How to Eliminate Paper in Your HR Department

By Joan Honig, DocuWare – If a company uses manual processes, HR can be one of its most paper-intensive departments. Using a free file sharing app like Google Docs or Dropbox may feel like a step up from using paper. However, these apps are designed to enable collaboration on a project at one point in time. They don’t allow for management of the full document lifecycle or for version control, automated workflow and security that protects your company from fraud and cyberthreats.

Staff hire, train, motivate and retain written on a memo sticks.

With a document management system, centralization, privacy protection and business process efficiency are built in. HR staff, managers, employees, and contract workers use one system enabling a consistent approach throughout the organization. Automation frees staff from the inconvenience of managing long email chains and constant status inquiries. In addition, employees and managers may already be familiar with the interface if the solution is used to increase productivity in other departments.

When an HR department goes paperless it replaces paper records with a centralized digital repository and protects sensitive employee information with secure access rights and data encryption. It also opens the door for employee self-service through features that include eforms, authorized employee searches, electronic signatures and portal integration.