Face it - inefficient processes are preventing us from being able to focus on strategic HR. In the flurry of new hire negotiations and making arrangements, the countless documents floating around via email, requiring different signatures and approvals, can be overwhelming. Luckily, there’s an easy way to cut through the clutter: workflow automation. It turns repetitive, time-consuming tasks – like emailing forms – into trackable, automated workflows.

From the more obvious to less-often-considered, read on for some reasons to consider adding workflow automation to your recruiting and onboarding arsenal.

1. The Dynamic Duo: Time and Money

“Save time and money.” We know, they’re the Holy Grail of business buzzwords. But seriously, how much time do you waste manually routing information, following up with applicants who’ve forgotten to pass a document along, or waiting on your boss's approval of a candidate?

Workflow automation salvages this valuable time (and therefore, money) by making documents run their course by themselves. That’s right: You no longer have to manually pass everything along between stakeholders. Your documents are all grown up, and they can walk themselves to school. Let them go.

2. Serious Brain-Boosting

When you reduce rote work through forms automation, the benefit is twofold. First, of course, you get back time that would have been spent mindlessly routing documents between your contacts. But more importantly, you eliminate the mental drain of those monotonous tasks. This frees and, most importantly, motivates you to do your work better, and conquer creative challenges. Automate the tedious, mundane tasks to allow yourself time to focus on more meaningful and impactful work.

3. The Satisfaction of Zapping Human Error

Workflow automation software won’t forget to send an offer letter or skip over an important step in the approvals process by accident. You can use these processes to make your recruiting communications timely and flawless, while maintaining the personal touch that only you can bring.

4. Better First Days (For You and Candidates)

Typical HRIS systems don’t provide everything you need for a seamless onboarding experience - but luckily, workflow automation has your back. You need cooperation between departments to get your new hire off to a successful start: a computer from IT, a desk from facilities, and business cards from marketing. When you build these needs into your first day workflow automation, each party knows what’s required of them – and you don’t have to manually email anyone.

5. Get Deep (Understanding of Your Processes)

We saved the best benefit for last. As you dig deep to set up the initial workflow architecture, an extremely valuable takeaway is waiting for you: critical insight into how your business actually runs.

You’ll see which overly complex processes need to be simplified. And as you move forward with a software that tracks and reports on your progress, it will become clear who or what has become a consistent bottleneck.

It becomes a comforting optimization rhythm: Pinpoint slowdowns. Reconfigure. Evaluate. Take another step toward the land of infinite efficiency. Repeat.