Record Compliance

The Human Resources department is a busy place. New employees are constantly being hired and active staff can require just as much assistance. Dealing with all of the paperwork that goes along with working in HR can be seriously challenging. Many companies have moved to electronic personnel files to help manage their HR documents easier. Moving away from paper and towards digital has a number of benefits, but this article will focus on 3 of the biggest. Here’s how electronic personnel files can help streamline your entire HR department.

Instant File Retrieval

When your HR files are on paper, finding an important document can be a time-intensive and stressful experience. Electronic personnel files allow your staff to access the documents you need quickly and easily from anywhere, at any time.

“Indexed” systems allow you to tag your electronic personnel files by categories like the Employee Name, Document Type, Status, Office Location, Department, Expiration Date, etc. That way, you can search for documents based on their “indexing” information. For example, with just a couple of clicks, you can pull up all: Handbook Acknowledgements expiring within the next 60 days for Active employees working in the Sales department out of the Chicago office.

“Cloud” systems allow you to securely access your files online. These are extremely popular with companies that have multiple offices so that staff in each location can access the files they need easily.

Custom Audit Reports

When you make the move to electronic personnel files, keeping track of documents becomes a lot easier. Maintaining compliance around storing and managing personnel files can be rigorous on paper. You need to ensure that each employee’s folder contains all required documentation and that all of those files are up-to-date. An electronic system can do this for you automatically.

An audit or “exception report” is commonly used by HR staff to automatically check your electronic personnel files for required and expiring documents. The report is then automatically emailed to your HR team showing which employees are missing which required documents from their folders and which employees have a time-sensitive document expiring soon. This can make your HR audits significantly less stressful.

Segmented Access

One of the challenges of paper files is keeping protected information separated into different folders. With electronic personnel files, this is no longer an issue. Instead of having 3-5 different folders for every single employee, simply use “segmented access” to make certain types of documents only available to specific staff.

For example, allow Payroll users to ONLY see Payroll documents when they view an employee’s folder. Or, lock down I-9’s so that only relevant HR staff can view them. Or, finally, give managers access to only certain types of documents in just their own staff’s folders. This allows your team to consolidate without sacrificing compliance.

Ready for Electronic Personnel Files?

If you’re interested in moving your HR department onto electronic personnel files, contact us today. DynaFile has been helping companies go paperless to improve their internal processes and cut costs for over 15 years. Our paperless HR solution allows you take the entire department paperless quickly and easily. From there, your staff have direct access to the files they need at any time from the DynaFile cloud. You can easily create segmented access for your HR, Payroll and supervisor staff and keep track of required and expiring documentation in employee folders using custom audit reports. Contact us today for more information and a free demo!

As HR technology improves, more and more companies are taking their Human Resource departments paperless. Going paperless can open up a world of unexpected improvements in efficiency and organization. However, moving away from a time-tested system for storing and managing your critical staff information can seem daunting. Will a paperless office work for my HR department? Here are the types of companies that can benefit the most from to paperless HR software.

Paper filing system or network file share

Paper filing system are extremely tough to manage. Keeping your files organized in an overflowing filing cabinet is never an easy task. This makes finding a critical document a time-intensive and stressful operation. Plus, when it comes time to audit your personnel files, manually combing through all of those folders can be brutal. Paperless HR software can help eliminate these pain points as you’ll later in this article.

Network file shares offer easier access, but come with their own problems. Converting your files and adding them to the file share is a tedious, multi-step process. Part of this process is adhering to strict naming conventions and ensuring that every single document is filed in the correct location. The problem is that some documents will inherently be filed incorrectly, making them very difficult to find down the line. Finally, unlike paperless HR software, most network file shares do not offer the level of security required to be considered a HIPAA-compliant storage solution.

High turnover or rapid expansion

Companies with a seasonal workforce often have a high turnover rate. If your company has a high turnover rate or is in a stage of rapid expansion, it’s critical to have an efficient way for onboarding new employees and maintaining file retention. Paper onboarding packets are bulky to deal with and take a lot of time away from both your HR team and your new hire. Both of these things equate to high costs. Additionally, managing file retention requirements can be a nightmare when there are always new employees being added to the team.

With paperless HR software, employee onboarding can become completely electronic. Digital forms, esignatures and online workflows replace pen-and-paper processes. Signed and completed forms can be automatically filed in the new hire’s folder automatically. Best of all, retention requirements can be completely automated. For example, you can set the system to automatically delete an employee’s personnel record 3 years after termination, but to keep their I-9 form on file for 7 years. 

Multiple office locations or remote staff

When you have staff working out of multiple office locations or working remotely, getting critical information back and forth can be a challenge on paper. Over-nighting is slow and costly, but emailing can throw up a compliance flag. Paperless HR software allows your team to streamline the sharing of information.

With your personnel files stored in the cloud, your staff can access the information they need from anywhere at any time. You can use segmented access permissions to ensure different types of employees can only access the types of files and folders that they are authorized to see. So, for example, you can rest easy knowing managers can view Time & Attendance information for just their own staff, but all other documentation in the system is hidden from them.

Frequent audits on employee files

An HR audit can be one of the most time-consuming projects of the year. Combing through each individual’s personnel record to ensure everything is in there is an extremely taxing process. Unfortunately, it is also completely necessary to ensure your company maintains compliance with regulations laid out in HIPAA, HITECH, etc.

One of the best things about paperless HR software is the ability to run automatic audit reports. Instead of going through every single folder in your filing cabinet, simply run an automated report to tell you which employees are missing required documents and which employees have a time-sensitive document expiring in the near future. These audit reports can replace your manual audits and become your automatic audit protection.

Furthermore, since all of your files are electronic, you can actually make them available to your auditor no matter where they are located. That’s right, there is no longer any need for your auditor to come on-site to conduct their audit. Simply make the files and folders they request available to them through your paperless HR software.

Annual acknowledgments or contracts

Similar to the employee onboarding process, getting your annual acknowledgments or contracts filled out and signed on paper can be a true challenge. Paperless HR departments can use the same electronic onboarding process to get many other types of forms and documents completed as well. Offer letters, PTO requests, annual policy acknowledgements and more can all be completed using the same process.

Learn more with our Free Paperless HR Guide

Would you like to learn more about paperless HR software? Download our free Paperless HR Guide. In this guide we will explore:

✅ Companies that will see the highest ROI
✅ Time and cost benefits to be expected
✅ Paperless strategy design
✅ Differences in paperless HR solutions
✅ How to go paperless fast

DynaFile’s Paperless HR Solution

DynaFile is paperless HR software that has been helping companies improve efficiency for over 15 years. Unique scanning automation features allow your team take the entire department paperless fast. Going forward, online workflows replace traditional pen-and-paper processes like employee onboarding. Advanced security features give your team full control of access permissions for different kinds of staff and for specific types of folders and documents in employee files. If you’re looking to move to electronic personnel files, DynaFile is an easy-to-use HR solution that is as powerful as it is practical. Contact us today for more information and a free demo.