COVID has impacted many companies and offices. With this global change, businesses must adjust to accommodate the new work environment. One key adjustment is the Human Resources (HR) Department. They handle many roles and responsibilities and are the backbone of a company. From handling payroll, open enrollment season, hiring and firing, and more, HR Departments are crucial.

If the HR Department is inefficient, it can have a negative impact on all of the other departments that depend on them. Here’s how a Document Management System (DMS) can improve the efficiency of an HR department.

True Costs of HR Paperwork

According to Gartner, Human Resource professionals spend 20-30% of the workweek managing physical documents or document-based information. This quickly adds up to approximately 12 hours per week and over 300 hours per year. A single filing cabinet can cost between $150 to $2,000 and can take up 17 square feet of office space. A single filing cabinet only has the capabilities to hold up to 20,000 sheets of paper.

HR professionals are oftentimes strictly limited to task-driven roles because of how time-consuming physical document management can be. Mis-filing documents, leaving them on the wrong desk, losing them in a pile— are all issues that can arise when using paper documents instead of a DMS.

Responsibilities of HR

In-house HR functions greatly vary and are constantly changing. HR staff can greatly improve understanding of how important human capital is to a company. Human capital is crucial for smaller businesses when they have employees who wear many hats for the business. 

HR additionally creates processes to prevent overspending such as workforce management costs. HR ensures competitive and realistic wages are set based on keeping tabs on the labor market, employment trends, and salary analysis.

Conflict resolution is no one’s favorite topic but it is one that is crucial for workplace success. With a wide range of personalities and perspectives in the workplace, HR must resolve conflict swiftly and effectively. Keep confidential conflict resolution materials and incident reports safe with a DMS. Improving corporate image is crucial if your company wants to be seen as an ideal employer among your employees. By organizing employee complaints and requests in a DMS, HR can effectively process them to prevent them from going unaddressed. 

While onboarding new employees, HR must prepare them for their new roles through training and setup. HR specialists conduct necessary assessments to determine areas of improvement and areas of strength among their new hires. Additionally, HR is responsible for performance management practices for their employees. Storing this data for future reference is crucial for succession planning and transitioning employees into leadership roles and identifying lower performing employees. With a DMS, these assessments can be easily stored and organized to use them in the future.

How a DMS Can Improve HR Practices

By going paperless with a DMS, HR professionals won’t spend as much time looking for and retrieving documents, thus allowing them to play more strategic roles in your company. According to Software Advice, employees spend at least six hours per week looking for paper documents. Using a DMS, you can immediately locate the needed documents and decrease the time commitment.

A DMS allows employees to collaborate from anywhere in the world, no longer limited by physical offices. Virtual work creates new potential problems, but a DMS can solve those issues. It also allows HR to reduce messy and disorganized email threads by providing remote access and file editing virtually from any location. It is crucial to keep employees and teams connected through a DMS while getting rid of the issues paper trails create.

By organizing all data and documents into one secure, indexed database, a DMS prevents employees from losing vital documents like incident reports, onboarding documents, evaluations, and more. Using various permission settings can prevent employees from seeing documents they have no business seeing. Implementing a DMS can reduce the stress of managing documents in the virtual or hybrid office.

A DMS can reduce the risk of mismanaging or misplacing important data. A DMS smoothes the processes of document storage, indexing, retrieval, and sharing. Digital documents stored in a secure, virtual database allows employees to easily access and distribute contracts, forms, assessments, and other crucial documents HR depends on. With custom-tailored tools to fit your business’s needs, feel confident that your DMS is there to improve your business’s practices and efficiency.

HR professionals can manage digitally signed contracts and transfer them to teammates around the world. With the broad range of tasks HR performs, they need to be able to upload and manage any type of files to a DMS. To keep matters private, HR can set up custom security permissions to ensure document privacy and confidentiality. HR can feel confident in user-based access.

Optix has workflow automation capabilities that can elevate and alleviate the document management process. With a fine-tuned document management system, workflows can be set up to ensure that your custom business rules and logic are functioning properly. This ensures an organized flow of communication, information, compliance, and documentation.

You can optimize the process of approvals, reviews, and transfer of documents between employees with the right document management system. Custom automated workflows tailored to your business’s needs is the best way to implement a strong digital flow within your company with easy upkeep. Workflows can automatically send reports or forms to a HR professional for review upon completion. Automation can reduce the hassle of manually following up with employees to ensure they have completed required documents. Customization creates efficient workflows, which ultimately results in efficient business processes. Optix is built specifically to custom fit your company’s needs with stress-free configuration.

For more information on how a DMS can benefit your HR Department, please visit our Top 5 Ways Document Management Benefits HR blog.

The Return on Investment of a DMS

The most important way that Optix by Mindwrap supports your HR Department efforts in the new remote work environment boils down to how much a DMS can help your organization leverage its money efficiently and effectively.

Transitioning from the paper-based world to the virtual and digital realm is not limited to just reducing expenses in terms of square footage for your business. A DMS can impact time saved due to not having to search through mounds of papers.

You’ll save time and money because you’re no longer wading through reams of paper — allowing you to funnel more of those funds back into the business in areas where they can do the most good. Plus, you’ll have more time in a day to focus on those matters that truly need you, which may very well be the most important benefit of all.

Get Started Today!

Reduce the stress and burden of tasks in your HR Department with a DMS. It’s crucial for remote and hybrid work success for your company. Implementing a DMS has great potential to optimize your HR Department’s daily tasks and responsibilities. Mindwrap can help you determine which system suits your business’s needs.

We have industry-leading experts to help you get that conversation started and get your company moving forward in the right direction. Contact us today to get started.

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