Is Technology Taking Away Human Resources Jobs?
The idea of robots taking over human tasks sounds like something straight out of the Jetsons. But robots have been making humans' lives easier for decades.
Consider the Rumba that eliminated the household chore of vacuuming. Or the microwave that made it faster to cook up dinner. And more recently, Amazon Echo, which is a device with built-in artificial intelligence designed to recognize your voice and understand what you need.
Technological innovations don’t look like they’re slowing down any time soon, so it’s no wonder more people are looking for apps and software to take over (or at least simplify) other tasks.
Human resources tasks are a prime example of this. There are quite a few redundancies in the human resources department, which adds work to the plates of already strained employees. As technology advances, some of these administrative tasks get passed on to robots instead of humans. Could this be jeopardizing jobs? Let’s take a look.
Scheduling
Scheduling is perhaps one of the biggest time drains in human resources’ departments--at least if technology isn’t being put to use. Now, more businesses are using software to manage schedules. By offering an app to manage shift changes and view schedule rotations, employees no longer need to reach out to a single contact person. Instead, they’re able to make the changes themselves, eliminating the need for a point person.
Although this task can be outsourced to an app, it doesn’t seem to be stealing people’s jobs. Usually, the scheduler is also a manager or an executive. Having an app take care of this task has allowed this point person to focus work hours elsewhere.
Benefits
One of the first things you do when a new employee starts is set up his or her benefits such as health insurance, 401(k) plans, and more. Setting up and managing these benefits can take a lot of administrative work (and hassle). With new apps designed to simplify the process, employees can get to work faster and HR administrators can focus on other demanding tasks. The software may simplify the process, but the process still requires human-to-human interaction to answer questions and ensure everything is set up correctly.
Payroll
There are a lot of complexities in payroll, and therefore, room for human error. This is especially true when some employees get bonuses and others don’t, or when not all employees have payroll direct deposit.
Software that manages payroll can be a tremendous benefit--especially to small businesses that don't have large human resources departments. Typically these businesses outsource payroll to an app because they don’t have someone on board full-time to manage the process.
In Conclusion
The conclusion is no, technology is not stealing human resources jobs; instead, it’s helping small businesses work more efficiently. Although apps and software eliminate some tasks, they typically aren’t enough to replace a person in the workplace.
