When HR’s administrative tasks are performed on paper or through the use of technology such as Excel spreadsheets, shared drives, and other programs that prevent data from being shared with other systems, they become labour and time intensive. Digital workflows replace paper-based procedures, streamlining everything from performance evaluations to onboarding and recruitment.
Replacing paper-based processes with digital workflow will allow you and your team to focus on assisting your business in navigating new challenges and meeting the expectations of a workforce that is re-evaluating the role of work in their lives. This will enable your organisation to adapt to changing economic and social conditions. Having office automation in your toolkit frees up your HR staff’s time for strategic matters such as training and development, maintaining the business culture through virtual events, and employee engagement.
Key areas where office automation has an impact
Automation of manual procedures may lead to enhanced efficiency in a variety of activities, from onboarding and recruitment to separation. Processes that facilitate better interaction between managers, employees, and HR are beneficial. This is a synopsis of a few of the roles that digitisation using a document management system greatly influences.
1. Providing assistance to workers who work remotely
Employee data are kept safe in a secured repository via digital document management, which also restricts access to prevent unwanted usage. Employee assistance programs, time-off requests, and flexible spending accounts are among the benefits information that is easily accessible to both in-office and remote workers. Their records are safe and confidential, nevertheless. Employee self-service saves time, which leads to faster response times when they do have questions.
Additionally, your HR staff may use any device and any location to monitor the progress of tasks like doing performance reviews. So, just because someone works from home doesn’t cause these procedures to stop.
2. Management of employee records
A document management system may readily scale with your business as it expands, conform to your company standards and procedures, support your specific HR workflows, and interface with other programs like payroll or your HRM system.
Document management software facilitates the dissemination of HR-released materials, such as new employee handbooks, and offers an audit trail that verifies receipt. Moreover, it is quicker, simpler, and less expensive to collect all staff signoffs, thanks to electronic forms and digital signature capabilities.
3. Hiring
It’s more challenging than ever to find the ideal candidate for vacancies. Competitive pay and benefits are still essential in a tight labour market. However, business culture, meaningful work, and whether or not the role offers opportunity for professional and personal growth are now equally important considerations for potential workers.
Since the majority of hiring now happens online, prompt replies are crucial if you want to bring in top talent. A document management system notifies the appropriate person of a resume’s arrival by email or by adding it to a task list. It also forwards resumes to the appropriate person for first inspection. After that, qualified resumes may be promptly forwarded to the appropriate recruiting manager. All individuals who will be conducting interviews with job applicants will have access to the applicant’s electronic résumé through internal distribution. An audit record of all recruiting operations is produced by an automated procedure, which is reliable and consistent.
4. Onboarding
Talent is in high demand right now. Some businesses are noticing an increase in turnover during the first few months of employment, even after investing a lot of time and energy in locating a competent applicant. The worker may believe that the company’s culture doesn’t align with their ideals or that they weren’t adequately prepared to begin their employment with confidence.
How soon a new hire becomes an engaged part of the workforce is frequently determined by the first three months of their employment with the company. Some recent hires who did their interviews online might not have had the opportunity to meet you or their boss before beginning work. By automating the onboarding process, employers can make sure that new hires arrive at work feeling comfortable and prepared to work hard throughout their first few days.
You may prepare an onboarding checklist of necessary chores, such as employee handbooks, confidentiality agreements, acknowledgement of employment, and initial training programs, to make sure all the bases are covered. To provide staff with the laptops, monitors, and other hardware they need to get started on the job, you can simply handle the provisioning of new hires. You can even arrange for this hardware to be delivered to the employees’ homes rather than your office.
5. Performance Management
Automation makes it simple to create review dates and reminders, personalise online forms for performance reviews, and quickly collect and save all the data for the employee’s file. Annual raises, performance-based increments, hiring evaluations, and pay approvals are all condensed into effective operations that are advantageous to the company and the people who are getting the boost. Conversely, if you’re handling performance-related concerns, you’ll have a clean, coherent trail of documents outlining an employee’s work history.
Businesses can no longer afford to let paper-based procedures slow them down in the present economic climate. This is especially crucial for HR divisions. Time is saved and expenses are decreased by digitising the procedures pertaining to resumes, applications, onboarding paperwork, payroll reports, tax forms, and performance reviews. It is a crucial element that releases HR employees from repetitive duties and enables them to take on new assignments without experiencing undue stress.
