Six Key Benefits of Document Management for HR
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Effective document management is crucial for HR departments to operate smoothly and efficiently. In today’s fast-paced business environment, HR teams handle vast amounts of paperwork, from employee records to compliance documents. Implementing robust document management solutions not only streamlines these processes but also enhances security, ensures compliance, and improves overall productivity. This post will explore the key benefits of document management for HR and provide solutions to help your department thrive.
Efficient management of company employees relies on many HR activities crucial to your business:
- Recruiting and screening of applicants
- Timely and effective communications with management and employees at every level
- Accurate record-keeping for legal requirements and compliance
- Access to current information, both within HR and by employees
In the past, most of these functions involved paper documents, phone calls, mailing, copying, and repeated filing and retrieval of information. Your HR personnel have more important things to do than handling and re-handling paper documents. Shouldn’t they be more focused on dealing with and assisting your employees?
ECM Document Management for HR
Document management has now matured into sophisticated Enterprise Content Management (ECM) systems that simplify and streamline many processes for HR teams. If you’re looking for the best document management system for HR then you’ve probably come across ECM.
Top benefits of ECM systems for HR teams include:
Increased Efficiency
We store resumes, applications, and new employee forms digitally, making them searchable and organizable into meaningful folders. This facilitates future reference and routing to the right resource for further action. Printing, copying, mailing, and filing are eliminated, and no documents are lost or misplaced.
Employees can access their HR records electronically, viewing only the information you designate. This ensures security and convenience. This eliminates many phone calls or emailed requests to HR employees, freeing them for other important tasks.
Workflow
Not only can applications be automatically routed to the right person for review and consideration, but once offers of employment are offered and accepted, the necessary paperwork can all be done electronically. This streamlines onboarding and improves efficiency.
Distribute documents requiring multiple reviews and approvals electronically to the right person. Customize your digital workflow for speed and accuracy. Ensure efficient processing by tailoring the workflow to your needs. This approach enhances productivity and reduces errors.
Security and Confidentiality
By establishing roles and access rules within the ECM system, only authorized personnel can create, view, update, or print documents. This ensures compliance with such regulations as Sarbanes-Oxley, HIPAA, and more.
Automation of Routine Processes
Manage vacation requests, personal time off, and other routine processes with ECM functions. Automatically route requests to the right manager for approval. Handle this from any workstation or device, simplifying the process for employees, managers, and HR. While not fully automated, these systems offer efficient document management for HR.
Retention and Accuracy
Store electronic documents on servers or in the cloud to meet all records retention requirements. They will never be lost or damaged and are easily searched and retrieved when needed.
No more need to keep adding file cabinets or storage areas for document archives, and no time spent filing paper documents.
Electronic records make tracking of employee benefits, reviews, promotions, training, and certifications a snap, with immediate access to consistent and reliable information. This is usable for future advancement consideration, or even when events arise such as eligibility for unemployment or disability claims.
Focus on Business-Critical Efforts
It’s much more valuable to your business that HR personnel are involved in employee sourcing, retention, and development. Spending time on managing paper is not an effective return on your HR investment. ECM systems will allow you to leverage HR teams to concentrate on people, not paper.
Getting Started With HR Document Management
Electronic document management is now a mature technology that can benefit your business in a short timeframe. Most businesses implementing such systems report a payback in less than 18 months, and often in 12 months or less.
To get moving toward HR ECM adoption, there are a few key decisions to be made:
- Which ECM system will best suit your company, not just for HR, but for other departments, as you discover all the benefits of electronic document management
- How will you migrate to electronic documents: from the day of implementation, converting paper to electronic form as needed, or gradually scanning all paper records into the system over time? This may be dependent on the actual volume of documents you have in your archives.
- In-house or in the cloud? Storing data on IT servers can increase the cost and possibly make growth more complex. Many businesses choose to implement ECM on cloud-based systems, to provide 24/7 access for mobile or global employees and managers.
Experts at Document Management for HR
To be successful, transitioning to an ECM system for HR professionals requires careful planning, definition of requirements and expectations, and appropriate training. Working with a company such as Kelley Create that has the experience and proven track record of success in ECM implementations provides confidence in the results and the return on investment your project will achieve.
Kelley Create professionals are ready to help take your HR department into the digital age. Call us today for a complimentary consultation and personalized demo of how ECM can benefit your HR organization.
