HR document management challenges and advantages

17 of October, 2022

One of the many tasks that the human resources team of any company must face is HR document management. This department handles a large amount of information related to employees; if it is not managed correctly, companies may face difficulties. 

What is HR document management?

HR document management consists of the efficient use of all information related to the company’s workforce. This is key information, which can often be confidential:

• Employee contracts
• Personal employee documents (ID, social security number)
• Payroll
• Sick leaves

These are documents that the HR team must process, file and retrieve as efficiently as possible. Poor HR document management will significantly slow down the company’s processes and even make it more difficult to comply with legal requirements related to data protection.

It is precisely for this reason that multiple HR teams have a strategic document management plan that helps them tackle challenges related to this matter. How to choose the right document management software is a key part of this plan. 

HR Document Management Challenges

Document management is probably one of the most demanding tasks faced by human resources. On the one hand, there is the slowness in searching for information related to an employee. A lot of time is wasted searching for information, partly due to how documents are stored, regardless of whether they are necessary or valid documents. It is not uncommon for outdated information to be stored, which slows down these processes. One of the consequences of having too much information stored is an abundant use of paper with the resulting economic and environmental costs for the company.

Advantages of proper HR document management

If the human resources team is able to develop an adequate HR document management system, they will be able to perform their work much more efficiently, since they will reduce the amount of work they need to do by hand. To this end, it is important to have a project manager such as Sesame to help them keep all documents under control. Locating information will be much faster and simpler so that anyone interested in consulting a document can quickly access it.

Proper human resources document management also serves to reinforce the security of documents, especially those that include sensitive or confidential information. Not only will they be safe from potential loss, but a complete record will be kept and unauthorized data modifications will be prevented. A history of the users who have accessed the document, the changes made and the date of the change is key to keeping track of company documents. 

Besides, we must not lose sight of the fact that documents will be updated in a much more fast and more immediate way, which can be very advantageous for companies with a high staff turnover rate.

Finally, from an environmental point of view, it should be noted that document digitalization reduces the use of paper. By storing documents in the cloud, space is saved in the company, as there are no physical files.

HR document management system

One of the key changes in HR document management in recent times has been the digitalization of processes. Having a document manager that stores all company information in the cloud frees up the HR department’s work. Now, this team spends less time on administrative tasks with document classification and can focus on issues such as staff training or work on improvements for the company.

Among Sesame’s features as an HR Software and document manager, it is worth highlighting the help it provides in the hiring and onboarding processes. When it comes to selecting employees, it allows candidates to be channeled through a single tool to which all members of the HR team have access.

A database of candidates can also be created. Once selected, onboarding checklists allow the HR team to ensure that they have all the necessary documents related to the new employee.

In short, efficient HR document management will relieve the HR team of work, allowing them to focus their efforts on other aspects that are more helpful to the organization. Having a good project manager is essential when it comes to handling, storing and accessing documents related to your workforce. The more employees a company has on its payroll, the more important it is to optimize document management to avoid problems in the future.