Many business owners will tell you that managing other people is the hardest part of running a business. Having spent more than two decades running and growing my own business, I can tell you that the biggest challenges in managing a team come down to the extra time and work required by a leader. To counter this and experience the joys and benefits of leading others, you need automation.

Here’s how it can help.

1. Automation streamlines collaboration

For most companies, effective team communication is the key to success. As a leader, it’s up to you to set the tone for ongoing, honest communication and prioritize collaboration. Of course, challenges come into the picture when your day-to-day role is already pushed to its limits and your time is scarce.

Automation helps ensure that busy days don’t get in the way of the brainstorming sessions and camaraderie that are essential to the health of your business. For example, using cloud documents makes it easy for your team to collaborate on a product without the stress of version control or workflow. Using project management software allows you to quickly assign tasks to employees and rest assured that you won’t have to micromanage their completion.

Related: 11 ways to automate your business and increase efficiency

2. Automation enables sales efforts

It’s not a direct part of managing a team, but every australiabusinessblog.com should do everything they can to make their salespeople stronger. After all, your sales – and the relationships your salespeople have with your customers – are the heartbeat of any business.

Automation frees up your sales team for the strategic tasks and complex customer conversations they need to handle. For example, your team gains valuable hours back into their day by automating lead nurturing, customer follow-up, and meeting scheduling. Sales and marketing automation ultimately saves everyone time and prepares your company for maximum sales success.

Related: Using automation (and avoiding the pitfalls) as an australiabusinessblog.com

3. Automation takes payroll off your plate

If managing people is seen as a difficult part of entrepreneurship, managing payroll is often feared. Not only do you have to make sure you have enough money in the bank to cover your team members’ salaries, but you also have to make sure they get paid on time. This requires more logistics than most people think when you do payroll manually.

Today there is no reason not to automate this part of your business and there are countless reasons to do so. Payroll automation software helps you make your team’s payments on time and gives you confidence that you’re complying with business rules and regulations. It means you have one less thing to worry about and your employees are happy. After all, there are few things that upset people more than not receiving a payment. Automation solves this, makes everyone’s lives easier and builds trust between you and your team.

4. Automation can become your billing department

In addition to handling payroll, automation provides the best way to bill customers and collect payments. When you go through an automated billing system, you don’t have to remember when to bill or chase payments if they’re overdue.

Not only does this save you time and help you get paid when you should, but it also removes the awkward situation of being in the role of a collection agency. Such a dynamic can damage the relationship between supplier and customer and leave everyone with a sour taste. Automating your billing eliminates these scenarios and keeps you and your team focused on more valuable tasks.

5. Automation can simplify onboarding

This is an area that many don’t think about when looking at the benefits of automation, but it can be a big help in more ways than one. By automating parts of your onboarding process, every new hire gets the same information and welcome to the company. This consistency can help with morale and brand consistency and avoid having to conduct repetitive onboarding training.

You can (and should) still keep the human touch in certain parts of your onboarding process, but try to automate the rest. For example, you can use workflow automation to move new hires through informational videos, short quizzes, paperwork, and more. This reduces the time spent training employees and makes the whole process more easily repeatable.

When it comes to running a business, managing a team isn’t always the most attractive part. But it can be most rewarding when you remove common points of friction and frustration. Implement automation in the areas described here and you’ll make a big leap in the satisfaction and productivity of your team – and yours.