What would be the best material for the United States to make their own Great Wall of China? How about paper? Each year, we produce enough paper waste to build a
12-foot high wall of paper from New York to California! This consumption of paper costs U.S. companies more than $120 billion a year, and most of what is printed is outdated within three months. This is a business waste that’s sitting right in front of you. And for HR and Talent teams still relying on paper-based processes for their onboarding (and even offboarding), it’s an opportunity. Let’s talk about it – jump to a section:
Benefits |
MisconceptionsPaperless Onboarding Benefits
Small numbers mean big things when it comes to business growth. Just look at how large of a shift it was for the
United State’s GDP to grow 2.4%. So when we think about business growth, we have to think about all the ways we can make those small increases add up. One thing we recommend?
Paperless onboarding.
It Puts You Ahead of the Curve
When you implement paperless onboarding into your hiring process, you’ll be thinking ahead of most other companies against which you’re competing. Only 32% of companies currently have a
formal onboarding program. If you decide to increase your onboarding presence by making it paperless, you’re committing enough to your onboarding to have a more robust and streamlined process in place, meaning you’re far ahead on getting employees up to speed than companies that don’t have a plan.
It Makes the Process Easier
You hate paperwork. Your new hires hate paperwork. So why not use paperless onboarding? When you go paperless, many of the redundant fields (like your new hire’s name, address, etc.) get filled in automatically on every form if that field has been filled in once before. This reduces the amount of times your employees spend on forms, which means it takes them less time to get up to speed and productive. You can have more time for introducing your new hire to potential mentors, showing them the lunchroom, getting them adjusted, and giving them time to make their desk their own. That sounds like a better first day, don’t you think?
Time Savings
How much is an hour of your time worth? Multiply that by the number of hours spent on manual processes, often created by dealing with so much paper. When all of your paperwork is stored online, in one place, with handy searching functionality, it makes things easier to locate and reference. Compare that to paper filing cabinets, which are either very secure and difficult to look through, or so disorganized you don’t event know where to start. If you saved 50 hours a year, you’re probably saving $2,500+
per employee. Every misfiled piece of paper
costs a business an average of $125, cutting down on those errors can save you a lump sum over time. With paperless onboarding, you’re much better off with all of your information stored online. The average office worker uses around 10,000 sheets of paper per year. Imagine cutting this down to 100, or 0. How much money would your business save? Now imagine that across 10, 100, or 1,000 employees.
It Helps Employee Retention
Part of a good paperless onboarding program is making sure employees feel welcomed and comfortable enough to stick around. And with a more simplified, formal and paperless onboarding experience, your new hires are less likely to be among the 22% of
employees who leave their job after the first 45 days. This saves you the hassle of having to start the recruiting process (including onboarding) all over again. A lack of paper makes everyone happy, and when employees are happy, they’ll love working for you, giving big returns on business growth in the long run. There’s a lot to love about going paperless with your onboarding: it’s fast, cheap and keeps employees around longer, for starters. So the sooner you get your onboarding away from paper, the better off your business will be.
Compliance that’s always current
How confident are you that all your hiring and onboarding practices are up to date with the latest regulations? When you use a system like Click Boarding for your onboarding, you’re backed by a system that’s always up to date. Paperless systems make staying current on onboarding processes not only easy, but less worrisome. Digital
onboarding software allows you to build workflows with automated reminders that reach out to employees when deadlines are nearing. Imagine having new hires complete tax forms, I-9 verification, and signing all required documents … even before their first day. And you know it’s updated, compliant, and secure. That’s peace of mind – and no compliance violations!
Three misconceptions about paper-based onboarding
Misconception: Paper is More Secure
Paperless Reality: Many businesses fear going paperless due to the misled belief physical copies are more secure. With recent technological advances and the increased use of the 128-bit Advanced Encryption Standard, passwords are the most insecure piece of going paperless. The likelihood of your digital information being stolen is far smaller than the likelihood of someone getting their hands on those printed hard copies. Windows Azure is an example of how safe and secure your information can be. All of the data stored in their data centers are monitored 24 hours a day, 365 (or 366) days a year. If someone does have the ability to take obtain info during a transfer, the data is encrypted, preventing the thief from reading what they stole. While neither process is 100% secure, you can rest assured that your information will be just as safe, if not safer, in digital form.
Verdict: Security is a reason to GO paperless, not to avoid it! Try going paperless with bill paying and statements. Not only will you save money on postage, envelopes and time, but running office finances online makes payments easier to track. Many banks, if not all, have already transitioned online which makes the process easier and more instantaneous.
I Need My Hard Copy Backups
Reality: A fear many have in regards to going paperless is losing their information. It’s a lot easier to hit the delete key on a keyboard than it is to drop a hard copy in a recycling bin or shredder. Some businesses house all backup forms as paper in filing cabinets and while some hard copy backups are actually a necessary, what are the measures taken if a form is misfiled, misplaced or lost? More than
70% of today’s businesses would fail within three weeks if they suffered a catastrophic loss of paper-based records due to fire or flood. With the availability of automatic backups to the cloud, your files and records tend to be safer in a digital format. Whether you are based in a home office, shared building or large standalone structure, your important documents are safe and business can pick up right where it left off even after a devastating loss.
Verdict: A physical backup is easier to misplace than the searchable, secure cloud. Begin transitioning internal documents and large files to the cloud with tools like Google Docs, Microsoft Office 365 or Dropbox. That way you and your team can begin taking comfortable steps toward digitization.
A Paperless Onboarding Process Takes Too Much Time & Money
Reality: Besides the money you will save from not having to buy paper or paying for recycling, there are numerous other expenses related to not going paperless. A four-drawer file cabinet holds an average of 10,000 documents, takes 9 square feet of floor space and
costs $1,500 per year. Freeing up space in the office and lowering the expenses in your checkbook, sounds like a win-win. Over time, going paperless is well worth the investment.
59% of organizations achieved a payback in less than 12 months from their paper-free projects, including 26% in 6 months or less, while 84% achieved payback in less than 18 months. Monetary return may not be immediate, but the time saved will be apparent right away. It takes an
average of 18 minutes to find a paper document. It can cost your company 90 minutes per week if your employee searches for one document a day. Search features and functionality of digital systems save employees the time it takes to dig through file cabinets.
Verdict: Going paperless saves both time and money. Free up your office by going digital with documents you use for meetings and or collateral. Try a program like TeamViewer or Google Slides and all you’ll need for your next meeting is access to the internet. Still scan or fax? Use a service like eFax to send and receive faxes from any device with email access.
Going Paperless Ready to start going paperless and stop contributing to the U.S.’ great wall of paper waste? Start with eliminating new hire paperwork trails with our
paperless onboarding tool. Go paperless with Click Boarding today!
