With less than 30 days before we say farewell to 2017, businesses are hoping to close out Q4 strong and set the stage for the year ahead. As your company is closing deals, sending final invoices, preparing tax documents and planning for 2018, it’s also the ideal time for HR leaders to start cleaning up their processes and setting goals for the New Year.
Five objectives of a paperless office and how to achieve them in the New Year:
1. Maximize your time.
When it comes to “doing more with less,” HR leaders are professionals. Often, HR is the last department within an organization to be approved for new hires, yet they are still expected to scale their services as the organization grows. This can be difficult when your HR team is spending up to 51 minutes per day searching for paper documents, files and emails.
How can HR increase their efficiencies and take their time back?
It’s time to go digital with your employee files. Digitizing allows you to create an organized, structured environment where documents are easy to find when you need them. It saves your team time and money, and allows them to turn their attention to more strategic business initiatives.
2. Get centered.
Whether your organization is responding to an external audit or an employee was recently promoted to a new team, employee files must be centralized so that hiring managers and other team members can easily locate and access them as needed. When organizations are geographically dispersed across the country, around the world or simply located on separate floors within the same building, logistically, it can be difficult to manage how physical employee files are created, transported, stored and destroyed. Documents are shuffled from person to person; copies are made and, all too often, employee files end up misplaced or incomplete.
How can HR avoid the paper shuffle?
Digitizing employee files allows you to create and store all documents in one centralized location. Paperwork no longer needs to be scanned, faxed, emailed or hand-delivered across an organization. The appropriate party can securely access documents made available to them from wherever they are located.
3. Enhance security.
When it comes to HR documents, they are rarely created and filed away forever. From internal managers that require access to employee files to external auditors, HR departments must be able to find and share documents while ensuring that employee data is protected. While email may seem like the quick and easy choice for sharing these documents, there are inherent security risks associated with it. A document that is emailed could be printed, forwarded or saved on an unsecured server by the recipient, leaving you at risk of a potential breach of information.
How can HR share the necessary documents securely?
HR leaders must invest in a digital document management solution that helps organize, monitor and protect their information from creation through their retention cycle. Rather than emailing files, an HR technology solution will allow you to create secure data rooms that can only be accessed via a secure link. Files never leave the organization, and HR can control who can access, copy, print or edit documents. A clear audit log provides clarity on who did what with each document and when.
4. Out with the old, in with the new.
The end of the year is the time to check your retention policies and clean house. Is your HR department holding onto records that no longer need to be retained? Not only do outdated documents take up valuable storage space, but they increase your organization’s risk of a breach.
How can HR departments clean up their information?
Creating, sorting through and monitoring retention policies and schedules can be a time-consuming process, but with an HR document management solution, organizations can automate their retention cycles to ensure all files are complete, up-to-date and properly destroyed when the time comes.
5. Be confident.
This new year, get organized so you can leave your worries behind. When you invest in an HR technology solution that increases your efficiencies, automates time-consuming processes and enhances security, you can feel confident that your employee files are accurate, complete and secure.
To achieve your HR New Year’s Resolutions, go digital.
Digitizing your employee files can help your HR department decrease the time and money spent on tedious processes and allow you to focus on strategic business initiatives. Learn how Access can help your HR team go digital today.
