Managing the Human Capital of an Enterprise

How ECM improves compliance, streamlines HR workflow, and cuts costs for human resources management

Managing the human capital of an enterprise requires a staggering amount of documentation that starts even before an employee is hired. When a new employee is hired, the process involves a number of important documents—tax forms, benefit enrollments and employment agreements are common, as well as any number of additional documents including non-compete or non-disclosure agreements, employment eligibility forms and background checks.

It continues while the person is employed and even well after a person has left the company. Consider common events and processes like annual healthcare re-enrollment. Employee retirement and turnover generate yet additional forms, documents and information that all must be secured and retained for years after termination.

Companies find that a great deal of time and money is saved by reducing paper and automating administrative duties. HR professionals find more time to concentrate on their core mission which is to recruit and retain talented employees and in turn bring more value to the organization.

As a result, HR professionals often spend more time, effort and money performing administrative duties than they do attracting, hiring and maximizing the human capital of the organization.

From Cost Center to Value Center

In the past some executives regarded HR as strictly a cost center and not value center. But as organizations come to realize that people are one of their most important (and often most expensive) resources, that value proposition is beginning to quickly change.

Organizations are now taking a fresh look at the advantages of document management, also known as enterprise content management (ECM), in Human Resources and new attention is being focused on this core HR activity.

In today’s competitive business environment it makes sense for organizations to invest in technologies and methodologies that will remove undue administrative burden and empower HR professionals to concentrate on finding the best talent and fostering the best environment for organizational success.

Organizational Efficacy and Tangible Savings

In today’s digital age, it simply no longer makes sense to have highly skilled HR staff burdened with antiquated paper-bound workflow and systems.

One example of how HR departments can find tangible costs savings is the employee onboarding process.

When a new employee is hired, the process involves a number of important documents—e.g. tax forms, benefits enrollments, and more, creating a new employee file of 20 documents or more.

If each document requires an average of 1.5 minutes to process, the result is 30 minutes of data entry per employee. For a company with hundreds or thousands of employees, especially in high-turnover industries, reducing this time-consuming and repetitive administration burden can result in significant savings in HR staffing overhead.

The Document Management Solution

Document management software for Human Resources helps your HR department eliminate the burden of paper and improve office efficiency. Personal information for every employee and applicant’s information is safely stored in an electronic repository for quick and easy access.

Every resume, cover letter, internal memo, employee review, sick leave request and more is traceable and easily maintained. HR documents like employee files, medical records, and I-9 documents are stored in individual folders to ensure separation of key HR files. Security features protect employee privacy and comply with the most stringent standard and regulations.

Making the Change

How do you know which document automation solution is right for you? Look for solutions that can help you relieve the burden of paper in the employee onboarding process and other common HR activities.

Be sure that whatever approach you take, the technology and features allow you to grow and expand the scope of document automation as your needs grow. Look for solution providers with the right mix of experience, vision and capabilities that will allow you to leverage the full value of HR document automation.

What to Expect

Upon implementing a document management solution many companies begin to measure ROI almost immediately. By automating common HR documents, departments find that they save significant time, money and effort, as well as boost the productivity of HR staff.

Consideration of even a few statistics reveal the huge ROI opportunities: 90% of corporate memory exists on paper, professionals spend up to 50% of their time looking for information, the average office spends $11 to process a document, $20 to file a document, $120 to find a misfiled document, and $220 to reproduce a lost document.

Going paperless improves the handling of and access to documents immediately decreasing the costs of processing paper and looking for information as well as decreasing the likelihood of misfiling a document and therefore eliminating the costs of reproducing documents. Additionally, the time spent handling less paper is time HR professional can spend on human capital. So, productivity is increased.

And finally, the use of onsite and offsite storage are some of the highest operating costs especially for information rich departments such as HR. The annual expense for a mere four-drawer file cabinet is nearly $3,000. How many does your company have onsite and perhaps in warehouses offsite? What is the cost of protecting those valuable documents? Paper files present more opportunity for information to be lost, stolen, or damaged, thereby compromising security and data integrity.

Next Steps

Given the benefits a document management solution when managing the human capital of an enterprise, from improved compliance to streamlined workflow to cost reduction, the question may not be if the department should implement the solution, but how soon can implementation and training begin.

To learn more about document management software ROI, read our white paper, Document Management Software ROI. You will see how your HR department and your entire company can benefit from a document management solution.