How to Create Digital Workflows for HR and Finance

Few departments appreciate the burden of excessive paper more than finance and human resources — usually in that order. Typically, these are the best places to begin when you’re ready to create digital workflows, and cut down your company’s paper consumption.

Companies that have been around for decades must play catch up with digitally native start-ups, because the new-comers built their processes with the latest technology and software.

So, where do you start to help paper-heavy departments like finance and HR embrace digital workflows?

HR departments generate vast piles of paper every year, and the problem typically begins with recruiting. Requests to fill a new position move up the chain. Even if this process begins as a web form, it is typically printed and signed before it is scanned and continues its electronic journey for approval. More paper-based workflows support employees throughout their time with a company — offer sheets, onboarding documents, benefit forms, changes of address, changes of marital status, training certificates, off-boarding documents, and on and on. Each of these papers are neatly gathered and organized in filing cabinets, where they sit for years at a time. More than just an unnecessary use of paper and storage space, the problem quickly becomes one of inefficiency, information security threats, compliance risks and obstacles that may prevent a good employee experience.

Digital HR processes can bring enormous benefits that are more efficient, reduce costs, mitigate risk, and improve employee satisfaction and retention. They also give managers and HR professionals the tools they need to get the right candidates into position as quickly as possible, shrinking the hiring period. A digital onboarding workflow, for instance, is more convenient, easy and seamless. The more satisfied employees are early on — particularly during that first several weeks — the more likely they’ll stick with your company.

Reams of data demonstrate savings and efficiencies when you switch to automated workflows, yet – ironically — finance departments remain burdened with paper:

• On average, it costs $13 to process each paper invoice – digital workflows can reduce this cost by 40%
• On average, vendors receive payment in 14 days with paper invoices – digital workflows reduce this timeline to about four days
• On average, 65% of paper invoices are paid on time – versus 90% of digital invoices are paid on time
• On average, 9% of paper invoices are paid early – versus 70% of digital invoices are paid early

Paper-based finance transactions add up to higher costs for labor, data entry, filing and various manual tasks, storage and more. Moreover, hard copies can be difficult to locate, which increases your risk with audits and compliance.

While the idea of cutting ties with paper can be daunting, Managed Print Services (MPS) can act as a springboard to begin the journey to digital transformation for day-to-day document workflows that touch your printers and other devices.

• Step 1: Begin to understand your usage of paper and printed pages with your organization with our managed print services (MPS) solution.
• Step 2: Utilize analytics and consulting to identify high paper-consuming departments and users. We help you to discover why documents are printed, where those documents end up, and which ones are prime for being converted to digital workflows.
• Step 3: We get a baseline understanding of your document-intensive processes. This helps us to recommend software and services that will digitize and automate your processes as part of your overall digital transformation strategy.

This approach makes it easier to break digitization into bite-sized chunks, and implement solutions based on the data from your workflows. A measured pace of change lets you transform at a manageable rate.

Interested in learning more about digital transformation and how to get started? Give us a call at (800) 727-6383, send us an email at info@parmetech.com, or connect with us through our website!