HR automation tools are exactly what you need to ensure no one is left behind when it comes to efficient business travel management. It should be noted that Human Resources may not always be the point of contact for business travel arrangements; it may depend on the size of the company you work for, and how roles and responsibilities are allocated. It may be the travel manager, the department heads, the CEO, or procurement officer who could be involved or in charge of the process.
Nevertheless, HR automation tools can significantly enhance the efficiency of business travel processes, and efficiency often starts with automation. We won’t be looking at tools like HiBob, BambooHR, Pyn, TalentHR or Gusto but rather tools for HR managers to better streamline the travel management process because no matter what company you work for, when it comes to managing business and navigating the modern business traveler’s journey with technology, automation is key.
5 most common HR automation tools
While the focus of this article isn’t HR automation tools, it’s important to note that there are many tools out there when it comes to automating human resources. Let’s take a look at five of the most common HR automation tools.
HiBob
HiBob helps streamline HR processes, creating reports and helping to store HR documentation so it’s easily accessible. It can be used to engage employees, whether they are working onsite, hybrid or remote. It can also support your HR team with the whole hiring process, help with Payroll, onboarding, performance management, compensation management, as well as help you develop and collect surveys, and track time off and attendance. Maximize workforce efficiency with HiBob’s workforce planning tools.
BambooHR
BambooHR helps with simplifying all your HR processes from offering an employee database and reporting features to payroll, time and benefits, as well as hiring and onboarding.It can also be used to collect and manage data, and control employee experience and performance.
Pyn
Pyn is more than just an HR automation tool, but instead helps your company to design your employee journey, helps prioritize work tasks so that you have an overview of what needs to get done and who’s in charge. You can also automate employee communications, deciding distribution channels (whether it be via email, Slack, Microsoft Teams, Gmail, Outlook, etc)., and better plan your HR calendar in terms of key dates, holidays and comms.
Talent HR
Talent HR helps with HR automation from hiring to onboarding. AI helps you generate job descriptions, define and automate tasks, manage talent, plan your organization’s growth with the help of analytics, and carefully manage assets in one place so they don’t get lost.
Gusto
Gusto combines HR automation, payroll, benefits, talent management, hiring and onboarding, and insights and reporting all in one place. Thanks to smart technology you can easily and automatically pay your employees and contractors.
5 ways HR automation tools can improve HR processes for business travel
HR automation tools not only help with management of staff, employee engagement and task management and execution, but also can be used to improve HR processes relating to business travel. Let’s look at some of the ways it can do this.
1. Make travel booking and approvals more efficient
When you have the right business travel software in place, you can use this tool to easily make travel bookings, manage the whole approval process behind business travel bookings in a faster and more efficient way. This means that the whole process can be streamlined and automated from the start.
Let’s take the case of an airline booking for example. An employee has to go on a business trip to Chicago. They sign into the travel booking tool, decide the route that works best for them and then submit for approval. As an HR manager you can either be in charge of making and/or approving these trips.
2. Easily manage expenses and reimbursement
Another part of the process that automation tools can help with is managing expenses and helping facilitate the process of reimbursement. Employees can log in and add in their expenses as they travel or for general office supplies and expenses, and then as an HR manager you can ensure the expenses are work-related and within policy and then approve and proceed to reimburse. The reimbursement part might not correspond to your role, but you can help move everything along the process.
3. Ensure travel policy compliance and fulfillment of duty of care
As an HR manager it may be up to you to ensure travel policy compliance, and it will most definitely be up to you to help managers and teams ensure fulfillment of duty of care, and avoid risks.
To do so, you can have an all-in-one travel management software that works in the background to show whether travel bookings are within policy or not. Automation comes in handy here because you can set up the travel policy once and then it will work in the background. Automating your travel policy is without a doubt one of the best travel policy practices.
4. Collecting data and reporting
Data analysis and reporting might correspond to the finance department or the finance controller, but surely by having the right automation tool set up, you can help collect the data and manage reporting necessary to make good data-informed decisions.
5. Improving the overall employee business travel experience
There is no better way to take care of your employees’ wellbeing than by having easy and smooth business travel processes. Nothing can get regular business travelers down than having difficult, or timely processes to book their travel arrangements. Less time booking trips means more time invested in revenue-driving activities, and more time that can be invested into ensuring that employees are satisfied and healthy.
Challenges and considerations of automation
Automation seems like it is everything but it does come with its limitations. For example, if taken at face value it may diminish your staff’s ability to make exceptions that automation can’t account for. Say for one trip, you want to allow an employee to travel business class, but it’s not set up as a rule for this employee nor is it within policy, your automation tools will likely reject this booking, which is where you might have to step in to override.
It’s a good idea to have a certain amount of automation set up but allow the flexibility necessary to override this automation if deemed necessary. Technology has its limitations but generally speaking it’s here to stay to help make your life and the lives’ of those using the tools better.
HR automation tools recap
We’ve looked at how HR automation tools can transform business travel management. By embracing automation you can make travel bookings and approvals more efficient, more easily manage expenses and reimbursements, ensure travel policy compliance and fulfill your duty of care, collect data and manage reporting, all the while improving the overall employee business travel experience.
Embracing automation in your Human Resources department will have long-term benefits on employee satisfaction levels, reducing the amount of daily manual tasks, and overall make travel management easier.
Explore and invest in HR automation tools like GetGoing for enhanced efficiency in business travel.