Tools to Automate HR Tasks w/ Ananth Avva, Pipefy

30% of work activities at over half of the jobs in the US, according to some sources, could be automated. That's the equivalent of a day and a half's worth of work time every week that most employees could claw back if their processes, workflows, and tasks didn’t require as much hands-on attention!

While many HR pros and leaders perhaps fear the time and knowledge-transfer investment needed to set up automation, the work of planning and implementing automations doesn’t actually have to be complicated and it shouldn’t be feared. The trick, says today's guest, is knowing what you want to do, recognizing what you can do, and then figuring out which tools you need to put it in motion.

If you're looking to learn about processes and tools that can give you the power to easily automate workflows and manage business processes with no coding skills required, you've come to the right place!

In this HRchat, we consider tools to automate tasks. Listen too, as we consider an 8-point framework to help guide you through the steps you need to take in order to automate any process or business workflow.

Bill's guest this time is Ananth Avva, President and COO at Pipefy, a workflow management software on a mission to empower 'doers' and transform the way teams work.

Questions Include: 

• Pipefy tries to help to automate lots of jobs traditionally done by humans. Can you share examples of tasks your team can help allocate - at least in part - to the robots? (e.g. Employee Onboarding, Purchasing / Procurement, Customer Onboarding, Accounts Payable, Marketing Requests, Hiring / Recruiting, and Expense Reimbursement)
• We've just come through 18 months of crisis. Why are companies that jump on the workflow automation train today better set to be future-proofed against further crises? 
• Pipefy and JazzHR partnered in 2021 to empower HR professionals to streamline and augment their hiring process with custom, automated workflows. We've previously featured JazzHR on this show and love what they do. Tell me about

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:11

Welcome to the HR chat podcast, bringing the best of the HR and talent communities to you.

Speaker 2: 0:21

30% of work activities at over half of the jobs in the U S according to some sources could be automated. That's the equivalent of a day and a half's worth of work every week that most employers could claw back. If their processes, workflows and tasks didn't require as much, hands-on the tension. While many HR pros and leaders, perhaps fear the time and knowledge transfer investment needed to set up automation, the work of planning and implementing automations doesn't actually have to be complicated, and it shouldn't be feared. The trick says today's guest is knowing what you want to do, recognizing what you can do, and then figuring out which tools you need to put it in motion. If you're looking to learn about processes and tools that can give you the power to easily automate workflows and manage business processes with no coding skills required, you've come to the right place. Hey, I'm bill Banham. And in this HR chat episode, we're going to consider tools to automate tasks. Listen to, as we consider an eight point framework to help guide you through the steps you need to take in order to automate any processes or business workflow. My guest this time is a non other president at Piper five, a workflow management software on a mission to empower doers and transform the way teams work. Ananth welcome to today's HR chat show.

Speaker 3: 1:44

Thank you so much, Phil. Great to be here and thanks for the wonderful introduction. Yeah. This topic is especially special to me because it definitely hits home. I'm actually married to an HR professional, so I happy to be here and see how we can help.

Speaker 2: 1:58

Now you can tell me a bit about Piper fi um, and listeners I've been told that sometimes people misspell it. So I'm just gonna read out one time. Uh, it's P I P E F Y. Um, so tell us a bit about[inaudible] and how it accelerates digital transformation and why that matters.

Speaker 3: 2:16

I think one of the interesting things that I heard recently, and this is from bill McDermott, um, service now, CEO, he described this as a do or die moment, and specifically what he was talking about with 75% of fortune 500 companies will make it, or the next five to six years until they make bold decisions towards digital transformation. Now that's the fortune 500 companies with millions of dollars, extremely strong balance sheets and resources. So I think the question always comes up. Well, what about all the other millions of companies out there and how, what are they going to do as we go through this interesting journey of digital transformation? And what we are at pipeline is where a low code, no code application platform, uh, and specifically a citizen application development platform where we enable anyone and everyone to build simple, lightweight, easy consumerized applications to empower their organizations or stakeholders that are interacting with their organizations and to drive more efficient and effective work. A lot of times where the best way we describe ourselves as you typically have your systems of record, like your HRS system or your ERP system, whatever it might be. And we end up becoming the orchestration layer or the system of engagement sitting on top, uh, to ensure that when work starts, the initiation is easy and we give you full visibility as a requester on how that work goes through all these different systems, automate any steps as they're, as they're needed and ensure that the right outcomes are achieved. And I think for a lot of HR leaders listening today, um, what I would convey is they're extremely critical. Um, especially in the change management aspects, it's not just about technology. It's also ensuring that the, the human beings and the employees in your organization are enabled the right way to drive the digital transformation.

Speaker 2: 4:16

Super, thank you. Now, Piper fight tries to help to automate lots of jobs traditionally done by humans. Maybe now you can share some examples of tasks that your team can help allocate at least in part to the robots.

Speaker 3: 4:32

Yeah, definitely. I mean, I think as a, as a platform, we've done everything from customer onboarding accounts, payable, marketing, but I think given the nature of this podcast, um, we'll definitely talk about some of the HR processes. So we have over 650 organizations about 10,000 plus users or optimizing HR workflows on our platform. So for example, you know, when we think about employee onboarding, you know, some studies show that as human beings, the first impression that we form for another, another person is as less as 27 seconds. I think as HR professionals, we typically think of that onboarding process as 90 days and hugely important, right? That first interaction, once you've created a person they've signed the document that comes through, what does that interaction look like? Your typical onboarding process might look something like this. There's probably emails and spreadsheets, and either slack messages and other, other sort of communication platforms where your HR business partner or your recruiting coordinator is going through the process of making sure that paperwork is ready, then making sure that the appropriate paperwork is sent to the right parties, then someone in it is set the task to go in and ensure that this person has a laptop, has access to the right systems, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. There's a lot of steps. And what ends happening is any misstep or miscue in that process creates a negative employee experience. And then there goes the first impression that you can make in the first 90 days, what we would do as PYP fly is we would, for example, once you make the offer, we automatically generate the offer letter based on templates that you have. And depending on where the employee is located, we can even change the templates, um, to accommodate any clauses or special factors. Once it's signed, we will automatically scan that document, alert it, and automatically provision them to Google, Microsoft, slack, all the different systems like Salesforce, et cetera, based on the manager that they're reporting to. And also based on the department that they're in. So we can, pre-configure all of those systems that need to be accessed. And then we'll automatically sort of trigger an API call to ordering the laptop or any machines or shipping to get the, the right gear to that particular employee. And we'll have a very active, automated email campaign sent to the employee to ensure that they know exactly where they are in the onboarding journey. And once they start will automatically also for example, block out people's calendars, do the, one-on-ones get them through the appropriate training sessions, et cetera. So at no point is it the, the stress that the poor individual has to go through to ensure that all of this, all of this is done. Um, we pretty much orchestrate all of that. So HR business partners and HR professionals can work on what matters the most, which is really ensuring that the employee is getting the right experience as close to all the logistics involved with the onboarding process.

Speaker 2: 7:41

Okay. Thank you. Now we've just come through around 18 months of crisis. Of course. Uh, what, why, why companies that jumped on the workflow, automation bandwagon nor train at the moment, uh, better set perhaps to be future proofed against further crises?

Speaker 3: 7:58

Yeah, I think, you know, we've, we're, I, I'm not sure we're quite out of the crisis, so I'll share some stats. So we know according to the Institute of labor economics, generally, most companies have lost 20 to 30% of productivity, uh, because not necessarily just because of remote work, but because there's, in-house childcare, there's other things that are happening in people's families and the sort of the, the work world and the personal world continue to merge. Um, so in order to compensate for that, but a lot of folks are doing is they're working 30% more, uh, to offset the reduction productivity. That's the average increase. Um, most, most folks have seen this hasn't reverted yet. And that's why I say, I don't think we're out of it. We're literally having the most valuable resource for our organizations is our people running at 130% above average, and you maybe hiring more people is not feasible. It may actually just worsen the situation while this is happening. What we're learning from Gartner is 70% of new application development is on low-code no-code platforms. And 65% of the 70% is really related to those apps that are, that are focused on getting work done, which is to help knowledge workers cope with this change. So the key thing for HR or any leaders I would say is digital transformation is almost necessary to start getting things back to quote unquote normal and giving time back to those individuals where they've been working harder to offset some of the productivity losses. And I don't think it's possible to do it in one fell swoop. Um, I think if anyone's expecting a silver bullet where you can get a 20% reduction, it's not going to happen, I think it's going to be an iterative process and some ongoing process where we do a lot of micro optimization and percent here, 2% there, 3% here. And the aggregation of those micro initiatives are what's going to help us unlock a broader ROI, which is literally getting people back time that they're, that they're investing back into the business to cope with the productivity losses. So in terms of being future proof, I think we're still in the myths of the after effects of the crisis. And it's, it's really about avoiding burnout and ensuring that we get the, we get the right type of engagement and the employees sort of overall wellbeing and health care back contract.

Speaker 2: 10:34

So I remember, uh, in my career when a Wiziwig, what you see is what you get, uh, drag and drop content management systems came in for, for those within marketing and content creation. And now as a content creator myself with little knowledge, a little bit, but a little bit knowledge of, uh, of, of coding, but it was, you know, essentially the fundamentals of HTML. Uh, it was, it was kind of, it was a bit of a wonder to me and, and what I did see, um, although it took me a little while to get my head around how easy website building had, had become, and the technology that was now available, the drag and drop, for example, what are the common concerns and misconceptions that you hear from technical users when it comes to deploying digital workloads?

Speaker 3: 11:19

Great question. I think I'll say two things, right. Generally at the user level. Um, and we hear little objections that is, were fairly easy to adopt. Um, in fact, you can go to our website and you even try the product and try it for free, uh, and similar to like an Amazon's app or consumerize, like experience. We deliver a really good UI UX framework where users can jump right in and start testing and iterating. Um, the, the product. In fact, we actually a lot of free users for our shared inbox, product forums, products, and others, but I think maybe one conception of the user level might be that you need to be extremely technical or sophisticated. And that's actually far from the truth. Um, I think that people who are best at designing and building those applications are not your most technical users. They're actually people who are closest to the front lines and understand what the desired outcomes look like. So it's not atypical to have an HR business partner and accountant, a facilities manager even actually build the app, uh, on our backend. And we have a lot of templates to system. In fact, we have 500 plus templates on our website to assist them where maybe we don't have exactly what you need, but we, we can give you a running start. The bigger pushback from my perspective is, is actually the change management aspect. A lot of the citizens who are building these products, they're not just for themselves, right? Like they're not going out there and building sort of a workflow workflow application, let's say for employee onboarding just for themselves, they're really doing it for a lot of the new employees that are coming in and the managers and the organizations that are so inevitably, there's an element of change management involved. And a lot of the citizens that are deploying these applications and users of ours, they're sort of visionaries in their organization. And that is why initially I said, you know, HR plays such a critical role here care because it's definitely a identifying and developing the talent, but it's also arming that talent with the change management aspects to go through the common objections that, that particular user encounters in their organization. And we, you know, we're partnering with the PMI streets. So the project management Institute where you can get citizen developer certifications, there's other ways to just help train those users on basic change management skill sets. But I would say largely speaking, that's where we might see generally most of the objections come through as we're scaling the product less. So at the user level itself.

Speaker 2: 14:02

So Piper fi and jazzy jar partnered in 2021 to empower HR professionals to streamline and augment the hiring process with custom automated workflows. Uh, we previously featured jazzy jaw on the HR chat show and, uh, we love what they do. Tell me about the session back in early September at Sherm 2021 called leveraging automation to bring humanity back to HR and the learning outcomes from the session.

Speaker 3: 14:31

Yeah, I think unfortunately I wasn't there personally, but the biggest thing that we heard from lot of the folks in the room, I think first, we were just surprised by the attendance. Um, we weren't quite sure how that would pan out given COVID, but the biggest learning outcome for us is in the remote world or a hybrid world or whatever the new normal is going to look like employee onboarding. And that first touch experience continues to be top of mind for most HR professionals. And I think the second sort of interesting outcome from some of the conversations is just retention and compensation what's happening is whether or not we take advantage of remote work is yet to be seen. But the consistent feedback is if you don't offer it as one of the benefits of working in your organization, you're probably on the losing end of the long-term journey for a lot of employees and a lot of talent that's out there. But what that is creating is putting a lot of pressure on HR processes and systems, where now you're dealing with hot desking. Now you're dealing with conference rooms and booking. Now you're dealing with, well, who's going to come in. Who's not going to come in, what should be the days where everyone comes in or should everyone not come in because that's going to increase the risk. So there's a lot of process and workflow questions that are coming up, and there's not really a whole lot of applications that can quote unquote handle it because it's not the classic HRS systems that deal with these types of questions. It's very customizable and it's, it's very dependent on the organization and the desired outcomes for the organization. So I think the biggest thing for us and the biggest learning lessons coming out of that term conferences, it just reinforced sort of our positioning, which is we need to continue to arm those citizen developers to be able to build those high-grade like consumerized applications in a very efficient way, and very quickly to help us get through not just the next sort of few months, but literally get through survive and continue to scale where organizations are embracing the remote first or hybrid option.

Speaker 2: 16:47

This is you're, you're, you're sitting here saying this all sounds great, but bill mentioned in his introduction, uh, that we're going to go through an eight step process, but we're here now, uh, is that part of the interview? Um, so as I mentioned in that introduction, that there is actually a clear eight step process that HR leaders can follow to automate many of the processes. And it was recently shared on the Piper five block. Um, and I thought it was really cool and I thought, definitely there's something, um, that an author should speak about today, but, uh, I'm, I'm gonna, I'm going to challenge you to maybe go through all of the eight, okay. Eight steps in three minutes or less. Do you, do you accept the challenge

Speaker 3: 17:30

Challenge accepted? I'll try. Yeah, I think, you know, the key thing here is when we wrote the blog, um, it's whether it's eight, but it's five, it's four is less relevant. I think we try to provide a framework, as I mentioned for the change management aspects. So I know the first step is you have to define your goals if you're going through employee onboarding. And we'll just use that as the process for this walkthrough is the goal to onboard people very quickly is the goal to ensure that you remove the logistical overhead from your HR professionals is the goal to actually will better consumer experience for the prospective employee coming in. So the goals are important because that then is going to dictate what is the target process that you're going to identify in employee onboarding? I mean, you think of employee onboarding as one process, but it's not. There's a lot of sub-processes and sub tasks within this process. If you're about speed and execution, then I made them the offer letter and then automating provisioning, which has a lot to do with it. Integration points of system integration points might be the target process, but if you're looking for a consumerized experience and giving the employee a really good journey, then portals the email automations, SMS automations, the communication collaboration aspect might be more important. So that's step two, which is going to be dictated by the goals you just established. Then it's establishing process boundaries. Like I mentioned, change management and going through any, any sort of transformation isn't isn't done overnight. Um, we always guide folks to say, well, let's just define who their stakeholders are, build the right RACI model, that's responsibilities, accountability, who's consulted, who's informed. And then who are the actors and who are the, who is accountable to actually get the process executed, then mapping out your process. So now that you've identified the carpet process, you know, the actors and players, how should the new process looks like, look like, and how would you ensure that you get alignment is just visualizing the process and getting everyone on the same page at this ouch work, um, identifying tasks that can be automated. Uh, and I'll say creating your, your automation whistle wishlist five and six are interesting. I think everyone seems like, Hey, we should start automating everything and eliminating the queue. And that's not always the case. A lot of times what we've, what we've guided folks to do as well. If you don't know what exactly the automation is, what we've introduced this concept of human center of automation into our backend, where we basically say, instead of just automating that, right, why don't we create this collaborative near on top of our platform so we can do the appropriate triggers. And haven't had a human being actually go in for the first time. And then we can train the model to them fully automated. After we've seen a few of those interactions, then assessing your capabilities and configuring your automation. So now that you understand all of the iterations and combinations of where things can go wrong, or where things get stuck, you're going to assess your internal human capital process system capabilities. And then once you've done that assessment, you can go back and actually configure the full end to end automation. So it's a framework I would say, definitely not the only framework, but really what we're talking about here is making sure we take this big problem, which is called digital transformation and breaking it up into bite-size meals. So folks can go through and start engaging the relevant parties the right way.

Speaker 2: 21:06

And just one last question for today. And, um, I couldn't help it. I had to do a little upon here, but what's in the pipeline pipeline and how can we learn more,

Speaker 3: 21:16

A lot happening. In fact, in the last 12 months, we've seen a five X increase in automation rules just to give folks some perspective. We have over 266 million automations running every quarter. Um, and that's about 33 human centric automations per user, per day, uh, platform, um, that notion of trying to unlock those efficiencies and giving people back time. We're definitely seeing that play out in real data, um, on our backend, what we're really focused on for the next 12 months is where improving what we call our database experience. So really enabling users to leverage as a system of record. So for example, person X is being onboarded. Who's a person asks what's the information related to them, et cetera, and emulating your HRS system on our own backend. So for the process owner, they don't have to go back and forth into different systems. They can just use us as the single pane of glass, that peer into all the different systems and the information that are sitting in all those different systems. We're also looking to build more sort of complex user management interface. So it, governance is definitely key area. We know for low-code and no-code to be successful, information needs to be secure, protected. So we're actually continuing to introduce more and more advanced capabilities there and also enriching the guest experience. So statistically for every Hi-Fi user, we actually have a seven to eight, what we call guests that are coming in. So folks who are either logging in requests and either by forum shared inbox or other other mechanisms. So we want to make sure that we have a more powerful guest experience where if an employee has a request or there's a prospective candidate coming through your pipe, making sure that they have the right interface and see where their particular request is or where they are in the, in the overall process journey. Those are very tactical, but I think one of the areas that were really excited about, and this is more of the visionary play. I'm not sure if it's the next three months, six months, 12 months, or the next two years, but some really interesting things have come out when we talk about automation and taking automation company combining with AI, that's an interesting area for us. So for example, let's say someone has to approve like a comp change for an individual, or we're going through calibration for our prospective candidate. Someone has to go through and hit the approve button and HR could be, could be your compensation committee could be your, your comp analyst, but what's the best time to surface that, that particular approval requests, um, and we're able to scrub your calendar or the person's calendar. We're able to see previous behaviors on when they typically review tasks like this, should it be emails, should it be slack? Should it be other, what's the best way to collaborate and interface with that particular user to get things done? We can actually tell a lot of that and we can introduce some fairly advanced routing escalation rules where as opposed to people saying, oh yeah, you know, that particular approval. Yeah. That got lost in my inbox. Sorry, let me go back and come back to you. We're able to actually surface the right task at the right time to the right person and going well and beyond sort of just automation, but introducing even more, more sense synthesize way for human centric automation. Then beyond that, we're looking at introducing AI for natural language processing. So let's say, you know, HR teams are scrubbing through much documents and they're saying, Hey, I need to look for all these offer letters with these exceptions. For example, if there's a separation event, um, we want to go through and ensure that those particular employees are entitled to that additional compensation for whatever analysis that you're doing. And that's the kind of, sort of AI layer that we can introduce on top of the workflow to help optimize outcomes. And that's, that's what we're really looking forward to or the next 12 months to 18.

Speaker 2: 25:18

Wonderful. Well, that just leaves me to say for today. Thank you very much for joining me on this episode of the HR chat show.

Speaker 3: 25:26

Likewise, feel great to be here. Thank you so much

Speaker 2: 25:28

And listeners as we're waiting until next time, happy working.

Speaker 1: 25:33

Thank you for listening to the HR chat podcast brought to you by the HR Gazette.