The great digitization: How streamlining HR processes impacts the bottom line

The current unemployment rate in the U.S. holding steady at 3.6% is one bright spot for a country still reeling from the effects of a lengthy and stubborn pandemic. However, a lack of skilled labor has created numerous challenges for companies that lost some of their best talent to the “Great Resignation.” With an increase in employee turnover and new positions to fill, recruiting has become one of the top priorities for HR organizations.

Even as the economy “softens” a bit, many companies continue to seek, recruit, and hire workers at a steady pace. A 2022 Hackett Group study reports that HR workloads are projected to increase by 9.3% in 2022, a big jump from a 2021 increase of 1.7%. The good news: HR technology spending will also rise more than 9% in 2022, compared to just a 0.7% increase in 2021.

With more pressure on HR teams to manage remote teams, recruit new talent, and onboard employees once hired, specialized HR software platforms and digitizing processes will help to increase productivity and efficiency, decreasing the time HR spends on repetitive tasks.

Digitizing onboarding processes makes an impact on the bottom line as well. According to Boston Consulting Group, companies with a highly efficient employee onboarding program experience 2.5 times more revenue growth and 1.9 times the profit margin as compared to those with poor onboarding processes. BCG also reports that the former also leads to higher productivity levels and faster knowledge acquisition rates.

Speeding, simplifying onboarding processes

Employee onboarding can be a lengthy and complex process. Depending on the job role and size of the company, it could take days or even weeks. Each new employee is required to fill out cumbersome paperwork and provide multiple forms of documentation, including passports, birth certifications, driver’s licenses, etc. HR processes need to be modernized using the latest technology tools to speed onboarding and comply with local, state, and federal employment laws. This not only saves time and resources, but also decreases the potential for compliance and audit failures.

Perhaps one of the most significant advantages to digitizing employee documentation is that it adds an additional layer of data privacy by securing Personally Identifiable Information (PII) throughout the onboarding phase as well for regular HR processes such as quarterly performance reviews, wage information, etc. Relying on paper-only processes makes it too easy for personal employee information to fall into the wrong hands.

Digitizing workflows by integrating scanners with leading HR applications, such as Workday, PeopleSoft and BambooHR, among others, allows HR organizations to take full advantage of process automation and document management, including employee benefit information, wage and tax information, regular job performance reviews, and more. Some of the ways HR teams can support organization’s broader business objectives, from digital transformation to reducing the company’s carbon footprint, include:

• Breaking down HR information siloes: Many companies are picking up the digital transformation projects they put on hold in 2020 and 2021 and are now heavily investing in the move to the cloud. In fact, according to the Hackett Group report mentioned previously, 61% of companies identify digital transformation as their top priority, up from 53% in 2021. HR teams can benefit from digital transformation as well, breaking the data siloes that defeat the wider access to employee information, and delivering a better experience to employees throughout the company, no matter where they’re located.

HR is also a “paper heavy” function. Digitizing paper documents related to onboarding, employee engagement, performance, wages, etc. is an important component in digital transformation. It’s not just about moving applications to the cloud (although that’s an important aspect) – it’s more about making sure all systems and platforms are fully integrated and can easily communicate with each other. This is the real goal of digital transformation: to drive higher productivity and reduce the strain on already overworked HR teams by automating repetitive processes that were previously manual. Automation saves resources, including time and money, increases accuracy, and accelerates processes, which is a win-win-win for HR teams, employees, and the entire company, including its bottom line.

Related: 3 reasons HR is hesitant to adopt new technology

• Taking the lead on a sustainability-minded corporate culture: One of the few bright spots of the COVID “era” was the positive impact work-from-home had on the planet, which got a short reprieve from the effects of billions of commutes per day. While some companies have brought their employees back to the office, the efforts to decrease their carbon footprint through digital transformation and digitization efforts are moving full steam ahead. HR teams can be sustainability leaders in their respective organizations by using digitization to decrease their dependency on traditional paper processes. For example, when onboarding new employees, HR teams can use PC-less scanning to process passports, forms, birth certificates, etc., sending these documents to the cloud and directly into a HR platform or application, eliminating the need to make multiple copies of documentation. This not only greatly reduces paper usage it also supports business continuity efforts. HR teams will always need paper, but the goal should be to eliminate the need to make multiple copies of every sheet, reducing paper dependency and freeing up office space occupied by old-school file cabinets.

HR teams will face myriad challenges in the coming years, including the highly competitive talent recruitment landscape which remains a high priority. This is even more reason for HR to leverage the benefits of digital transformation and the move to the cloud. Increasing the efficiency of the onboarding process is critical to fast-tracking top talent into their new positions, contributing to employee productivity, enhancing sustainability – and ultimately, helping to drive positive company growth.

Scott Francis, Technology Evangelist at PFU America, Inc., brings more than 30 years of document imaging expertise to his position where he’s responsible for evangelizing Fujitsu’s industry leading scanner technology.