$4.86: EY Reveals Why Manual HR Processes Cost You More

Regardless of industry or size, controlling costs is a must for any business. To keep expenses in line, the first step is identifying them. Some costs are easy to recognize; raw materials for a product or overhead expenses like rent or utilities, for example.

But some expenses may silently creep into a business and slowly consume resources without being noticed. For instance, take the cost of HR pros manually entering and managing data. According to the latest findings from EY, organizations that don’t use self-service HR software face a constantly rising price.

What was EY’s estimated cost for manual HR data entry?

In its 2025 research, EY found that a single manual data entry made by an HR pro without self-service technology carries an average estimated cost of $4.86.

And that’s just the beginning. The study also revealed routine HR tasks carry even higher costs:

• $9.42 each time an employee searches for their own information
• $11.75 for HR or managers to search for employee information
• $12.85 to record Form W-4 and other tax form information in an HR system
• $15.06 to review and approve shift swaps between employees
• $17.54 to verify accuracy of employee timecards

These figures include the labor and nonlabor costs required for all the steps in the process, such as:

• producing any forms (plus related costs for printing, copying and postage)
• double-checking the accuracy of the data
• transferring information into an HR system

While these manual activities may seem minor, the costs they incur can have a serious impact. On top of the frustration they create by saddling employees with tedious tasks, they consume time, energy and financial resources your HR staff could otherwise direct at high-level activities like professional development, recruiting or retention.

Not only do these costs add up, but — thanks to inflation and technological advances — continue to rise. Here’s how the estimate has climbed since the study’s first iteration in 2018:

With a clear upward trend, you owe it to your operation to find a remedy sooner rather than later. Every day you don’t act unnecessarily drains your bottom line.

EY’s findings about the big-picture cost of manual HR processes further drive this point home. Overall, it found that the average cost per HR task has continued to increase across almost every category of HR data, with several tasks now exceeding $20, including:

• $20.32 to obtain or provide information about benefit plan changes
• $20.83 to create payroll
• $23.27 to obtain or provide information to compare benefit plans

How do businesses reduce the cost of manual HR data entry?

The most direct approach is to consider the usage of HR tech — specifically, empowering your employees with self-service HR software and automated processes is the best defense against those quiet, hidden costs.

Employees know their HR data best, and they want their information to be correct, so if they’re charged with entering it into the HR software, less time will be spent fixing mistakes down the road.

How to calculate and measure the ROI of HR software

If we’re able to quantify how much money you’re wasting, then we should be able to tell how much you could be saving, right? That’s where Paycom’s Direct Data Exchange® comes into play. A full-bodied human capital management system allows employees to self-manage their HR data, from time worked, benefits and expenses to contact information and even payroll.

And with IWant™, the industry’s first command-driven AI engine in a single database, everyone has access to the accurate data they need without delay. Users simply ask for the info they need and IWant retrieves it immediately — no navigation required.

Paycom’s GONE® feature takes it a step further by automating time-off decisions based on guidelines you set. No more tracking down approvals, scheduling confusion or inconsistency. Plus, every employee time-off request feeds directly into Direct Data Exchange, so you can see the ROI build.

Housing all these tools under one digital roof provides a valuable opportunity to track real-time employee usage of the software. Direct Data Exchange proves HR tech’s worth by monitoring that usage and providing easy-to-digest statistics on a dashboard, offering leadership a clear view of the ROI being delivered by their HR tech. It also identifies areas where further efficiencies can be achieved.

In a world of rising costs, it’s good to know the expense of manual HR processes can be identified and even controlled. With the right tools, you’ll be able to drive dollars to the bottom line, one data entry at a time.

Curious to learn how holistic HR automation can help put an end to these costly hidden tasks? Read how unifying HR in a truly single software helps boost your bottom line.