How to Move to Paperless HR Operations for Employee Management

It has been over seven months since the World Health Organization declared a global emergency due to the coronavirus pandemic. In the following days and weeks, we witnessed a great migration in the work sphere. Hundreds and thousands of small, medium, and large enterprises moved to remote/paperless working from the conventional office environment. By and large, a complete remote work transition also entails full paperless HR operations.

Contrary to the prevalent presumption, the majority of organizations have managed to execute that transition with no major hiccups. One survey among company leaders indicates how successful this transition has been. Almost 80% of the c-suite respondents of the survey have said that they are mulling over permitting the remote work on the other side of the pandemic as well.

Organizations have relied on various technological and paperless solutions to ensure their departments can adjust to a remote work setting. However, it has been noticed that the HR department is often overlooked when companies devise their remote working arrangements. Moreover, if you want to run your organization like a well-oiled machine with remote work and want to make work-from-home a permanent fixture, you need to empower your HR department accordingly. 

This post will discuss how you can execute paperless HR operations. Overall, the transition to paperless operations will help you effectively manage employees in a remote workplace setting.

Paperless HR Operations 101: Invest in a Good Human Resource Management System

If you are determined to get to 100% paperless HR operations, you will need to invest in a good Human Resource Management System (HRMS). HRMS is essentially a comprehensive software application that offers you a single and centralized view of your enterprise’s workforce.

An HRMS integrates a wide array of applications and operations of your HR operations. Therefore, you can take care of every HR administrative work from a single interface and device from anywhere in the world. This includes talent acquisition, compensation management, succession planning, and performance management.

Another key point is that you don’t need to maintain hardcopy files and folders anymore when major HR operations are moved to a virtual environment. Also, your HR professionals don’t have to sit under one roof to operate the HRMS. If they have access to the enterprise’s HRMS, they can use it from anywhere. This makes HRMS an ideal HR solution for a remote workplace setting.

Make the Most of Collaboration Tools for Complete Paperless HR Operations

Collaboration tools are not just for project teams and employees working on primary deliverables. You can also use those collaboration tools and applications for your HR operations. For instance, you don’t need to provide HR employee feedback on printed files. Use any document-sharing platform where employees and HR professionals can correspond with each other for feedback, performance reports, appraisal documents, and other paperwork types.

Paperless HR Operations Are Only Possible with  Secure E-signing Service

We all know that HR interaction involves a lot of document signing (renewal of contracts, onboarding approvals, etc.). The conventional document signing requires the signatory to be present in-person to sign the relevant paperwork. In a remote work setting, persisting with conventional document signing involves a lot of legwork. It is just a recipe for delays.

The HR people first have to courier the document in hardcopy to the signatory. Subsequently, the signatory signs the document and send it back to the HR office. Overall, this entire process of mere getting a sign on a piece of paper can take days to weeks, depending on the physical distance between the two parties.

By going paperless for document signing, you can get around all that hassle. Furnish digital documents and subscribe to any service that offers to make encrypted digital signatures. We are stressing over secure and encrypted e-signing because it will protect you from any instance of online forgery.

Move to Virtual Testing and Onboarding for Paperless HR Operations

For paperless HR, you will also need to make your testing and onboarding completely virtual. It is essential to get rid of paper and to run your remote workspace smoothly. With online testing platforms, video conferencing apps, and secure e-signing services, it is entirely possible for HR professionals sitting in Vancouver to hire someone from Montreal without needing a single piece of paper and in-person interaction.

Run Online Training and Workshops for Paperless HR Operations

Among HR operations, employee training is one of the integral parts of employee management. Therefore, you also need to move it to the digital medium to keep it up with your remote work settings. With online planners and platforms like Microsoft Team, Google Classroom, and Zoom, it is not difficult to run productive and result-oriented employee training without needing all of them to be in one hall.

Benefits of Paperless HR Operations Beyond Efficient Remote Working

Going with paperless HR operations is not just about running your remote workspace efficiently. Even if you are going for a paperless HR division in the conventional office setting, you will get many benefits.

Cost-Saving: For SMEs, every small expense impacts their bottom line. When you don’t have to run your HR operations through hardcopy files and folders and printed documents, you save a substantial amount of money in the stationery supply.

Eco-friendly Workspace: Paper manufacturing is harmful to the environment. Besides using trees as the raw material, the manufacturing of one sheet of paper takes three gallons of freshwater. Hence, by making your HR division paperless, you get to fulfill an important CSR of moving towards a sustainable working environment.

Clutter-free Workspace: Usual HR workstations slump under the burden of files and folders. Therefore, you can clear all the cluttered space by using a good HRMS.

Streamlined Workflow: By going paperless with your HR operations, you don’t have to waste time sifting through the piles of files and folder to locate an employee record. With a virtual, paperless HR division powered by a good HRMS, you can retrieve any required information within a few clicks.

Microsys can help you go paperless with your HR operations through its HRMS expertise. Its experts will set up a robust HRMS for your organization in line with your particular remote workspace requirements. Microsys’ mission is to deliver affordable and high-quality digital and technology solutions that enable small, medium, and enterprises to scale their businesses more efficiently.