Since 2020, Human Resources departments across organizations have been facing a constant barrage of challenges to overcome. Navigating layoffs, staffing shortages, attracting talent, and the common day-to-day processes of managing a company’s HR department have begun to take its toll on HR professionals. Employees need honesty and transparency and leadership needs efficiency. Striking a balance between the two is no easy task. The market is flooded with technology that claims to be the “unicorn solution” for any and every HR problem, but professionals don’t have time to research and implement a complex organization-wide product that completely flips the company’s processes (and people) on its head.
Human Resources should look into addressing pain points and creating simplicity for current employees, new hires, and organizational leadership with a straightforward solution with easy adoption. One piece of this puzzle is addressing the copious amounts of paper used in HR processes. This is common across recruiting, onboarding, benefits elections, employee management, and employee separation.
The benefit of going paperless
It’s not a secret that paper is a pain. Having to print, file, and organize documents over and over again is costly and inefficient. Many organizations choose to create shared file drives to attempt to alleviate some of the challenges caused by paper, but a lack of security and consistent file structure just means that documents aren’t where they’re supposed to be and inaccessible when they need to be. Digitizing your paper documents with a secure Document Management system allows all of your records to be all secured in one place and accessible by the people who need them in seconds.
For Human Resources specifically, ensuring that there’s privacy and security for employee information is a must. Make sure employee records don’t get in the wrong hands with Document Management’s secure access rights and data encryption. By being in control of accessibility, HR can empower employees with self-sufficiency and get them the information they need without fear of it getting into the wrong hands.
Document Management also empowers your employees by eliminating repetitive manual data entry, searching for documents, recreating missing records, and other tasks that take up time spent doing more meaningful work.
What are common use cases for Document Management in HR?
Hiring and Onboarding
Arguably one the most important and time consuming part of your organization’s HR operations and many of these processes are often still completed and stored manually and can be a source of frustration for newly hired employees. Coupled with the fun of starting a new role are necessary processes that can’t be overlooked during hiring and onboarding.
With Document Management, you can efficiently manage resumes from applicants, and use custom workflows to get feedback from hiring managers and move applicants through the hiring process. For applicants who may not qualify for open positions right now, you can also use Document Management to build a centralized pool of qualified candidates that you can search through for future openings.
Once hired, you want to set your new employee up for success. The first three months a new employee spends at an organization often determines their engagement for the entirety of their employment. With the advent of remote work, some employees can go through the entire recruiting, interviewing, and onboarding process without setting foot in their office. Automated onboarding ensures that new hires both on-site and remote have the same access to the tools they need to ensure long-term success.
Before their first day, you can use Document Management workflows to easily approve and procure what employees need to get started, such as computers, hardware, and other materials. You can manage what’s needed, what’s been supplied, and even coordinate where it’s ultimately going to go.
To make sure every box is checked once an employee starts, you can create an onboarding checklist of required tasks. This can include federal and state forms that need completing, as well as employee handbook acknowledgement, confidentiality and non-compete documentation, and other organization-specific forms. A Document Management system ensures that none of these documents are overlooked or missing, meaning that the onboarding process is completely seamless.
From day one, all employee information is 100% confidential and secure, with specific documents even having unique security to make sure private information doesn’t get shared with the wrong person.
Employee Management
Existing employees can benefit from Document Management as well. A Document Management solution easily adapts to your existing policies and procedures, scales as your organization grows, can accommodate your unique HR workflows, and integrates with other software like payroll or your Human Resource Management System. It also eases the stress of internal or external HR audits for I-9, payroll taxes, and workers compensation claims.
With built in security features, you can meet compliance standards such as HIPAA, GDPR, and other legal requirements. Established audit trails can confirm receipt of important new documents (like a new employee handbook or new policy) and digital signatures means employees can complete tasks quickly.
You can easily capture and store information relevant to the entire career of an employee. Performance reviews, salary information, raises and promotions, and other information is all stored in a centralized location and is connected to the specific employee. If there are behavioral or performance issues, documentation of those can be captured as well with a consistent trail to take action if need be.
Where are other places you can use Document Management?
Certifications
Manage certification applications and renewal reminders for all employees, including trainees.
Time-Off Management
Easily request and track vacation or personal time in one centralized location and maintain an accurate history of an employee’s time off.
Employee Separation
When it comes time for an employee to leave your organization, you can create a workflow of specific tasks that need to be checked off to make sure the exit process goes smoothly and accurately.
How can you get started with Document Management in HR?
Your Human Resources team is busy and may be hesitant to take on more projects, but investing in a Document Management solution is a low-effort, high-impact opportunity to transform your entire organization. The benefit of PiF Technologies is that we offer the customization of a custom-built solution, with the ease of out-of-the-box software thanks to pre-built HR modules. Our professional services team also works directly with you to identify your unique business needs, and builds a solution around them to enhance your workflows company-wide. It is an optimal investment for organizations looking to establish a robust records management policy and a more efficient organization.
Given the benefits of Document Management in HR and the predicted rapid growth in the market, now is the perfect time to invest in a solution for your organization.
Complete the form below to get in touch with us, we can answer any questions you may have and take the first steps towards implementing your Document Management system for your Human Resources team.
