Last night I received an email from a HR professional that I know in Janesville, WI and wanted to know my opinion on converting an HR Department to a paperless system and what my experience has converting them and what my challenges/victories were. This has been a big topic and trend for me lately and thought that it would be a great way to start off a conversation with all of you. There has been a huge influx of technology in the business climax that drastically sped up the business cycle. Now, traditionally, HR has been a conservative department, but has started to fall behind in request from management and other requests in the workplace. Have you ever been asked several times for a document that has been buried in personnel files? I know a lot business that I have worked with have. How can we catch up and be ahead of the curve? Go paperless!
Going paperless can be a simple if you have a well thought out process. This can even be done for a single person HR Department. I can guarantee that most of you already have part of the process done and you don’t even know it. For instance most businesses have their employee handbook, HR Forms, payroll and some policies and procedure stored in your computers.
If and when you choose to go paperless I strongly suggest having a separate server strictly for HR. Some of you may already have a separate server for payroll, this one works perfectly. Why have your information stored on a separate server for your HR Department? The answer is: HIPPA Compliance. If you don’t have a server available or the funds to buy a new one you can store the files on a company server. Regardless where you store the information I strongly suggest having it password protected to remain in compliance.
For your convenience I have a step by step check list of things that you need to get this done.
