As any HR professional can tell you, the job comes with a lot of paperwork. For each individual employee in the company, there is a thick folder of documents in a filing cabinet somewhere in HR.
There are many ways that this process of handling HR paperwork can cause problems for your business. Upgrading your process to using software like Essential HR to handle all of your HR documents has benefits that range from streamlining the way you do business to ensuring your paperwork is secure.
Here we have outlined our top four benefits to ditching the filing cabinet and managing your HR documents electronically.
Increased Efficiency
All of the paperwork involved in HR operations may be burdensome, but it is vital to the daily running of your workforce. As such, this information—such as applications, resumes, W-4s, and benefits documents—may need to be accessed at various times during a person’s employment.
Electronic filing of documents increases an HR department’s efficiency by eliminating the need for filing cabinets and off-site storage by putting all paperwork in an electronic, searchable format.
Instead of digging through folders to access documents, a process that can waste valuable time and energy, a few clicks of the mouse easily can access any needed information you were looking for.
Increased Security
An employee’s most personal information can be found on HR documents, from Social Security numbers to bank account information. In a paper-based HR department, this sensitive information could be accessed easily just by looking in filing cabinets.
With an electronic HR document management system, all documents have built-in security allowing only those authorized to access and view the documents. As an extra layer of security, a recording of the history of access can be reviewed and audited should it need to be.
Increased Compliance
An HR department is constrained by a lot of regulations when it comes to being compliant with state and federal security regulations. An electronic document system helps ensure compliance by eliminating the need for filing cabinets and off-site storage when it comes to proper record keeping and long-term file retention.
When facing an auditing situation, going through stacks of paperwork can be a nightmare. However, an electronic system where all files are scanned into the software can make finding those records easier and less time consuming.
Decreased Document Loss and Mismanagement
Simply put, paper is not indestructible. In fact, it might be one of the most vulnerable tools of business when it comes to damage and loss. One flood or fire that affects the HR department or any off-site storage location could wipe out all records and leave a business with a catastrophic loss to deal with.
Further, it doesn’t necessarily take an act of nature to lose a file. With people at the wheel, human error easily can take over. This could result in anything from documents going missing, getting accidentally thrown away or even just being misfiled somewhere in the thousands of files an HR department might store.
With electronic document filing, every document you ever could need or want is right at your fingertips no matter what circumstances befall your business. You’ll have access to all employee information quickly and easily, eliminating the possibility of losing a piece of paper among the thousands that are processed daily in a paper-based process.
Your business will benefit greatly when moving to an electronic document management system in your HR department. You not only will save time and cost but you will increase efficiency, security and loss prevention.
At Complete Payroll, our Essential HR software can help you with all of this and more. Contact us today for a free demonstration of our software, and let us show you how we can make your HR department run more efficiently with all the benefits we discussed here.
