Robots i the Back Office: The Future of Recruitmet Eterprises Abstract As social ad techological chages reshape the busiess ladscape ad ew etrats stiffe the competitio, staffig ad recruitmet eterprises must embrace practices that improve turaroud time ad ehace service levels to survive the war for talet. This becomes eve more relevat as the cost-per-hire ad time-to-hire cotiues to rise i the face of global talet shortage which is curretly pegged at whoopig 40%.1 While the solutio lies i adoptig a lower costto-serve approach, large-scale techology trasformatios are expesive ad come with their ow set of complexities. Moreover, they do t always guaratee success. This holds true particularly for recruitmet back office operatios which rely mostly o ERP systems. As the idustry grows primarily through mergers ad acquisitios (M&As), the IT applicatio ladscape is further complicated by the presece of disparate legacy systems. Robotic process automatio (RPA) ca offer some relief by virtually itegratig IT systems without disruptig busiess operatios.
Iefficiecies withi the Back Office A typical post-to-hire cycle begis whe the recruiter s cliets post their job requiremets by email, phoe, ad so o, ad eds whe the cadidate is o-boarded. These frot-office fuctios are extremely critical for day-to-day operatios. However, for temporary staffig, which geerally costitutes a large chuk of the overall reveue, the story does ot ed here. A successful temporary placemet may esure recurrig reveue for the compay, but this ca oly be realized through meticulously orgaized middle- ad back-office fuctios, such as timesheet maagemet, billig, huma resources (HR) maagemet, fiace, ad accoutig. These placemets are usually doe i large volumes ad associate maagemet activities become cumbersome especially whe it comes to geeralist staffig. Moreover, back-office teams eed to coordiate with multiple cliets, third parties, ad iteral busiess developmet ad recruitmet uits mostly depedig o disparate IT systems ad a diverse set of applicatios. They also eed to keep track of their daily tasks through shared folders, multiple Excel sheets, ad more, which traslates to maually ad repeatedly extractig data from oe applicatio to aother. RPA to the Rescue May compaies ofte tur to emergig CRM ad applicat trackig systems or ERP, which oly add to the complexity of existig legacy IT ifrastructure. However, techology itself caot be the solutio. To esure seamless collaboratio ad process efficiecies, eterprises eed to empower people with solutios that provide the right
data at the right time. The aswer lies i itegratig RPA across back-office operatios, as highlighted i Figure 1. GUI Automatio Automate repetitive tasks o graphical user iterface (GUI) Web Data Extractio Web Mash Up Scrape data for extractig iformatio from websites Aggregate data from multiple sources for aalysis Web Data Etry PDF Automatio Automate data upload from source to target systems Automate the PDF workflows Citrix GUI Automatio Email Automatio Automate repetitive tasks i Citrix applicatios Automate the email workflows Figure 1: Key RPA Levers for Automatig Recruitmet Back-office Operatios Case Study: Process Assessmet for Leadig Global Recruitmet Compay Busiess Process: Order-to-Cash Objective: Assessig existig middle- ad back-office processes to idetify opportuities for implemetig RPA to esure operatioal efficiecy ad improve existig service levels Key Fidigs: After a thorough study of the order tocash cycle, we foud a large umber of maual repetitive tasks across the back office. I some cases, RPA became absolutely ecessary for more tha 40 tasks (as show i Figure 2). Timesheet Maagemet Temp Worker Payroll Assigmet Maagemet Billig Cash Applicatio 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 Figure 2: Maual tasks suitable for RPA at the Leadig Recruiter 35 40 45
RPA i Actio across the Back Office A successful placemet agaist a temporary job etitles staffig compaies to raise ivoices for services redered while udertakig the liability of processig the hire s payroll. However, the whole middle- ad back-office cycle is replete with maual tasks suited for RPA. Before adoptig such a solutio, though, compaies must aalyze their as-is processes ad systems. Assigmet maagemet: This ivolves maagig daily tasks by trackig cotract additios, closures, ad reewals. Raw data eeds to be extracted from middle-office systems ad a set of fields are required to idetify ew assigmets, which are the etered maually ito the back-office systems. The umber of data fields here ca be as high as 100 i some cases. RPA applicability (web data extractio, web data etry): Data extractio ca be easily automated, while usig embedded logic to idetify ew assigmets. The eligible records ca the be automatically processed ad etered ito the uderlyig target system be it a ERP or a o-erp applicatio. Time capture ad processig: Beig a critical middleoffice process, this is usually executed i umerous ways. It ca be as simple as maitaiig iteral time-keepig systems. It could also ivolve a vedor maagemet system (VMS) which are ot itegrated with the eterprise s applicatios. Or, it may rely o emails ad faxes, which is tedious ad complicated. More ofte tha ot, a combiatio of these time keepig methods are deployed. RPA applicability (email automatio, GUI automatio): RPA ca simplify complex time-keepig tasks, particularly those that ivolve emails ad VMSs. A RPA solutio ca read iformatio from the source (such as, time data from i-comig emails) before populatig them i HRMS or similar systems. Email automatio also eables sedig out timely remiders for fillig i timesheets ad trackig resposes received. Temp worker payroll: Processig this is primarily a weekly exercise but requires daily preparatios to esure success. This begis with uploadig each associate s available time data ad processig exceptio records. This is followed by uploadig beefits data ad recocilig pay rates betwee frot- ad back-office systems before a fial payroll ru. A part of this activity also ivolves respodig to associate queries ad cocers.
RPA applicability (email automatio, web Mashup): RPA ca automatically recocile time ad pay rate iformatio preset across multiple frot- ad back-office systems. It ca gather beefits data from emails ad put them i predefied Excel sheets before processig. Fially, it ca iitiate various steps o ERP or HRM systems to prepare for the payroll ru. Cash applicatio: This begis after receivig paymets from respective cliets. Although, this process varies across recruitmet compaies, but two major sub-processes revolve aroud the processig of VMS ad o-vms receipts. Some also cosider iter-eterprise fud trasfers betwee group compaies alog with frachises as part of this process. Today, most uapplied cash receipts are processed maually. RPA applicability (GUI automatio, email automatio): RPA ca aggregate ad categorize all uapplied cash receipts. It ca also merge this data with cliets maual remittace records for processig, based o a set of predefied busiess rules. Follow-ups ad trackig uapplied items over emails ca also be automated. Billig: Usually, staffig compaies iitiate this process by maually extractig cotract extesio, cacellatio, ad modificatio data from frot-office applicat trackig systems. Some of these chages are received through emails. Before geeratig ivoices, temporary workers attedace ad timesheet data are recociled alog with validatio of pay ad bill rates. The fial task ivolves creatig, cosolidatig, ad deliverig ivoices ad if required, rectifyig these accordig to cliet feedback. RPA applicability (GUI automatio, PDF automatio): As show i Figure 3, web data extractio bots ca crawl through ecessary documets across source systems, while the email workflow automatio system picks up additioal iformatio from mails to iitiate billig process. Recociliatio is performed usig a web mashup, eabled by GUI automatio that picks-up iformatio by automatically loggig ito various time-keepig applicatios ad VMS. Rule-based decisio makig is eabled by embeddig logic ito the bots before deploymet to esure ecessary recociliatio of iformatio preset i existig frot- ad back-office systems. I case specific prefereces eed to be applied, mii bots esure such data is kept up-to-date by compilig the same from emails ad cliet systems. Evetually, ivoices ca be delivered as PDFs ad emails through workflow automatio.
Sub-tasks associated with billig process for a typical recruitmet compay Extractio of cotract extesio, cacellatio ad modificatio data Creatio, maiteace ad applicatio of ivoice prefereces for cliet Recociliatio of time ad attedace data for temp worker Maual Repetitive Activities Maual Repetitive Activities Ope emails & attachmet Opeig emails & attachmet Loggig ito applicatios Maual Repetitive Activities Logi ito applicatios Move files & folders Extract/re-format data Loggig ito applicatios Merge/copy data Merge/copy data Extract/re-format data Make calculatios Rate recociliatio betwee frot office & back office systems Maual Repetitive Activities Loggig ito applicatios Rule based decisios Ivoice creatio, cosolidatio & delivery; modificatio & re-typig Maual Repetitive Activities Opeig emails & attachmet Loggig ito applicatios Extract/re-format data Merge/copy data Rule based decisios Billig Process Re-imagied Through RPA Extractio of associate ad cliet data for billig Web Data Extractio Email Automatio Time & rate recociliatio betwee frot office ad back office systems Web Mashup Mii-bots GUI Automatio Creatio ad delivery of ivoices as per stored cliet preferece Web Data Etry PDF Automatio GUI Automatio etc. Figure 3: Billig Process Trasformatio through RPA There ca be may more automatio opportuities for recruitmet eterprises depedig upo the ature of back-office processes i place ad existig applicatio ladscape. RPA-led process redesig will ot oly result i icreased productivity, but will also reduce cycle time ad daily sales outstadig (DSO) improvig billig accuracy, ad esurig compliace. The Recruitmet Back Office of the Future As AI ad cogitive process automatio comes to the forefrot, we ca hope to ehace the efficiecy of curret RPA tools eve further. For istace, the system ca lear from the actios take to resolve a exceptio from automated billig process to improve performace ad productivity. Soo, AI powered bots will automate ad maage maual processes, freeig up huma agets to focus o core operatios. These bots will ot oly verify cotract terms but also maage service staff i the field, amog other activities. The expected retur o ivestmet for such a solutio will compoud with every year that it speds i operatios. Such dyamic automatio solutios ca cater to chages i busiess processes without the eed for recofiguratio. Refereces [1] MapowerGroup, 2016/2017 Talet Shortage Survey, accessed o 23 February, 2018, https://www.mapowergroup.us/campaigs/talet-shortage/assets/pdf/2016-global-taletshortage-ifographic.pdf
About The Author Navee Pathak Navee Pathak leads the Staffig ad Recruitmet Domai Cetre of Excellece (CoE) withi TCS HiTech busiess uit. He is resposible for strategizig, coceptualizig, desigig, developig, implemetig, ad supportig IT solutios for the staffig ad recruitig busiess. With over 12 years of experiece, Pathak has played several key roles across IT cosultig, pre-sales, ad delivery i the professioal services domai. He is a TOGAF certified Eterprise Architect ad holds a Bachelor s degree i Techology from BIET, Jhasi, Idia, ad a Post Graduate Diploma i Geeral Maagemet from XLRI, Jamshedpur, Idia. Cotact Visit the Hitech page o www.tcs.com Email: HiTech.Marketig@tcs.com Subscribe to TCS White Papers TCS.com RSS: http://www.tcs.com/rss_feeds/pages/feed.aspx?f=w Feedburer: http://feeds2.feedburer.com/tcswhitepapers Tata Cosultacy Services is a IT services, cosultig ad busiess solutios orgaizatio that delivers real results to global busiess, esurig a level of certaity o other firm ca match. TCS offers a cosultig-led, itegrated portfolio of IT ad IT-eabled, ifrastructure, egieerig ad assurace services. This is delivered through its uique Global Network Delivery ModelTM, recogized as the bechmark of excellece i software developmet. A part of the Tata Group, Idia s largest idustrial coglomerate, TCS has a global footprit ad is listed o the Natioal Stock Exchage ad Bombay Stock Exchage i Idia. For more iformatio, visit us at www.tcs.com All cotet / iformatio preset here is the exclusive property of Tata Cosultacy Services Limited (TCS). The cotet / iformatio cotaied here is correct at the time of publishig. No material from here may be copied, modified, reproduced, republished, uploaded, trasmitted, posted or distributed i ay form without prior writte permissio from TCS. Uauthorized use of the cotet / iformatio appearig here may violate copyright, trademark ad other applicable laws, ad could result i crimial or civil pealties. Copyright 2018 Tata Cosultacy Services Limited TCS Desig Services I M I 03I 18 About Tata Cosultacy Services Ltd (TCS)