5 Ways Your Small Business Will Benefit from Electronic HR Document Management

Before you hire your first employee, you’re a one-person operation; you’re running every aspect of your business – from marketing to finance to customer service. As your team grows, you also become your human resources department, which means handling a lot of files. You have to keep up with I-9 and W-4 forms, resumes, job applications, performance reviews, disciplinary reports, and more. You also have to ensure your staff has copies of your employee handbook or company policies. Keeping physical copies can take up a lot of space and make it difficult to find the information you need quickly. Keep reading to learn five ways electronic document management can help you better manage your HR duties.

1. Avoid confusion

You might have different sets of policies for different groups of workers. For example, you might have one paid time off (PTO) policy for part-time employees and another for full-time workers. Electronic document management makes it easier to share the relevant information with only the group to whom it applies. That way, your part-time staff doesn’t get confused and think they have more time off available than they do.

2. Save space

Filing cabinets can take up a lot of room in your office. As your workforce grows, you’ll generate more and more files that you’re required to keep for years after an employee leaves your company, like I-9 forms. By storing data online, you can still access any document they need, without taking valuable floor space.

3. Increase accessibility

There are some HR-related documents that your staff may need to review outside of the office. For example, if an employee is scheduling a doctor’s appointment, they might have questions about how to request time off. Should they submit the request under sick leave or personal time? If they can find detailed information about each policy in an online document warehouse, they don’t have to call you or wait until they’re at work.

4. Jumpstart onboarding

Because of increased accessibility, online document management can help you start onboarding new hires before their first day of work. You can give them access to all their required forms so they can fill them out on their own time. On their first day, you can focus on introducing them to your company, instead of spending the whole day completing paperwork. Read also: 3 Benefits of Digital Onboarding

5. Improve file safety

Paper records are at risk of being destroyed if your company ever experiences a flood or a fire. If you use an online, cloud-based system, however, your information will always be available. You can also password protect files or share them only with the employees who need them to prevent people from seeing information they shouldn’t.

Manage your paperwork with Workful

With Workful, you can store all the documents your team needs in one place and share them with your employees with just one click. You can choose to share each document with your whole staff or only the individuals that need it. You can easily see who you’ve shared each file with, so you always know who has the most up-to-date information. Learn more about how Workful’s HR solution can save you time and help you get back to business.