How can digital workflows benefit your HR department?

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Human Resources (HR) department has had to refocus its activities on the needs of a remote working workforce. While many employees continue to work from home, the safe resumption of the workplace is also an important item on the HR agenda. As organizations respond to changing circumstances and social changes, digital workflows allow them to focus on helping their employees meet new challenges.

HR administrative functions are time-consuming and intensive work when they rely on unconnected technology such as Excel spreadsheets, shared drives and software without the ability to share data. With automation, the HR team can focus on strategic issues like employee engagement, preserve company culture by scheduling events and trainings, and provide quick responses to workplace challenges as they arise.

Key areas where HR automation has an impact:

Serving employees in the digital age: Digital workflows protect employee files in encrypted storage. With autonomous, work-from-home employees have easy access to information about health care and child care expense accounts, employee assistance programs and time-off requirements. not only can an HR team view documents and workflow status from anywhere and on any device, but employees can securely access their individual records. Employee self-service and quick response time to information request saves time and effort for everyone.

Managing policies and procedures: When the HR department promotes new policies and procedures, document management software facilitates distribution and provides a path that confirms receipt. Electronic forms make employee approval faster, easier and more cost-effective.

Personnel selection: Now that most selection processes are done online, it is even more interesting to automatically process e-mailed CVs, review them and send them to the recruiting manager. Internal electronic CV distribution ensures that everyone interviewing a job candidate has access to the information. In terms of HR workflow efficiency, establishing training approvals electronically makes the process consistent, while creating a path to track all training activities.

Employee onboarding: The first 90 days a new employee spends with an organization often determine how quickly the employee becomes an engaged member of the workforce. Some new employees, who have been prepared in an online way, may not have the opportunity to meet their manager before starting work. Automating onboarding ensures that new employees feel welcome and perfectly prepared to make their first days at work productive and stress-free.

To make sure all the bases are covered, you can create a checklist of necessary tasks, including job recognition, confidentiality agreements, employee handbooks and initial training plans. You can easily manage the onboarding of new hires to provide employees with all the elements they need to get started, even if the items are delivered to their homes from your office.
Performance management: With automation, you can customize performance appraisal templates and set data to automated, while collecting and storing all the information. Hiring reviews, salary approvals, annual raises and performance-based increases are streamlined into efficient workflows that benefit the company and employees. On the other hand, you will have a clear and consistent record of documents detailing an employee's work history if you are dealing with performance issues.

In short: in the current scenario, companies can no longer afford to slow down processes. This is particularly important in human resources departments. Digitizing processes through solutions like Docuware related to resumes, applications, onboarding forms, payroll reporting and tax forms, and performance oversight saves time and provides agility.