Automation has proven to be an impactful tool in improving business results. Its rapid adoption across key talent processes has today helped companies drive efficiency and raise productivity. By automating critical components within recruitment, employee engagement and EX, total rewards etc., HR payroll software has helped companies scale their talent processes and help HR play a more strategic role. 

As India Inc continues to script its growth story, it’s important for SMEs to grow and leverage opportunities that HR automation presents. Reports today show that SMEs continue to play a crucial role in India's economy, accounting for 45% of industrial output and 40% of exports. While they today also employ a significant portion of India’s workforce, many find themselves at a disadvantage when competing with larger businesses; often due to their limited resources and inability to benefit from economies of scale. 

It is in such business conditions that investing in HRIS systems provides strategic benefits to HR leaders across the SME sector and empowers them to support business growth.

SMEs and the new world of work 

In a fast-evolving business ecosystem, SMEs today face a wide ambit of challenges like talent shortages, lack of digitalisation, and funding restrictions. This in turn has been shown to hamper HR’s capability in ramping up talent management practices and driving business results. 

Shifting consumer preferences and inflationary pressures today mean SMEs face stricter competition from larger companies with better resources and access to funds. According to a study by the International Journal of Business and Management, SMEs in India often face aggressive pricing strategies from larger businesses. 

In addition to changing consumer preferences, SMEs today face rapidly evolving employee expectations and demand. To attract, engage and retain people with the right skills, SMEs compete with tech-driven talent management processes, like HR payroll software of larger enterprise companies. Skill demand shifts put additional pressure on SMEs to create robust talent initiatives that enhance their experience and create personalised learning opportunities.  

Skilled and engaged talent has fast emerged as the way to drive business success. To create newer ways to grow in the new world of work, SMEs require a renewed focus on talent management. And HR automation is the cornerstone of talent management practices that enable SMEs to compete with larger companies. 

HR automation and its benefits for SMEs 

The lack of digitalisation among SMEs, especially HRIS systems proves to be a significant barrier to revamping talent management practices geared towards the new world of work. As a result HR processes lag and are unable to meet their business's talent needs. Many SMEs in India still rely on manual HR processes, which are time-consuming and prone to errors. According to the same KPMG report, 60% of SMEs in India still use manual processes for HR functions such as payroll and attendance management.

The dependence on manual functioning means that smaller enterprises today fall behind their larger, more established counterparts in terms of both talent and by extension business results. It comes as no surprise that the HR automation landscape is still in its early stages in SMEs in India. Only 10-15% of SMEs in India have adopted HR automation according to a report by KPMG, which is a low number. The report suggests that only 40% of SMEs in India use any form of HR technology.

But with a renewed focus on how effectively SMEs can hire, engage, and retain people with the right skills, the adoption of HR automation is on the rise. Automation can improve candidate sourcing, cut down screening time, make payroll error-free and provide HR professionals more bandwidth to play a more strategic role. The first step to reimagining talent processes for SMEs then becomes to adopt HR tech solutions like HR payroll software to improve the efficacy of such talent processes.

Implementing contextual needs

While there has been a growing interest in revamping their talent practices, many still face challenges when it comes to adopting impactful HR automation solutions. These challenges include limited financial resources, lack of technical expertise, and concerns over data privacy and security. What companies require then are HR automation solutions contextualised to their needs and demands. 

It is here that solutions like PeoplesHR Turbo help meet talent demands and provide solutions to SMEs that are cost-effective and impactful. As a one stop solution for the growing HR demands of SMEs, PeoplesHR Turbo comes with express implementation, where the solution can be set up in just less than a week.

Without an impactful HR automation solution in place, SMEs face an uphill battle when competing with larger companies in both talent and consumer markets. With talent driving business success, SMES today must take the first step towards creating talent processes that reflect the realities of the new and evolving world of work. Talent processes that have HR automation are at the very centre of their effectiveness.