Managing Your Files with an HR Workflow

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This post is part of The Datamation Guide to Human Resources Records.

With each new employee comes a new, weighty file full of their personal records and hiring documents. The longer the employee is at the company, the bigger this file grows and the more space it takes up. If one of the documents within the file needs to be referenced, an HR employee has to go through that individual’s entire file to find that one piece of paper, which takes up time.

Onboarding each employee is a whole other story, and it involves a huge amount of paperwork that needs to be filled out, collected, and filed away. Just a few examples of necessary paperwork are medical records, banking information, emergency contact information, W-4s, I-9s, handbooks, job descriptions, references, and more. All of this information needs to be completed by the employee, and then processed.

Paper processes are simply too tedious and inefficient, but fortunately, an automated workflow easily solves all of the issues that paper presents. With an automated workflow and digitized records, employees can fill out this information using E-forms, or electronic forms, that eliminates the need to process paper. E-forms can be completed on computers, tablets, or even phones, and immediately integrated into the workflow.

Following completion, that paperwork enters the workflow. This means that all of the information that would normally have to be passed from desk to desk to be approved or entered into the system can be received and approved electronically. With less paper and less of the manual data entry that comes with the typical onboarding process, there will be less human error. Mistakes caused by human error cost your company valuable time and money. OCR (Optical Character Recognition) technology is used to extract the data from E-forms and other digitized documents, eliminating the need for staff to enter important data by hand.

Besides onboarding documents, other processes that can be automated or put into a workflow (or both) include timesheets and leave requests. Employees can submit their timesheets as they are being pushed through the workflow for eventual approval, and automatically receiving those timesheets makes it easy for your department when it comes time for payroll. Employees can fill out leave requests using E-forms, and that information can be sent to be approved automatically.

It’s not just your department that will benefit from an automated workflow—your employees will benefit, and your customers will, too. With all-around quicker processes, faster access to files, and an easier onboarding process, everyone is happy, and better yet, they are able to focus on other things within their department that could use some work. You will quickly be able to see the benefits of automation throughout your entire company. Call Datamation (630) 321-0601 today to discuss the perfect plan for your company’s needs.