Paper Kills! New Hire Paperwork Kills Productivity.

by Jeff Hallam
Partner, ExactHire
Death by Paper

Advances in technology over the past few years have allowed organizations to streamline a variety of functions. Accounting, inventory control, payroll – these areas, and others, have seen significant advances in efficiency due to automation.

Human Resources departments have also felt the positive impact of automation, although perhaps not to the extent of other organizational areas. Functions such as benefits administration, applicant tracking and performance management have been made easier with advances in automation capabilities over the past decade. However, a newer technology that has been gaining traction over the past couple of years is poised to help automate one of the most painful aspects of hiring for most organizations – employee onboarding.

Onboarding software is HR technology that makes the new employee process paperless. Different solutions utilize different approaches, but there are common advantages to using this type of tool:

Eliminate paper and printing/storage costs as forms change over time
Ensure accurate and complete documents
Avoid “back-and-forth” with new employees to gather all necessary documents
Reduce overnight shipping charges for off-site hires
No need to print and store copies for future reference

Even better, these paperless technology options typically allow you to replicate virtually
all forms unique to your organization’s new hire process.

Examples of forms that can typically be made paperless by utilizing employee onboarding software:

Federal Form I-9 / e-Verify integration
Federal W-4 withholding form
State withholding forms
Background and drug testing authorization forms
Employee handbook authorization forms
Sexual harassment or workplace violence policy acknowledgement forms
Direct deposit authorization form
Emergency contact form
Uniform order forms / Technology order forms
Continuing education program enrollment form
Building access card request form
Confidentiality agreement
Personal information form
...and more!

Consider these factors to determine if onboarding software is right for your organization:

Number of hires you make per year
Number of forms required in your new hire packet
Whether those forms change based on position hired or geographic location
Whether you hire people across multiple locations
Internal resources available to handle these tasks manually – would automating free these resources for other more relevant and/or strategic human resources efforts?

As an HR professional, you owe it to yourself to be aware of this trend and how it can impact both your organization and your new hires. Let’s hope that over the next few years, we can all experience a paperless employee onboarding world – happier trees, no paper cuts, and happy new hires everywhere!

Schedule a live demonstration of ExactHire’s software-as-a-solution (SaaS) employee onboarding software today.

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I'm very interested in this option.

Posted by LINDA on June 18, 2012 @ 5:41 pm

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