10 Common HR Tasks You Can Easily Automate with Either Make.com or Zapier

In the fast-paced world of HR and recruitment, the demand for efficiency, accuracy, and strategic impact has never been greater. Manual, repetitive tasks often consume valuable time that HR professionals could otherwise dedicate to high-level initiatives like talent development, employee engagement, and strategic planning. This isn’t just about saving a few minutes here and there; it’s about fundamentally transforming how HR operates, reducing human error, and creating a more scalable, responsive department. For too long, the idea of “automation” felt like a complex, IT-driven project, but with powerful low-code tools like Make.com and Zapier, that reality has shifted dramatically. These platforms empower HR teams, even those without extensive technical expertise, to build sophisticated workflows that streamline everything from onboarding to offboarding.

At 4Spot Consulting, we’ve seen firsthand how strategic automation can unlock immense value for businesses, allowing them to recapture up to 25% of their day. We believe the future of HR isn’t just about adopting new software, but intelligently connecting the tools you already use to work together seamlessly. This isn’t about replacing the human element of HR; it’s about amplifying it by freeing up your team from the mundane. By embracing automation, you can ensure consistency, improve compliance, enhance the employee experience, and, most importantly, enable your HR department to become a true strategic partner in your organization’s growth. Let’s explore 9 common HR tasks that are prime candidates for automation, demonstrating how Make.com or Zapier can be your secret weapon.

1. Automating Candidate Sourcing and Initial Screening Workflows

The journey to finding the right talent often begins with a deluge of applications and a time-consuming screening process. Automating aspects of candidate sourcing and initial screening can dramatically reduce the manual effort involved. Imagine a scenario where a new job opening is posted on your website or ATS. Instead of manually pushing this information to multiple job boards and social media platforms, Make.com or Zapier can detect the new posting and automatically distribute it across pre-selected channels like LinkedIn, Indeed, or even niche industry boards. This ensures broader reach without any additional clicks from your team. Furthermore, when applications start rolling in, automation can kick into gear for initial screening. Basic qualifications, keyword matching, and even geographic preferences can be automatically assessed against predefined criteria. For example, if a candidate submits a resume, an automation can parse the document, extract key data points (experience, skills, education), and compare them against minimum requirements. Candidates meeting these thresholds can then be automatically moved to the “qualified” stage in your ATS, while those who don’t can receive an automated polite rejection email. This not only saves recruiters countless hours but also ensures a fair, consistent, and rapid initial review process, improving the candidate experience by providing quicker feedback.

2. Streamlining New Hire Onboarding Workflows

Onboarding is a critical phase for both the new employee and the organization, setting the tone for their entire tenure. Yet, it’s often riddled with manual data entry, paper forms, and disjointed communication across multiple departments. Automation here transforms a chaotic process into a smooth, welcoming experience. When a candidate accepts an offer in your ATS, Make.com or Zapier can trigger a cascade of actions. First, it can automatically create an employee profile in your HRIS, pre-populating it with data from the application. Simultaneously, it can initiate IT provisioning requests (email account, software licenses, hardware), send welcome emails to the new hire with essential pre-start information and a link to digital forms (W-4, I-9, direct deposit), and notify relevant team members (manager, mentor, IT, payroll) about the upcoming start date. Furthermore, it can schedule critical first-day meetings, assign initial training modules, and even order office supplies or create a personalized welcome kit. By automating these steps, you ensure no critical task is missed, reduce the administrative burden on HR and managers, and provide a professional, organized start for your new hires, making them feel valued and integrated from day one. This significantly boosts engagement and reduces early turnover rates, a crucial ROI for any HR department.

3. Automated Interview Scheduling and Reminders

Coordinating interviews across multiple calendars, time zones, and participant availabilities is notoriously time-consuming and prone to errors. Automation makes this process remarkably simple and efficient. Tools like Make.com or Zapier can integrate with your ATS, calendar applications (Google Calendar, Outlook), and video conferencing platforms (Zoom, Google Meet). When a candidate is moved to the “interview” stage in your ATS, an automation can trigger an email to the candidate, inviting them to select a preferred time slot from pre-approved availability of the interview panel via a scheduling link (e.g., Calendly, Acuity Scheduling). Once the candidate selects a time, the automation instantly books the meeting on all participants’ calendars, creates the video conference link, and sends out confirmation emails to both the candidate and interviewers with all the necessary details. Crucially, it also automatically sends reminders to all parties 24 hours and an hour before the interview, drastically reducing no-shows and last-minute rescheduling efforts. This not only frees up countless hours for recruiters and hiring managers but also provides a seamless, professional experience for candidates, reflecting positively on your organization’s efficiency and respect for their time.

4. Simplifying Reference Check Processes

Reference checks are a vital part of the hiring process, offering valuable insights into a candidate’s past performance and work ethic. However, manually coordinating these checks—sending out questionnaires, tracking responses, and following up—can be a significant administrative burden. Automation can transform this into a smooth, standardized, and efficient workflow. Once a candidate reaches the reference check stage in your ATS, an automation can prompt them to provide contact information for their references. Upon submission, Make.com or Zapier can then automatically send personalized emails to each reference, containing a link to a digital questionnaire (e.g., Google Forms, Typeform). The automation can track whether the form has been completed, and if not, send automated polite reminders after a specified period. Once all references have submitted their feedback, the system can automatically consolidate the responses, compile them into a digestible report, and append it to the candidate’s file in the ATS. This process ensures consistency in the questions asked, centralizes all feedback, and drastically reduces the back-and-forth communication, allowing recruiters to focus on analyzing the insights rather than managing the logistics. It streamlines a critical compliance step and accelerates hiring decisions.

5. Managing Employee Data Updates Across Systems

Employee data is dynamic, constantly changing due to promotions, address changes, marital status updates, or new certifications. Manually updating this information across multiple, often disconnected, HR systems (HRIS, payroll, benefits platform, internal directories, CRM if HR uses it) is a recipe for inconsistencies and errors. Automation provides a “single source of truth” approach. When an employee updates their personal information in one primary system (e.g., your HRIS or an employee self-service portal), Make.com or Zapier can detect this change and automatically push the updated data to all other integrated systems. For example, if an employee changes their mailing address in the HRIS, the automation ensures that the payroll system, benefits provider portal, and internal contact directory are instantly updated. Similarly, a promotion recorded in the performance management system could trigger an automatic title change in the HRIS and an email notification to relevant stakeholders. This eliminates redundant data entry, reduces the risk of errors that can lead to compliance issues or incorrect pay, and ensures that all departments are working with the most current and accurate employee information. It significantly reduces administrative overhead and enhances data integrity across the entire organization, bolstering compliance and operational efficiency.

6. Automating Performance Review Cycle Reminders

Performance reviews are essential for employee development and organizational growth, yet their administration—from setting goals to gathering feedback and conducting meetings—can be incredibly cumbersome. Missing deadlines or incomplete reviews undermine the entire process. Automation can act as your proactive assistant, ensuring every step of the performance review cycle is timely and tracked. Make.com or Zapier can be configured to manage these cyclical events. For example, based on an employee’s start date or a company-wide review period, the automation can automatically send out reminders to employees and managers to complete self-assessments or peer feedback forms. It can schedule follow-up reminders for those who haven’t responded, ensuring a high completion rate. Furthermore, the system can consolidate feedback from various sources (self-assessment, manager review, peer feedback) into a central document or platform. Once reviews are submitted, it can trigger notifications for managers to schedule one-on-one meetings with their reports and then mark the review as complete in the HR system. This reduces the manual administrative burden of tracking and chasing, ensures a consistent and fair review process, and allows HR to focus on the strategic insights gleaned from performance data rather than the logistics of gathering it. This leads to more meaningful reviews and better employee development outcomes.

7. Standardizing and Tracking HR Policy Acknowledgments

Ensuring that all employees have read and acknowledged critical HR policies (e.g., employee handbook, data privacy, code of conduct) is not just good practice; it’s often a legal and compliance necessity. Manually distributing, collecting signatures, and tracking acknowledgments for an entire workforce, especially as policies are updated or new employees join, is a monumental task. Automation provides a scalable and auditable solution. When a new policy is introduced or an existing one is updated, Make.com or Zapier can automatically distribute the policy document to all relevant employees via email, along with a link to an e-signature platform (e.g., PandaDoc, DocuSign). The automation can track who has viewed and signed the policy, sending automated reminders to those who haven’t completed the acknowledgment within a specified timeframe. For new hires, this can be seamlessly integrated into the onboarding workflow, ensuring they acknowledge essential policies as part of their initial paperwork. The system can generate reports showing acknowledgment status at a glance, providing an invaluable audit trail for compliance purposes. This not only saves HR countless hours of manual tracking and follow-up but also significantly strengthens your organization’s compliance posture and reduces legal risk by ensuring all employees are informed and have formally acknowledged understanding of critical company policies.

8. Efficiently Processing Leave Requests

Managing employee leave requests, from vacation and sick days to extended FMLA or parental leave, involves multiple steps: submission, manager approval, HR record-keeping, and payroll adjustments. This process, when manual, can be slow, error-prone, and frustrating for both employees and managers. Automation simplifies and accelerates it significantly. An employee can submit a leave request through a designated portal or form (e.g., a simple Google Form, an HRIS module). Make.com or Zapier can then instantly route this request to the employee’s direct manager for approval, sending an automated notification. Once the manager approves, the automation can update the employee’s leave balance in the HRIS, notify HR for record-keeping, and, if necessary, alert the payroll department for appropriate adjustments. For more complex leave types, such as FMLA, the automation can trigger a series of tasks, like sending out required documentation to the employee, setting follow-up reminders for medical certifications, and tracking critical deadlines. This streamlined process ensures quick turnaround times for requests, maintains accurate leave balances, reduces administrative bottlenecks, and ensures compliance with leave policies. It frees up HR to manage more complex employee relations, rather than spending time on routine approvals and data entry, enhancing employee satisfaction through a transparent and efficient system.

9. Automating Offboarding Checklists and System Access Revocation

The offboarding process, while often overlooked, is as critical as onboarding for maintaining security, ensuring compliance, and protecting company assets. A disjointed manual offboarding process can lead to significant security vulnerabilities (unrevoked access), compliance risks (missed final pay calculations), and potential data breaches. Automation ensures a comprehensive, timely, and secure departure. When an employee’s departure is confirmed, Make.com or Zapier can be triggered to initiate a multi-departmental offboarding checklist. This includes automatically notifying IT to revoke system access (email, internal drives, software licenses), alerting payroll for final pay and benefits adjustments, prompting managers to retrieve company assets (laptop, badge), and scheduling an exit interview. The automation can also ensure that all necessary paperwork, such as benefit continuation information or references, is sent to the departing employee. Furthermore, it can transfer ownership of documents and projects to another team member, ensuring continuity. By standardizing and automating these steps, you minimize human error, reduce security risks by ensuring timely access revocation, maintain compliance with labor laws, and protect intellectual property. This organized approach to offboarding safeguards your organization while respecting the departing employee, reflecting positively on your company culture even after an employee leaves.

Automating these common HR tasks isn’t just about technological prowess; it’s about strategic thinking, operational efficiency, and empowering your HR team to focus on what truly matters: your people. Make.com and Zapier put this power directly into the hands of HR professionals, enabling them to build robust, scalable solutions that drive real business outcomes. From significantly reducing administrative overhead and eliminating errors to enhancing the employee experience and strengthening compliance, the benefits are clear and measurable. By embracing low-code automation, your HR department can transform from a reactive administrative function into a proactive, strategic partner, equipped to support rapid growth and navigate future challenges with agility and precision. This transition liberates high-value employees from low-value work, allowing them to engage in the strategic activities that truly impact your organization’s bottom line and culture.

If you would like to read more, we recommend this article: Make.com vs. Zapier: The Automated Recruiter’s Blueprint for AI-Powered HR