Why you should digitise your recruitment and onboarding processes today

A change in work/life balance means a new approach is needed

Many people have stopped to take stock of their work/life balance in the last few years, and this means the workforce and their priorities are changing. While many companies have long been flexible in their approach, more companies are now forced to reconsider their employee policies.

Many employees are looking for more flexible workdays and are reconsidering where they work from, whether that's at home or from another location. This means that companies and HR departments have had to transform their working policies and how they recruit employees. It is no longer necessary to hire local talent, but hiring employees remotely presents a new level of challenges.

Manual recruitment and onboarding flows aren’t efficient or secure

Do you still follow manual paper-based recruiting and onboarding flows resulting in paper trails? Most job vacancies are published on digital platforms and applications are received digitally, but often when the review and interview process starts, so does the paper trail, from evaluating CVs, to identifying and verifying new employees, signing contracts and other onboarding processes.

Personal documents are often stored in one physical locale meaning they can’t be easily or securely transferred between teams in other locations and can even be lost. Digital copies are often made, but this can raise privacy issues relating to GDPR compliance when documents are shared or when offboarding employees and you are no longer permitted to retain personal information.

A trusted solution is essential to identify and verify employees

Anyone can create a CV and apply for a position through a digital platform. Many interview processes are moving to video calls rather than in person meetings. So, how can you be sure that the applicant is who they say they are and that they can truly be trusted, especially when you are using a remote recruitment process.

Verifying the identity of a person you want to employ is an absolute necessity for some industries, such as financial services and banking. Conducting background checks and knowing your employees is essential to keeping your organisation safe and preventing you from hiring someone who could later go on to commit fraud or launder money.

Once employees are onboarded into your company, it is also important to ensure that you remain GDPR compliant and have access management systems in place to restrict employee access to secure information.

What does digitising your HR processes actually mean?

These are just some of the challenges faced by the HR industry today. So how do you go about digitising so many processes, whilst ensuring security and compliance? What if you could have all the building blocks for a digital solution in one platform to streamline all your employee management processes, not just for onboarding but throughout the whole employee lifecycle? Sound too good to be true? With Signicat, you can pick and choose the modules that match your company’s needs, including:

• Online identification
• Enriching and validating identity data
• Electronic signing.

Online identification

When onboarding someone new to your company, you are usually required to identify them and confirm they really are who they say they are. You may also be required to keep their personal identity information on record. This can be done automatically through an integrated identity verification process by collecting a new employee’s identity either by using an electronic ID or scanning an identity document, such as a passport or driver’s license. This information can be shared securely, and in an instant.

Enriching and validating identity data

Once the identity information has been collected, additional information from reliable data sources can provide more information about the employee, such as their address required for their contract, or IBAN number required for payroll. This means less room for errors of manually completing and interpreting forms, and also provides a flawless user experience while saving time.

Electronic signing

Gone are the days of needing to print-sign-scan-mail documents and then find a secure place to store them. With a digitised system, signing employment contracts, earnings declarations, HR policies, or Non-Disclosure Agreements has never been easier.

With electronic signing, your new employees can view and sign all documentation using an electronic ID. And the best part, you can be assured the signatures are legally binding.

Electronic signing can be used throughout the employee lifecycle with any new documents that require signing. Once complete, the documents are saved in a secure and tamperproof format, known as PAdES, that can then be digitally archived.

What are the benefits of digital onboarding?

Here are just some of the benefits of a digitised workflow:

• Reduces manual work
• More efficient processes
• Reduces cost, time and effort
• Faster and efficient onboarding
• Removes risk of human error
• Security
• Legally binding and trusted solutions
• Reduces chance of fraud
• Contributes to sustainable goals by reducing paperwork.

Digitalisation is a key opportunity for those working in the HR industry to improve workflow efficiencies. The cost of handling all the manual paperwork is much higher compared to automated solutions.

Companies willing to invest in their HR onboarding processes will ensure they make a good first impression to newcomers and make the experience as smooth as possible, whilst greatly enhancing your employees’ perception of your company overall.