2.155 7 Management Tasks You Can Automate Today (Without Losing Control)

In this episode, Karen discusses how founders and business leaders can use automation to save time, reduce admin, and create more consistency across their people processes without removing the human side of leadership. 

Because for many growing businesses, people management starts off as something you simply absorb into your day. But as the team grows, so does the admin. Before long, you are spending hours on follow up, reminders, approvals, and processes that do not really need to depend on you. 

In today’s episode, we explore seven practical management tasks you can start automating now, including: 

• Recruitment admin, so you can spend less time on back and forth and more time making good hiring decisions 
• Onboarding workflows, to create a smoother and more consistent experience for new starters 
• Performance check in reminders, so important conversations do not keep slipping when things get busy 
• Training and compliance tracking, to reduce risk and make sure important requirements are not missed 
• Leave and timesheet approvals, to cut down on unnecessary friction and manual follow up 
• Routine employee communication, so key updates are sent clearly and consistently 
• Reporting and dashboards, to help you spot patterns early and make better people decisions 

If you have ever felt like you have become the accidental HR manager in your own business, this episode will help you think more clearly about what to systemise, what to keep personal, and where to start. 

Make sure you subscribe so you do not miss future episodes. 

Visit https://www.amplifyhr.com.au for more insights and resources. 

Book a free discovery call: https://meetings.hubspot.com/ronita-fourie

Get our free eBook packed with practical strategies to attract, engage, and retain top talent. Perfect for business owners and leaders focused on building a thriving team. Download it at amplifyhr.com.au/downloadable/find-grow-keep

Transcript

Ep155 Transcript 

 
Welcome to episode 155. And today I thought that I'd talk about the question of how to automate tasks so you can spend more time growing the business. Because for a lot of founders and business owners, people management starts off as something that you just absorb. 
into your day. You become the accidental HR manager because you have to. You hire people, you onboard them, you answer questions, approve leave, follow up on performance issues, and you remind other managers to have conversations that they probably should already be having. And at first, that all feels manageable enough. 
But then the business grows, the team gets bigger, and before you know it, you're spending a huge amount of your week on people admin, follow-up, reminders, decisions that don't really need to sit with you. And you're still busy with people tasks, but you're busy in the wrong place. 
And instead of focusing on things like clients and growth and strategy and leading the business, you're stuck in the weeds, chasing forms, checking processes, and being the go-to person for everything. And this is where automation can make a real difference. And when I say automation, I don't mean removing the human side. 
of leadership and I definitely don't mean handing all of your people management over to a software platform. What I mean is taking the repeatable admin heavy parts of managing people and making them easier, more consistent and less dependent on you to remember everything. Because good automation should reduce 
friction, save time and create consistency. But it's not going to replace judgment, empathy or leadership. You know, your teams still need conversations, clarity. I think managers who show up, you know, where they don't need is a founder or senior managers buried in admin and bottlenecked by tasks that can be easily run. 
through a system. So in this episode, I'm going to share 7 management tasks you could automate today without losing control, and more importantly, without losing that human touch. And a useful way to think about this is that we automate the workflow, not the relationship. So let's start with number one, recruitment. 
admin and this is sometimes the easiest place to save time because it is so administrative and so process driven. And hiring in a small or medium sized business can quickly become really manual, especially if you start posting ads in different places, then you have to start flicking between resumes on different platforms. 
replying to candidates, organising interview time, sending up follow-up emails. You know, even as I'm saying this, I'm feeling exhausted, you know, trying to track who's at what stage of the recruitment process. And it's not that any one of those tasks is particularly hard, but together they create a lot of back and forth. 
And they pull your attention away from the more important part, which is actually the selection process and deciding who's right for the role. So that admin side of recruitment can absolutely be automated. You know, you can automate job ad posting across multiple sites. You know, you can use screening questions to help philtre applications. 
have resumes collected in one place, use scheduling tools for interviews and use e-mail templates for progress updates and rejection emails. It doesn't have to be fancy. For some businesses, particularly those that are larger, you may have an ATS, which is an applicant tracking system, but for most smaller business, it's just a... 
combination of things like Seek or LinkedIn and Calendly or using Microsoft Bookings or whatever it is that you use and having some just really well-written templates and a process because you don't want to remove yourself from hiring. You want to stop wasting hours on the repetitive process. 
Parts of it, so you still decide what good looks like, who moves forward, and you make the final call, but instead of getting buried in inbox management, you create a process that's easy to run and gives candidates a more consistent experience as well. So, for example, at Amplify HR, we don't accept applications outside of the job platform that we're using for the job site. And that's because we want to keep everything into one place. But we have contact details on the ad so someone can call the recruiter if they have questions. You know, the few people that then go to the website and e-mail us their details, we say, look, 
Sorry, you have to go back to the app and you have to apply that way because otherwise it's too easy to get all of these things lost and start to get sucked into that admin time. So we want all the applications in one spot. The other thing with doing that is that you can auto philtre them because in the system you can put the T 
key terms or criteria like salary, location and experience level. And so then when the applications go in, only those that meet the eligibility criteria come through to you as a shortlist in the system. And then what we do is we invite people to book in a quick phone conversation. We give them. 
the link and say, you know, book in 15 minutes, make sure you've read the job ad before you do that, so we can have a chat about the job. And you know, this shows that the candidate can follow instructions, they can use technology, and it also forces people to read that because let's face it, most people these days aren't reading them, they're just clicking the apply button. So rather than wading through 
100 applications, let's say, we may get 20 or 30 that get shortlisted by the system, and then we send that calendar link to those 20 to 30, and maybe half of those will book at a time. So before we've really started to spend any time on the process of selection, we've already significantly reduced the number of 
applicants to review through just having those really simple automations, which doesn't require any extra technology. And you know, this is just a practical example of improving your find process without making it feel overly complicated and not having it overly corporate. So moving on from recruitment, 
but then getting into onboarding. So yeah, this is what I would say catches a lot of businesses out because we know onboarding is so critical, but in practice, it relies a lot on memory and goodwill. You know, someone accepts the role, there's a flurry of activity, the contract has to go out, payroll forms need to be completed, access needs to be set up, equipment organised, policy shared, someone needs to remember to cheque in with them. 
after the first week, first month, when the probation ends. But if there's no system behind it, onboarding becomes inconsistent really quickly. And if we can give our new starters a smooth, organised welcome, the research shows they're much more likely to stay and be productive, whereas 
where we do a rushed experience, you know, the basics is missing and it makes it look unprofessional, but it also slows down how someone can be productive. And in some cases, people will decide, you know, what, I'm not going to work for this company more than 12 months or two years or whatever it is within that first week. So you've already disengaged them without even realising it. 
So this is where automation helps enormously. You know, you can automate welcome emails, contract signing, payroll setup, IT requests, policy acknowledgement, and reminders for key check-in points. Now, it might sit in an HR system, or it might be a simple project management tool with checklist templates, automatic 
due dates. I see people use Trello boards. You know, it doesn't really matter. It's just that you want the process to be clear and not depending on one person to remember every step. But a bit of a warning, this is where the human side really matters. So a system can send paperwork, but 
It can't make someone feel welcome. Yeah, it can't build that connection. It can't explain how you work, what success looks like, or what kind of culture you're trying to create. So yes, automate the process, but make sure that you're keeping it personal and human because that is the best on boarding. 
Now, moving into performance check-ins and reminders, because this is another place where good intentions can often fall away once we get busy. Most leaders know they should be having regular one-on-ones, probation reviews, performance conversations, but when there's no rhythm around it, the conversations just get pushed back. You know, suddenly a few months have passed. 
someone's unclear on expectations, an issue's been left for too long, or a good employee has not had much meaningful feedback. And it's not that the managers don't care. It's probably just that there's no simple system keeping it on track. And this is where automation can be really helpful. You can set up recurring reminders for one-on-ones, probation check-ins, quarterly reviews. You can use pre-meeting questions, standard templates, manager 
So the conversations are easier to prepare for and easier to document afterwards. So what you're automating here is the structure and the reminder and not the conversation itself. Because performance should never feel like a ticker box exercise. It shouldn't be a template read out word for word. It should be a real conversation about what's going well. 
where someone's stuck, what support they need, and what needs to improve. So what automation does is it just makes sure those conversations happen consistently instead of relying on someone's memory or urgency. It creates accountability around the process. So managers are not just having performance conversations. 
when something's gone wrong. 
The 4th area is training and compliance tracking. And this is 1 where a lot of businesses really just keep all this manual. It's often a spreadsheet somewhere, training records on it, everyone hopes it's up to date. But as the team grows, it becomes harder to manage and easier to get wrong. And if you're in a regulated industry, those training records 
are really important. So a better approach is to automate the parts that are routine. So you can automate assigning mandatory training, reminders for overdue modules, completion tracking, certificates and refresher dates. And in Australia, that could also include things like work health and safety training, 
bullying and harassment awareness, code of conduct training, or other role specific requirements. The value is not just in the time saving, it's also in the risk reduction. If you ever need to show that someone's completed training or the business has taken reasonable steps around compliance, then it helps enormously to have a clear system. 
rather than a patchy manual record. 
So at the same time, this is another area where automation should not support, should not replace sorry, leadership, it should support it. You know, just because someone's completed an online module does not mean they've understood it or they're applying it in practice. So we still need to reinforce expectations. 
answer questions, and make sure compliance is more than a tick box activity. So automate the tracking, do not outsource the responsibility. Now the 5th area is leave and timesheet approvals, which might not sound exciting, but for many business owners, this is a constant source of eruption. If your team is regularly asking how much leave they have, or having to chase timesheets, 
or payrolls depending on someone manually putting everything together at the last minute, it creates unnecessary friction for everyone. So this is one of the clearest opportunities for automation because the process is repeatable and the technology is already there. Integrated payroll and HR systems can manage leave requests, approvals, balance time sheets. 
and payroll much more smoothly than an e-mail chain or a spreadsheet ever will. And that means fewer questions, fewer errors, and less manual follow up. And of course, not every lead request is straightforward. Sometimes there are operational issues to manage, patterns to address, or a judgement call to make, but a well set up system takes care of the routine. 
Flow, so that when you do need to step in, you're dealing with the exception rather than everything. 
The 6th area is employee communication, because this is another task that often ends up more manual than it needs to be. So especially when we're growing, there are so many regular updates that need to go out. Policy reminders, public holiday notices, shutdown dates, training deadlines, probation milestones. And none of them are especially complex, but they all take time. 
if you are creating them one by one every time they come around. And this is where templates and scheduled communications can really help. You can automate routine updates, policy notifications, and reminders for key dates that people are kept informed without you needing to draught a new e-mail every single time. So it creates consistency, reduces the mental load of trying to remember 
What needs to be communicated and when? Now, we just need to be careful to not overdo it. Sensitive news, difficult changes, anything that affects people personally still needs to be much more thoughtful and human. But for routine communication, a bit of automation can save a lot of time and improve clarity because messages are consistent. 
The 7th area is reporting and dashboards. And this is where you move from reacting to leading. A lot of business leaders and owners are often making decisions, especially around people based on gut feel. And while that can be useful, you know, it's not always enough. If turnover is creeping up, sick leave is increasing, onboarding is patchy, 
Managers are missing probation reviews. We want to know that early. We don't want to drown in reports, but a small number of useful people metrics will help us see what's happening in the business and where our attention is needed. And that might be headcount, turnover, absenteeism, recruitment pipeline, training completion, 
probation status or leave trends, you know, whatever matters most for your business, as long as you can look at it and say, I will make a decision based on that number, then track the number. And the reporting can usually be automated through your HR or payroll system or through a simple dashboard that just pulls the data together in one place. And this is where automation 
become a strategic because we're not spending time gathering the numbers. We're actually just spending the time interpreting them and deciding what to do next. And that's very different. Now, a bonus area, I know I only said seven, but bonus series manager toolkits. And this isn't always thought of as automation, but it has a similar effect because it reduces dependency. 
on the founder or the senior leaders, it makes day-to-day management easier as well. So things like one-on-one templates, interview scorecards, probation review forms, return to work checklists, guides for handling performance conversations, they can all be built and then they just launch consistently across the business. So 
Managers don't need to reinvent the wheel every time. And you're not being pulled in simply because someone else is not feeling confident about where to start. So that can be one of the most valuable ways to free up your time. You know, we're not taking managers out of the process, but we're equipping them to handle the process better. Now, before I wrap up, 
I just want to talk about what not to automate. And I would not automate final hiring decisions, difficult feedback conversations, performance concerns, misconduct matters, wellbeing check-ins or anything else that relies heavily on context, care and judgment. 
because this is where businesses can kind of go off the rails a little bit in trying to be more efficient. They actually just strip out the humanity of leadership. So our systems can support those moments, but they don't replace them. People don't want to feel managed by workflow. They want clarity and consistency, but they want to be seen. 
heard and treated fairly. And this all comes down to leadership. So the real aim here is not to automate people management, it's to automate the repeatable admin around people management. So leaders can spend more time on the things that matter most. And if you're listening to this and you're thinking, gosh, that sounds great, but we're just not there yet, 
That's okay. You don't need to fix everything at once. And I actually wouldn't recommend it. Just pick one area every quarter and improve it properly. So you might want to just think about what's the one that has the most friction right now? What's causing me the most time right now? For many businesses, that's going to be recruitment. For others, it might be onboarding. 
could be leave management. Just start with the pain is and build something simple and then move on to the next thing. And over time, those changes will add up. You're going to create more consistency for your team, reduce that risk that things get missed, and you'll free up hours that used to disappear into your admin and follow-up. And that's really the point. We don't want to create a perfect HR system for the sake of it. 
The goal is just to stop founders and leaders getting stuck in the low value people admin so they have more space to lead, support their team and grow the business. So just think about this as automate the admin, keep the leadership human. That's how you save time without losing control. And if you're listening to this, 
and you think, you know what, we have outgrown, so do it yourself approach to people management, then that's exactly where we can help at Amplify HR through our Accelerate project, which uses our find, grow, keep methodology. And we help growing businesses put simple, practical people and culture foundations in place. So you can scale without everything relying. 
on you. And if you'd like to talk through what that might look like for your business, you can book a free discovery call. The link is in the show description. And if this episode was useful, I'd love it if you could leave a rating or a review over at Apple Podcasts or Spotify so someone else can also find the episodes to help with their business. 
Thanks so much for joining me. If you have any feedback, questions or ideas for future episodes, head on over to amplifyhr.com.au or connect with me on LinkedIn and we can start a conversation.