If you’re leading, or part of, a HR team, you’ll be familiar with the many challenges of keeping documents and records up to date, accessible and secure. In this article, we’ll discuss the key challenges to an effective document management strategy for HR, and how to overcome them.
The paper challenge in document management
At Restore Digital, we know that HR departments manage and oversee a large amount of data, and the bigger the company, the more data there is to manage. This data and information is often highly confidential, with processes such as payroll information, contracts of employment, learning requirements and employee records barely scratching the surface of the processes that HR departments oversee.
A traditional, paper-based document management system opens HR departments up to a host of issues and pitfalls. Paper documents are susceptible to privacy breaches and security risks, they’re often also slow, error-prone and vulnerable to unforeseen disasters such as flooding or fire.
Governing the future – legal challenges in document management
As the world we live and work in evolves, so do the legal and regulatory requirements, in order to stay compliant and avoid breaches HR must constantly manage, store, update, retain and destroy data. With the complex nature of these regulations, combined with the sheer amount of data stored in paper form, often in more than one place, it is easy to see how you might fall foul and be caught out. They must know what documents they have, which to keep, how long for, where they are and who should be able to access them.
Time to change – remove the wasted time burden on your HR team
It’s easy to imagine HR teams searching through filing cabinets for documents on any given day for at least 10 minutes, if not more. Even at only 10 minutes a day, that is still the equivalent of over 43 man-hours, spent, if not wasted, searching for documents. That’s a huge amount of time and that number could easily be higher depending on how many staff there are, how large the business is, and so on.
Many HR teams are still working on predominantly paper-based document management systems, so there’s still lots of opportunities to truly optimise workflows through digital transformation. With any challenge of this magnitude, when faced with huge amounts of data and documents, it can seem daunting.
That being said, there are companies out there to assist you in your digitisation, and once you get started, you’ll quickly see a return on investment, saving on cost and time, while easing the administrative burden placed on the HR department. Freed from time-consuming and labour-intensive tasks, your HR team will be able to focus on doing the work that makes a difference in your organisation, rather than being consumed with administrative tasks.
Empowering your HR team to deliver better training of staff, health and safety initiatives, or becoming more involved in the strategy of the business is one thing, but also giving them the ability to work in an agile and flexible manner with real-time information is critical for the growth of your business.
Going Digital Faster with Electronic Document Management
To support your HR team, going Digital is the way to go. Centralising, organising and securing their documents will improve numerous processes, from recruiting to annual review to talent management.
All whilst easily and securely complying with GDPR through the use of Electronic Document Management System (EDRMS) software.
Meeting the document management challenge with EDRMS Software
We recommend starting simple, and building from there, for example by providing a central and secure home for each employee’s documents. Once this is implemented, key workflows can be introduced over time, allowing you to standardise processes and approval chains.
Having an EDRM Software makes managing SARs, retention periods and workflows simple, quick to set up and low cost. This in turn allows HR Teams to transform the way they work simply and with immediate return on investment. It can help automate the entire process of capturing, organising, accessing, viewing, collaborating, updating, integrating and customising going forwards.
Why choose EDRMS Software?
EDRMS Software is built to work within your IT ecosystem. With various different integrations across email, team portals, CRM, ERP, HR systems, homegrown software and more, with an EDRMS tailored to you and your business, you’ll see results quickly. The ability to integrate with key business hardware like scanners and multifunction devices for effortless conversion of paper to digital.
Why Go Digital?
Finding your digital transformation provider can help you transform your business, and stay ahead of the curve, from wholesale digital transformations to digitising single aspects of an organisation such as your document management system. They should offer far more than simply turning paper into digital records, they should be agile and work with you to take your needs into account, transforming workflows and document management systems, taking the strain off your business.
HR is one area of business in particular that benefits from digital transformation, and brings immediate results. Historically, paper-based document management systems have been used by HR departments across the globe, but paper-based systems have significant limitations and are often overly time-consuming.
However, certain organisations fail to recognise the impact that switching to a digital HR process can bring, instead, they become overwhelmed with what they believe to be a daunting task. Implementing a digital HR system not only improves the quality of work but also allows access to important information far faster and more easily. This leads to greater efficiency and agility within the HR department, which in turn has a positive impact on the organisation as a whole.
Alongside this agility comes lower failure rates and less scope for human error, which will only ever increase the productivity of a business, as the HR department is able to focus their time and their effort on other, more pressing areas. For example, digitising the HR process allows the HR team to better understand the characteristics of each employee, which allows them to tailor the ways of working to each employee’s strengths, again increasing productivity, efficiency and staff well being.
Don’t you think it’s time your HR department went Digital?
Get in touch with us here at Restore Digital and let us help you on your digital transformation journey.
