Smarter Week

How to automate it

How to automate “update employee records across HR, payroll and benefits systems”

Here are 2 ways to spend less time on this, best first. Each comes with steps you can follow today.

30 min
typically, every day
70%
of the time can be automated
Some setup
to set up

Fix 1 of 2

Software featureBest fix

Make the HR system the one source of truth and turn on its integrations

When every change starts in the HRIS and flows to payroll, benefits and the ATS through native integrations, you stop keying the same change three times.

Typically saves about 50% of the time8 h to set up
  1. 1List every system that holds employee data and how data gets there today.
  2. 2Agree that changes start only in the HRIS.
  3. 3Turn on native integrations (ATS to HRIS, HRIS to payroll and benefits) in BambooHR, Rippling, Workday, HiBob or Paylocity.
  4. 4Where none exists, use a Zapier, Make or Workato flow.
  5. 5Run a monthly mismatch report between systems.

Tools: BambooHR · Rippling · Workday · HiBob · Paylocity · Workato, Zapier or Make

Fix 2 of 2

Automation

Connect the two systems so data moves itself

A Zapier, Make, n8n or Power Automate flow copies new records from one system to the other the moment they appear.

Typically saves about 80% of the time2 h to set up
  1. 1Write down the trigger ("new row in", "new form submission", "deal marked won") and where it should go.
  2. 2Check if the two tools already have a built-in integration; turn it on if so.
  3. 3If not, build a two-step flow in Zapier, Make, n8n or Power Automate.
  4. 4Run it next to your manual process for a week, then stop copying by hand.

Tools: Zapier · Make · n8n · Microsoft Power Automate

Who does this task

Roles in our library that list this as one of their common tasks. Each guide covers the rest of that role’s week.

HR generalistPeople ops / HRIS specialist

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Other common tasks for HR generalists