In the “Do what other progressive HR professionals have already done and you’ll succeed” camp, what is the one thing that progressive and successful HR executives have done that you can emulate?

Become 30% more productive.

I know what you’re thinking, “Thanks genius! I could have figured that out!” Yeah, but how did they become more productive? They have virtually the same rules and regulations, same filings, same reporting and, more than likely, similar auditing to you. How and where did they find the time, energy and resources to become that much more productive?

They removed the noise, the back office work, the manual tracking of employee documentation, the distractions in the day, and the friction. In short, they removed the paper.

Look around. No doubt you have piles of papers to be filed, valuable real estate taken up by employee files, and more paper that needs to be filled out. It’s a never ending cycle of documentation.

How much time do you actually spend on paperwork? It’s probably not a lot. That’s because you’re too focused on doing other tasks, more strategic work, and handling a variety of people problems. But it keeps you up at night, doesn’t it? The uncertainty that you have all of the required paperwork for all your employees and that any moment you’re going to get audited and you’ll be giving up weekends, nights, and hiring temps just to gather it all.

“Yeah, but we have technology for that.” You do? How many pieces of technology do you have? More than 1? More than 5? If you have such great technology, why do you still have paper? And what about retention? Not employee retention, but document retention? You know, the regulations that the government changes all the time and the reason legal is breathing down your neck at least once a week.

The truth is that you aren’t alone, it’s just that some executives have figured out how to offload the problem to a technology solution that provides centralized access to personnel files, no matter their origin. It becomes their command central. In addition, those executives saw value in a structured system that provides insights into employee files, secure data rooms for sharing, proactive compliance notifications, e-forms to reduce future paper needs, real-time auditing, and regulatory retention.

A document management solution like that becomes the foundation for existing systems, fills in the gaps in the current technology suite, and maintains a holistic view of personnel files. Some executives have even expanded the solution’s use into other business functions like Worker’s Comp, garnishments and investigations. The current and future state of efficiency has increased by up to 30% and allowed HR executives and their teams to focus on their most valuable asset, their employees.

By Randall Sanders