Really great points. This is also not just restricted to small companies either - most large companies have HR departments with so many levels and decades old procedures that they have literal armies of drones filling in useless paperwork put in place by numerous HR directors over the years. Some companies have HR departments collect dossiers on employees, including fingerprints, history of photos, all medical conditions, all leave dates and vacation destinations, financial history, etc. This is expensive to maintain and nearly always useless in the extreme.
HR in general needs a major reworking.