user found the mobile capabilities allowed them to keep everyone on the same page while eliminating trips to the office, cutting down the amount of time required to hire the right applicant.
An ATS also provides a system of record that allows HR teams to track compliance, create a database of potential candidates and identify the most effective recruiting channels. Once you've streamlined hiring with an ATS, the next critical touchpoint is bringing those new hires onboard.
Onboarding in the Field
Onboarding is the first real impression a new hire gets of your company. Streamlining this process with onboarding software not only sends a great message but can save your company a huge amount of time.
One Arcoro user reduced onboarding time by 75%, going from two hours per employee to 30 minutes. That time savings helped new hires get on the job faster and freed up HR to focus on the employee experience, instead of paperwork.
Centralizing HR with Employee Portals
A centralized HR system allows employee information to flow from one application to another, without manually entering the data. It provides a single source of truth that eliminates duplicate records and provides real-time access across your organization. One Arcoro Manage user says using a centralized HR system alone saved more than one hour per day.
Add in an employee portal, and HR is able to streamline processes even more. With an employee portal, employees have 24-hour access to their benefits, pay and demographic information, allowing them to make adjustments as needed. The portal reduces admin time for HR staff and empowers employees.
Beyond managing employee information, another area ripe for automation is time tracking.
Time Tracking without Paper
Time tracking with paper time cards is fraught with hazards. Paper gets lost, smudged and ripped and not everyone can tell the difference between a 1 and 7. Using a digital time tracking solution automatically – and accurately – tracks each minute your employees work. The data an automated system provides proves everyone is paid as they should be and provides a record should any compliance matters arise.
Many time tracking solutions also offer other features, like scheduling, which further streamlines the process.
One Arcoro Time user found that ExakTime by Arcoro’s scheduling feature rendered some of their software redundant, saving nearly $25,000 annually.
Time Saving Integrations
One of the biggest resistances to automating processes is not knowing how your new software will work with your existing technology. The right integrations can make the transition seamless while saving loads of time doing manual entry.
One Arcoro customer was using CMiC for payroll. They had to do everything twice because the systems they were using didn’t automatically sync. Once they switched to Arcoro, which integrates with CMiC payroll, the headaches around data entry and multiple syncs were eliminated, boosting efficiency.
A platform that integrates with multiple ERPs and payroll providers can help provide a complete workforce management solution.
But there are other savings as well with automation.
Advanced Analytics Provides Valuable Data
Automation provides an invaluable amount of data that gives insights into how efficiently you’re running your business. Having real-time access to HR data can transform decision making, as it did for one Arcoro customer.
The analytics and powerful reports provided by Arcoro’s platform allowed them to immediately identify if a job opening isn’t attracting enough applicants and adjust recruitment strategies accordingly. Real-time compliance tracking ensured they addressed expiring certifications before they became an issue. And payroll and benefits data visibility allow them to manage labor costs proactively.
The Bottom Line
Making the move from manual to automatic shouldn’t be done lightly. While the benefits can be huge in both time and money savings, you need a strong partner that knows your industry and can offer support both during and after the sale.
Download our checklist that lists questions you should ask your next software provider or contact us to learn more.
See a demo of how HR technology can help your construction business.
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