Record Compliance

The HR team is responsible for ensuring employee files are up-to-date and managed with compliance.  When an auditor inevitably requests to check on your files, it’s critical that HR knows their files are current with all required information.  Here’s how to prepare for an HR audit the easy way using electronic employee files. 

File Audit Reports

With all of your HR files in digital format, keeping track of what’s in an employee’s folder becomes a lot easier.  Long-gone are the days of manually thumbing through each employee’s folder to find required documents and checking on renewal dates. 

Instead, use your HR filing system to automatically wrap up actionable documents into a summary audit report.  With these audit reports, keeping track of files become so much easier because HR knows exactly which documents need to be updated for specific staff and when. 

Paperless Renewals

When an employee has to renew a form or update documentation for their folder, they can now do so digitally as well.  Simply send staff a link to the forms they need to complete or have them fill them out on a computer or tablet in the office. 

Employees can review, fill out, and electronically sign all of their forms online.  Once everything is completed, signed forms are automatically saved in their folder for long-term file management. 

The workflows you can utilize this for are endless.  HR, for example, can use the same method for their entire onboarding process if desired.

Access for Auditors

We’ve talked about how electronic employee files can make audits much easier for HR, but did you know that most auditors prefer a digital audit process as well?  That’s because auditors can now review the files they need from anywhere.

Simply give your auditor limited access to the digital files they request.  They’ll be able to access and review just the files you made available to them remotely.  Auditors like it because they don’t have to travel and HR loves it because they don’t have auditors looking over their shoulder. 

Start This Summer

Need a way to streamline audits?  Start this summer!  DynaFile is an HR filing system that makes audits easy.  Keep track of files with audit reports, get forms renewed online, and give auditors remote access to the files they request.

Best of all, DynaFile allows your HR team to eliminate record silos and streamline filing across the entire department.  Consolidate documents from paper, different offices, and various systems into one centralized, HIPAA compliant filing solution. 

Contact us today for more information and a free demo!

Raise your hand if you like dealing with paper! Well, I’m not surprised at the lack of enthusiasm on this subject. Human Resources professionals deal with a ton of paper and keeping it all organized can be an incredible challenge. 

Unfortunately, paper is the filing method being used by a huge number of HR departments – simply because it’s what they started with back when there was no alternative. After working with paper files for so long, you may not even realize how much time is wasted searching for documents, filing, copying, scanning, emailing, printing, faxing, and refiling. 

These days, though, companies are freeing up time for the HR team by moving to more paperless processes like electronic employee files and digital onboarding. Here are some of the ways paper may be leeching productivity away from the HR team and what you can do about it. 

Why is paper a problem for HR?

It’s HR’s job to ensure all employee folders are up-to-date with required forms and documents. At the very least, each employee should have all of their required onboarding, tax, and policy forms in their folder to ensure compliance with government regulations.

But, this is just the tip of the iceberg. Most companies have quite a few additional acknowledgements, benefits info, and other documents that needs to be reviewed, completed, signed; and eventually filed in the employee’s folder.

The problem here is that HR is required to store and manage this huge mass of files with both:

1.) Confidentiality to protect staff privacy and personal information; and

2.) With easy accessibility in the event of an audit

When this is the case, a paper filing system just doesn’t cut it. Here’s why.

Where does paper cause the biggest issues?

File Audits

Paper files are notoriously hard to manage over a long period of time. It is all too easy for a piece of paper to be accidentally place in the wrong folder, get retrieved and never make it’s way back to the drawer, or just wind up crumpled and illegible. How sure are you that all of your folders are complete and current when the auditor walks in?

Compliance

It is required that different types of confidential information about staff is stored in separate folders to ensure only authorized eyes can view it. On paper, though, it can be a challenge to maintain 5 or more individual folders for every staff member. Hopefully something like a medical report hasn’t accidentally made it’s way into the Personnel tab!

Disaster Recovery

With reports of monster hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria still fresh on our minds, disaster recovery should be a big focus for HR. If all of your files are on paper, what is in place to keep them safe in the event of a natural disaster like flooding from a hurricane? Having a physical paper backup for all of your paper files is near impossible.

How does paper affect HR in the long run?

Although the issues mentioned above can make HR’s job significantly harder, the main reason to go paperless simply comes back to efficiency. Paper filing systems just tend to always move towards greater disorder, slowly suffocating the HR team. When HR moves from paper to an electronic filing system, many redundant tasks can be completely eliminated and many menial tasks can be automated. 

Here are a few examples…

Filing and Retrieving Documents

Your electronic filing system can keep documents organized by categories like Employee Name, ID, Department, Folder Section, Document Type, Expiration Date, etc. The system uses this information to automatically file your documents in the correct location.

So, no need to manually name files, create folders, and find the right place to save when adding documents to the system. When it’s time to retrieve a file, you can pull them up using the same information mentioned above. This can save you a lot of time as you can pull folders across the entire database. For example, all Benefits documents for Active employees in the Sales department that are Expiring in the next 90 days.  

Electronic Onboarding

When a new hire comes on-board, they have quite a bit of paperwork to fill out. With an electronic filing system, new hires can now review, fill out, and legally sign all of their onboarding documents online. Once completed, all finished forms are automatically filed in their electronic folder.

Electronic onboarding saves time for both your HR staff and new hires. Plus, it can be a breath of fresh air for new employees to have the option of filling out their new hire documents in advance of their first day, without the pressure of rushing through them. 

File Audit Reports

With your files stored electronically, keeping track of them becomes way easier. File audit reports can be used to ensure all employee folders are up-to-date with required documents. The report will show your team if an employee is missing a required document, has a required document in their folder, or has a something coming up for renewal.

When to take the next step?

If you’re using a paper filing system in the HR department, you may consider moving a more paperless process this year. Many times, the move to paperless costs a lot less than you might imagine. Some electronic filing systems are even considered “paperless HR solutions” and include scanning automation tools to help convert your paper files faster. 

DynaFile is a paperless HR solution that has been helping companies achieve a higher level of efficiency for over 15 years. Take a shortcut to electronic employee files with scanning automation and manage documents easier throughout the entire lifecycle of the file. Electronic onboarding, file audit reports, and more make it easy to transition from paper files to the cloud. Interested? Contact us for a free demo!

The Human Resources department is responsible for managing quite an extensive document archive. With all of the forms and other documentation that’s required to be stored in an employee’s folder, it can be a serious challenge keeping it all organized and secure, yet accessible to authorized staff.

Compounding this challenge is the fact that you can be audited at any time to ensure all of this documentation is stored and managed in a compliant way. When your files are stored on paper, it can be nearly impossible to ensure every staff member’s folder is up-to-date with the required documents.

Here’s how switching to a paperless HR solution can help make employee file audits extra easy for your team.

File Audit Reports

If you’re managing your employee files on paper, odds are that audit time can be quite stressful. Many companies will use a simple spreadsheet to keep track of required and expiring documents in employee folders. This is a good way to run your file audits, but can become unmanageable fairly quickly as the workforce increases and employees are tenured. 

With a paperless HR solution, your documents are stored as electronic employee files. This brings a huge benefit to your HR team because every documents in the system is categorized by information like: Employee Name, ID, Office Location, Department, Folder Section, Document Type, Expiration Date, etc. Now you can easily run reports to see exactly which employees are missing which required documents from their folders; or see which employees have a documents coming up for renewal.

Since these reports are generated by your paperless HR system, the once time-consuming task of finding out “what’s missing?” is now automatic.  

Renew Forms Online

Now that you can automatically decipher the documents that are missing from employee folders, along with files that are coming up for renewal, getting those forms renewed should also be an easy process for your HR team.

With a paperless HR solution, you can email staff directly with a link to the forms that must be completed. They can review, fill out and legally sign everything online. You can also have a page on your website that acts as a “self-service portal” for common forms. If it’s easier to get things completed in-person, staff can also complete forms at a computer or tablet in your office.

No matter what method is used to get your forms executed electronically, once everyone has finished and signed everything, completed forms are are automatically filed in the employee’s folder for you. 

Keep Auditors Out of the Office

There are few things more disruptive than having an auditor come into your office and dig through your files. Since your employee files are stored electronically with a paperless HR solution, providing them to an auditor remotely actually becomes quite easy.

A good paperless HR solution will include segmented access features to ensure compliance around privacy and protected information. Many times, these will allow you to make specific documents and folders available to a user, like an auditor.

Simply give them read-only access to just the documents they have requested and they can access those files securely from anywhere, at any time, thus removing the need to come on-site to perform the audit. 

Getting There in 30 Days

If you’re interested in switching to a paperless HR solution, DynaFile can have you up and running in 30 days. With over 17 years of experience, DynaFile has become a popular choice for HR departments that want to go paperless fast.

Our unique scanning automation tools give your team the power to automate the conversion of your paper files internally, or you can get the job done by the pros through our scanning service partner.

Either way, electronic files bring huge benefits to your team going forward with features like: File Audit Reports, Instant Document Retrieval, Segmented Access Rules, Secure File Sharing, Electronic Forms, eSignatures, Online Workflows and much, much more. Contact us today for a free demo!