Electronic Forms Solutions to Boost HR Workflows

HR is one of the most document-intensive departments. Everything from job applications, status changes, benefits enrollment, leave of absence requests, performance evaluations and required training—to name a few—land in their email inboxes, stream into various applications, and fill their filing cabinets and network folders—and all of these documents require approvals and signatures as proof of acceptance or sign-off.

Securing signatures, collecting accurate data, and ensuring all information ends up where it’s supposed to is challenging in any environment, but it’s increasingly cumbersome for HR departments who still rely on paper, use emails as the primary means of sending out and exchanging forms, or have data and documents stored across isolated systems. This hybrid paper and electronic document-based approach often leads to delays, errors, and increased administrative and regulatory burdens.

In the fast-paced world of Human Resources, where talent acquisition, remote work, and compliance take center stage, HR professionals face an increasing call to proactively embrace automation and digitize their workflows. Adopting an electronic signature solution is one of the fastest and most effective ways to achieve this. It significantly limits paper usage, modernizes form-based workflows, and introduces speed, efficiency, visibility, and compliance into every step of the approval and signing process, all while simplifying and accelerating their journey towards digital transformation.

Common HR Forms Requiring Review, Approval, and Signature

HR departments, particularly in large enterprise organizations, handle an extensive array of records and forms that must be processed and managed, whether it’s employee, departmental or organizational information. These can be both formal and informal and often include:

• Job Applications
• Offer Letters
• Tax Withholding Forms
• Benefits Enrollment
• Direct Deposit Authorization
• Status Change Forms
• Pay Increase Forms
• Supervisor and Employee Performance Evaluations
• Job Satisfaction Surveys
• Leave of Absence Requests
• Corrective Action Forms
• Educational Assistance / Tuition Reimbursement Requests
• Required Training & Certificates
• Employee Referrals
• Employee Handbook

These documents and forms serve various crucial purposes, including providing written documentation of discussions and agreements, justifying actions taken (e.g., promotions, salary adjustments, bonuses), outlining disciplinary actions, demonstrating compliance with federal and state employment guidelines, and offering insights into employee productivity and adherence to organizational guidelines.

E-Signature Solutions Bring Forms, Approvals & Signings Online

Electronic signatures, also known as e-signatures are “any electronic process that indicates acceptance of an agreement or record.” They provide one of the easiest opportunities for HR departments to digitally send, sign and approve documents in minutes—from anywhere, at any time. No more printing, scanning, and emailing or physically circulating or shipping documents to and from interested parties. No more long back and forth email chains or constant follow-ups triggered by slow responses. No more changes outside of HR’s review or missing information on forms, leaving staff struggling to account for these things. And no more time spent filing, managing, and searching for documents.

E-signature solutions bring a multitude of benefits to HR workflows. Some key advantages of more robust, automated, and user-friendly solutions include:

1. Standardization: Standardized templates can be created for various documents, ensuring consistency in format and content. Specific fields in specific formats can be required, reducing the likelihood of missing or inaccurate information. Documents can be routed to one person or to multiple people in a specific order according to the role they play, whether that’s as the reviewer, approver and/or signer, ensuring a consistent and uniform signing process across the organization.
2. Reduced Data Entry: Employee data like names, IDs, and departmental details can be automatically pulled into form fields from a backend HR database or system, saving HR staff and employees time and reducing the risk of errors from manually inputting data.
3. Clarity: The right fields can be assigned to the right people, ensuring everyone plays their part and no essential information is missed.
4. Flexibility: Employees can sign and complete forms from anywhere, whether they are at home, in the office, or on the go.
5. Audit Trail: All actions taken are logged and timestamped, ensuring compliance and transparency.
6. Security: Advanced authentication methods safeguard the integrity of signatures and protect sensitive information.
7. Efficiency: Documents can be approved and signed in just a few clicks with a finalized copy delivered to everyone once the signing and approval process is complete.
8. Instant Retrieval: Signed documents can be retrieved at a moment’s notice, eliminating the need for endless searches through file cabinets or network folders.
9. Workflow Automation: Signature requests can be embedded into any HR workflow and trigger other, more complex workflows.
10. Integration: Collected data can be automatically transferred and used to update other systems in real-time, facilitating smooth communication between different departments and up to date, seamless transfer of data to connected systems.

Paper-based forms will definitely slow your HR processes down. On the other hand, providing e-signature tools to automate different HR-related procedures will make your hiring, benefits administration, and employee management more efficient and save your department money that would have been spent on handling paper documents and manual data entry. Let’s not forget the labor requirements that involve tons of contractual paperwork.

Specific HR Workflows You Can Transform with an Electronic Form & Signature Solution

1. Employee Onboarding: Electronic forms and signatures streamline the onboarding process by allowing new hires to complete and sign essential documents electronically. This includes employment contracts, tax forms, company policies, and other onboarding materials. HR can efficiently collect and store these documents, expediting the onboarding timeline and reducing administrative burdens.
2. Benefits Enrollment: With electronic forms and signatures, employees can easily enroll in or make changes to their benefits packages. HR can digitize benefit enrollment forms, consent agreements, and other related documents, enabling employees to provide their signatures electronically. This simplifies benefits administration and ensures accurate record-keeping.
3. Performance Reviews: Implementing electronic forms and signatures for performance reviews enables employees and managers to complete evaluation forms, goal-setting documents, and development plans electronically. HR can maintain a centralized repository of performance records, facilitating ongoing performance management discussions.
4. Policy Acknowledgments: HR can use electronic forms and signatures to distribute company policies and ensure that employees acknowledge their receipt and understanding of these policies. This creates a digital record of policy compliance and keeps employees informed of any updates or changes.
5. Employee Status Changes: Manage employee status changes efficiently by digitizing status change forms and capturing eSignatures for updates to job titles, salaries, departments, and other vital employment details.
6. Exit Interviews and Offboarding: Electronic forms facilitate the exit interview process, allowing departing employees to provide feedback and complete necessary offboarding documents. HR can securely store exit interview data for analysis and future reference.

Embracing the Future of HR: Cloud-Driven E-Signature Platforms

In conclusion, the integration of cloud technology has revolutionized e-signature solutions, making them a game-changer for HR departments seeking to embrace digital transformation. The ease of implementation through Software as a Service (SaaS) models and the growing trend of cloud-based deployments have driven the widespread adoption of e-signatures in HR workflows. With the hybrid workplace becoming the norm, e-signatures are now an essential technology to streamline HR processes and eliminate tedious manual tasks associated with paperwork. By transitioning to fully digital workflows, HR departments can unlock substantial efficiencies, saving time and resources, and empowering employees to complete tasks online in minutes, rather than days or weeks. Embracing e-signatures, along with cloud-based document management and automation platforms, is a strategic move for HR departments looking to enhance productivity, improve compliance, and create a seamless and modern employee experience.

A 2020 study by Aberdeen Strategy and Research found that using e-signatures in HR processes can improve employee productivity by up to 70 percent and organizations can reduce their time-to-hire for job candidates by up to four times compared to those who are not leveraging this technology. As the digital landscape continues to evolve, there’s no question that electronic signature solutions are poised to play a central role in the future of HR operations.