The processes within the HR department involve some of the highest operating costs at a company level, taking into account the volume of documents made – employment offers, individual employment contracts, job descriptions, additional papers, etc.
The efficiency of the activity can be easily accomplished by switching from the sheet and pen to the electronic signature. If it is still obligatory in relation to the state institutions (submission to the Territorial Labor Inspectorate) – why not extend its use also in the internal processes?
What is it consuming?
Let's take a simple example – a new employee in the company. Starting from the assumption that an employment contract has about 4 pages (without taking into account other documents to be signed on hiring) and that in the course of a year we employ 10 people, we are already talking about a significant number of papers to be printed , signed and stored safely – processes that translate into financial, time and space resources.
Their number increases if at company level there are a number of changes to be added to the additional documents to individual employment contracts (relocation, salary changes, changes in the holiday leave to which the employee is entitled, etc.).
These are only a few situations that are being discussed to give us a better idea of the money spent on consumables (paper, print cartridges, files), the lost time with the handwritten signature and the space needed to keep all these documents – very important, otherwise.
What do we win with the electronic signature?
The electronic signature can be successfully used in the recruitment and employment processes within the company's Human Resources (HR) department, highlighting benefits like:
• streamlining processes by reducing the time required to sign documents;
• reducing the costs of printing, distributing and storing documents;
• protecting the environment by reducing paper consumption;
• document security enhance by substantially reducing the risks of unauthorized tampering, loss or access.
Practically? We return to one of the examples mentioned above – the need to sign an addendum by all employees of the firm (say, 200) as the company changed its headquarters. Think how inefficient are the printing of 400 papers (duplicate – one for the company, one for the employee), going through the building to get all the signatures (that is, if all people are present) and physically storing the additional documents in the individual file of each employee.
Instead, by using the electronic signature, the document can be sent to employees via the office e-mail, signed by them and retransmitted to the HR department, which will safely store all the documents safely. No additional costs, long response times, time and space conditioning.
