The role of HR and recruitment professionals has seen rapid change in recent times, especially over the last two years. The industry has seen a shift from largely in-person experiences to embracing an ever-accelerating ‘Anywhere Economy’ of remote working.
In fact, 72% of office professionals would like to work remotely at least two days a week, according to PwC research.
As a result, human resources face a host of challenges around not only finding, recruiting, and onboarding the best new talent, but also connecting with and rewarding current employees.
At the same time, they must overcome questions around employee wellbeing, while actively engaging with and encouraging greater cultural and gender diversity.
Fundamental to overcoming such barriers lies the adoption of new digital technologies.
DocuSign digital solutions can help HR departments of all sizes increase efficiencies, reduce administrative tasks, and deliver timely employee experiences with ease – but where to begin?
Delivering efficiencies with digital solutions
For any business to embrace change it must move away from outdated manual processes and evolve new digital ways of working. Whether streamlining hiring processes, or assisting new employees as they onboard, increasing efficiencies and reducing HR administrative tasks is vital.
Those companies who actively invest in the digital transformation of their agreements are best placed to reap its rewards.
DocuSign has embraced this cultural shift, moving its in-person onboarding experience to a virtual format, helping to deliver a greater connection between distributed teams.
DocuSign eSignature helps HR teams connect and automate how they create, sign, act on, and manage agreements.
For example, it can help streamline employee data and contract agreements, while simultaneously delivering greater visibility of the audit chain.
In this way, HR can see immediately if a potential employee has accepted an offer, or conversely whether someone leaving the business has been removed from digital service protocols.
As HR responsibilities increase, and budgets become ever more constrained, teams can look to increase staff efficiencies by automating workflows and streamlining processes.
DocuSign has found that using eSignature, 82% of agreements are often completed in less than a day, and 49% in less than 15 minutes – delivering speed and ease of use to the organisation.
This can be achieved in several different ways. DocuSign PowerForms, for example, allows agreements to be generated on-demand for employees to sign quickly and easily.
For advanced workflows, HR can use smart steps and logic built into hiring and onboarding workflows to process employee agreements faster. Furthermore, configuring rules around common post-signature actions, such as automatically archiving completed onboarding documents, or exporting data to a spreadsheet, adds even greater efficiency to workflows.
DocuSign eSignature works within existing HR systems, such as Workday, SuccessFactors, or Greenhouse, to streamline digital processes further.
It enables teams to quickly send, sign and track agreements using pre-built integrations with HRIS and Applicant Tracking Systems. As a result, teams are no longer wasting time switching between applications, making them more efficient.
HR departments using DocuSign eSignature can also reduce paper usage across its processes.
This will not only save ongoing costs around print, but also enhance an organisation’s sustainability aims, a key deliverable for an HR department.
As an example, DocuSign and its customers have saved more than 6 million trees, 55 billion sheets of paper, 22 billion litres of water and eliminated more than 2 billion kgs of waste – simply by switching to digital agreements.
Digital agreements enhance the employee experience
Efficiencies and automation do not only assist the HR department but also improve the experiences of end-users. With the growth of remote working and the ‘Anywhere Economy’, employees and potential candidates are looking for streamlined work experiences that tie in with their ever-evolving lifestyles.
DocuSign eSignature achieves this through a responsive mobile-first signing solution. Agreements can be signed on the go and at the tap of a button. SMS Delivery allows documents to be completed faster by allowing workers or candidates to receive notifications in real-time from their mobile device.
Smartphones can often be criticised for lacking the flexibility of a full PC, but this is something DocuSign users can readily overcome. Signer Attachments enables the uploading of photo ID, or other such attachments, to an agreement.
Equally, documents containing lengthier text, such as employment offer letters or employee handbooks, can be cumbersome to read. Smart Sections allows text to be collapsed for a more enjoyable viewing and signing experience.
By tapping into the tools within eSignature, users can improve turnaround times on agreements, delivering greater efficiencies. Archetype found this to be the case, using digital solutions to make internal processes as efficient as possible for employees.
The HR department implemented the use of DocuSign eSignature in 2014, enabling the team to execute contracts from almost anywhere, on any device, thus driving efficiency by speeding up contract turnaround times and strengthening Archetype’s hybrid working model.
The role of human resources in any organisation is complex. Whether improving the experiences of its employees or increasing departmental efficiencies, the barriers to success are constantly evolving.
As a result, new ways of working need to be deployed, allowing HR teams to minimise administration and better their clients.
By digitising and streamlining HR processes with DocuSign eSignature and complementary digital agreement technologies, organisations can ensure that recruiting, onboarding, and the people management services they deliver are straightforward, quick, and secure.
Alan Murphy, director and HR business partner at DocuSign
