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9 Document Management Solutions With HR at Heart

What’s the biggest frustration for HR departments? Lack of strategized, secured and streamlined document management solutions. 462577443

  • “I can’t find the files I need. There’s no organization, no central storage for documents. Email folders, and even cloud-based folders, don’t help at all.”
  • We just had a fire and all of our personnel files were destroyed, now what do we do?
  • We have 10 offices and now we have 10 copies of our files. Which one is correct?

… Sound familiar? If so, we feel your pain. DocuVantage has worked with enough frustrated HR managers, directors and generalists to know that the endless search through mismanaged personnel files makes productivity (and workplace satisfaction) impossible.

One, two, three: ACTION.

Step One: Read our blog post on document management secrets for the HR team, part one. 

Step Two: Read our blog post on document management secrets for the HR team, part two.

Step Three: Get smart about document management solutions and best practices that keep your workday frustration free – well, as frustration free as possible.

  1. Get digital. 
    Centralize your personnel file storage in electronic format and share it with authorized personnel, regardless of location. This ensures that there is only one copy of each file. Make it policy, and enforce it.
     
  2. Clear out those file cabinets.
    Ditch the boxes and make room for more people – people who have the power to advance your organization. It’s pretty logical move: Another sales person is definitely going to generate more revenue than those file cabinets, don’t you think?
     
  3. Consciously expunge.
    Keep your files as long as record retention laws and records management stipulations mandate that you do so. Then, get rid of them. Once they pass that retention period, they become a space-wasting and audit findings liability.
     
  4. Control and track.
    Control who has permission to view and touch files. Keep track of all the times these files have been accessed, as well as who has been accessing them.
     
  5. Help your system help you.
    Have your system remind you when reviews are due. Don’t put undue pressure on yourself to remember everything! That’s not only impossible, but it’s also a recipe for distress.
     
  6. Make audits easier.
    Keep everything organized and electronically accessible. This way, when the auditors come by, all your files are orderly and ready to go. Only give them access to the records they are requesting, that’s it, don’t open yourself up to legal discovery. This makes for a happy auditor, and a happy auditor makes everyone happy.
     
  7. Turn “file complete?” into “file COMPLETE!” 
    Make it easy to determine if a file is complete by organizing and identifying documents coherently and consistently. Once again: Make it policy, and enforce it.
     
  8. Check in; check out. Nothing left to doubt.
    Implement a content check-in and check-out guard that prevents users from wiping out each other’s edits and keeps finished documents from being mistakenly tampered with.
     
  9. Stop printing. Seriously.
    Take advantage of electronic signatures so you stop wasting resources on unnecessary pen-to-paper signatures.

Still want to hear more from the process automation station? Stay tuned to HR process improvement by clicking below and downloading DocuVantage’s free guide: Improving Information Movement with Workflow Software.

Whitepaper: Unlock the Secrets of Improving information movement with workflow software

Topics: Document Management for HR