Human Resources professionals are moving to an electronic filing system to help streamline employee document management.
Managing employee files on paper can be a huge challenge for the Human Resources department. Critical forms are easily lost or simply misfiled, making them impossible to find in the moment during an audit.
Compliance regulations like HIPAA and GDPR require companies to maintain a secure record of this sensitive employee information. These days, it’s becoming harder and harder to stay compliant on paper.
Here’s how companies are leveraging an electronic filing system in HR to streamline employee document management.
Indexed Filing Keeps Documents Where They Should Be
When looking at electronic filing systems for HR, “indexed” filing is a popular choice. Indexed filing frees your team from the job of creating and maintaining an elaborate folder structure, or having to adhere to strict naming conventions for files.
Instead, all files added to the system are “indexed” with information like Employee Name, ID, Status, Department, Folder/Tab, Document Type, Expiration Date, etc. Using this information, the filing system knows exactly where to save your documents every time.
When it’s time to retrieve some documents from the system, a quick search brings back exactly the files you’re interested in with 2 or 3 clicks. For example, bring up all Benefits documents for Active employees working out of the New York office.
Simpler File Audits Give Time Back To The HR Team
When all of your employee files are indexed and electronic, file audits become a breeze. Long-gone are the days of manual spreadsheets and thumbing through manila folders.
With an electronic filing system, audit reports can be run automatically. Simply use a report to outline the types of documents staff are required to keep in their folders. That report can run automatically to alert the HR team of any critical files missing from employee folders.
Keeping track of renewable documents is just as easy. Use expiration dates to be automatically notified when employees have important forms coming up for renewal.
Best of all, when an auditor requests some documents to review, you can make them available remotely. Now auditors don’t even have to come into the office to complete their audit.
Built-In Disaster Recovery and Retention
With an electronic filing system, long-term document management becomes a lot easier.
Many times, your files are safer when stored electronically because they are no longer at the mercy of natural disasters like a hurricane, tornado, or flood. A good system will include built-in disaster recovery tools to ensure your files are kept safe in the event of a disaster and available for your team to access at all times.
Retention rules are also easily automated with an electronic filing system. Use Termination Dates to set rules for the system to automatically “shred” employee documentation once it has reached it’s retention requirements. For example, delete the Personnel folder after 3 years, but keep the I-9 for 7 years.
Getting There Fast With Scan-To-Cloud Filing
DynaFile is a unique electronic filing system for HR. Powerful scanning automation tools are designed to work directly with the filing system. This way, HR can scan directly to the cloud to take a shortcut to electronic employee files.
Going forward, DynaFile makes it easy to share files securely online, streamline file audits, segment access for different roles, and maintain compliance with HIPAA and GDPR regulations.
Contact us today or sign up below for a free demo to learn more!
