DocuWare for HR: Employee management made easy…

Do you find the recruitment process and ongoing HR tasks laborious, often frustrating and just plain difficult to manage? Worry ye not, we have the solution thanks to DocuWare’s latest preconfigured solution.

DocuWare have had a solution for HR for quite a while but it was geared very much towards the American market where it proved itself over and over. The new preconfigured solution is suitable for the UK market – and, frankly, it’s brilliant.

First though, why is preconfigured good?

When DocuWare for HR is installed into a new or existing DocuWare system all functions and workflows are already in place so development time is dramatically reduced, which in turn reduces the cost to customers. Where customers have specific requirements that don’t come “out of the box” it’s much easier to make changes to the existing set up than it would be to build the solution from scratch. Basically, it means it’s cheaper!

Back to the solution…

I’ve spent a couple of weeks exploring everything it has to offer and I know it can make a huge difference for small and medium sized businesses across the country. In DocuWare’s own words, it gives you:

• Centralised access to employee data
• Seamless recruiting and application processes
• Straightforward onboarding and offboarding
• Hassle-free time-off management
• Automatic reminders for birthdays and anniversaries
• Self-service functions for employees
• Automations for hiring and nurturing a talent pool

But that doesn’t tell the full story. So I am going to break down the processes involved in this blog post.

Recruitment

The recruitment process begins with the recognition that a new employee is needed and/or a role needs filling, so DocuWare for HR starts there too.

There are two options offered:

1. A new job opening is created within DocuWare by the user with the right permissions (think HR manager or director)
2. A new job opening is requested by a team leader or supervisor

In the first instance, there is no approval process. Automated workflows add the new role to an “open” list. In the second, the request to hire (which is essentially what it is) is sent to the HR manager or director for approval. Which you choose will depend on the nature of your organisation.

The form can be tailored to your specific needs, of course.

With a new role opened you would advertise the job in the usual way but invite applications via a DocuWare form.

The dropdown at the top will contain all the open roles within a company. The form itself can be configured to capture whatever information you require at application stage, including the upload of a CV, covering letter and any other documents you want.

Once the application form has been submitted a task is raised for the nominated person in the business (HR manager/administrator or a director) to review the application and decide how to proceed. They are given four options:

1. Defer to the department supervisor to make the decision
2. Schedule an interview with the applicant (with several options for interview type, attendees, interview date etc)
3. Add to Talent Pool – which stores the applicant’s details for future consideration but does not progress this particular application
4. Reject the candidate (and send rejection email with reasoning if you wish)

Let’s assume in this case the interview is scheduled by the HR department.

The required fields here are:

• Interview Date
• Interview Attendees
• Interview Type (in-person or remote – if in person, you can choose an address; if remote you can add a link to the Teams/Zoom etc meeting you create)
• Send email to applicant (yes or no – if yes, you can include a comment)

There is an optional additional field to add internal notes that only relevant in house people can see – could be something positive about the applicant or a key question to ask, for example.

Once you hit confirm the relevant invites go out to required staff and, if chosen, to the applicant. DocuWare then waits until the interview date is reached before raising another task for the  nominated person offering the following options:

• Hire the candidate
• Arrange a second interview
• Put the application on hold
• Terminate the application process and put the applicant into the talent pool
• Reject the candidate outright

The first option will kick off the employee onboarding process – more on this below. The second will repeat the process outlined above. The third allows you to place the process for this applicant on hold for a period you determine before raising this task again.

Employee onboarding

With the applicant told they were successful the onboarding process begins and DocuWare for HR has you covered here too.

The first thing the automated workflow does is check for the presence of a signed employment contract for this role. If it finds one, great, we’re on with the onboarding. If not, it will inform you it’s missing then wait until it’s added.

Let’s assume a contract is found and we’re ready to onboard the new employee.

A task is raised within the HR department which requires certain data to be completed (as well as having the put on hold or cancel process options should things go wrong with the applicant). This includes:

• Their new work email address and phone number
• Employee ID number (if applicable)
• DocuWare ID (if required)
• Probation period
• Department and job title/position
• Working hours, holiday entitlement, salary and contract type

Completing this task will do two things:

• Send an email to the department supervisor requesting they fill in an equipment form
• Send an email to the applicant requesting they complete a data form

Both are digital forms of course and are stored directly into DocuWare. The first is to ensure your new employee has everything they need on day one – computer, keyboard, mouse, phone etc (the list can be produced to fit your business of course).

The second gathers all the personal information you need about the employee in order to set them up. This includes address, personal contact details, home address, National Insurance number, date of birth, bank details (for payroll), and ID if you require it. Again, this can be tailored to suit you.

The automated workflow then sets your new employee to active and puts a few other things in place, such as birthday reminders and woprk annivaersary reminders. Again, these are entirely optional.

That’s the onboarding process complete. The HR department has everything they need, automated workflows are, unsurprisingly, automatically put in place for the employee’s time with the company and they are good to go on day one.

Employee management

From this point forward DocuWare for HR manages your new employee (and all your existing employees of course!) in a number of ways – and gives them the ability to manage their own information too.

Employee data

If a member of staff needs to change the personal information you hold on file for them they can do so without asking for HR assistance simply by completing a DocuWare form. This could be if they change email address or phone number, their home address or bank account, even if they get married, divorced or change their name!

The new data is stored and a task is raised for HR to approve or reject the changes. If approved the stored data updates the employee record, if not an email is sent to the employee to tell them why and they can resubmit a new form if required.

Annual leave

With another DocuWare form employees can request annual leave, which kicks off a workflow in the background which will:

1. Check if the employee has enough remaining holiday days – and reject if not
2. Check if other key related staff are on holiday or not already (this can be configured to your requirements) – and reject if they are
3. Send to the relevant supervisor and/or HR for approval or rejection
4. If approved, reduce the employee’s holiday entitlement by the required amount
5. If rejected, email the employee with the reason why

Employees are also given the ability to check how many day’s holiday they have left too – so HR don’t have to be bothered looking it up all the time!

This whole process can be configured to suit the way your business runs.

Sick leave

This, too, is managed by DocuWare for HR in much the same way has annual leave. In this case the employee has the ability to upload related documents such as doctor’s notes and sick notes. Sick days are recorded against the emplopyee and any documentation is hold in DocuWare against their profile.

Additional documentation

As well as sick notes, at any time either HR or staff can update the documentation held on their file with a simple upload form. This could be for qualifications earned during their employement, for example, or their latest appraisal. What can be uploaded here is entirely up to you – you can restrict it to certain documentation only or leave it wide open.

Employee Exit

It is inevitable that employees will leave a business, be it through your choice or theirs. WIthin HR there is a process to follow here too and again DocuWare for HR has you covered.

The preconfigured solution offers three parts. The first begins the “offboarding” process with a simple form which identifies the employee leaving, captures their final working day and reason for leaving and, if applicable, allows for the upload of a resignation letter.

This form can be completed by a suprvisor, director or one of the HR team themselves. Either way, the HR department is given a task to complete, each with certain requirements.

• Confirm Exit
  • Schedule an exit interview? (If so, enter date and location/link for remote session)
  • Final day of employment
  • Final day of work
  • Additional notes (optional)
• Postone exit
  • Reason and date to be postponed until
• Cancel process
  • Notes (optional)

If a confirmation is given, DocuWare will check to see if any equipment has been assigned to the employee and, if found, a further task is created to confirm the return of issued items. In addition, the exit interview, if selected, can be carried out and confirmed also. Once done, DocuWare waits for the final date of employment before setting the employees status to inactive and removing any rights within the system they may have had automatically.

There is even an Exit Survey built in that can be sent to the employee if you want it!

Privacy, Security & Data

If you are concerned about data security then let me put your mind at ease. Not only is DocuWare acknowledged as one of the most secure document management systems in the world, the preconfigured HR solution has extra security built in.

First of all, only nominated people have access to employee data – typically directors and/or the HR team. No individual has access to another’s data but they can be given access to their own.

Secondly, DocuWare for HR allows you to set retention limits on data. As an example, if you decide not to hire someone but you want to retain their information for future roles (ie, adding them to the inbuilt Talent Pool) you can set how long that data is retained (in fact, so can the applicant if you allow it!). It could be three months, six months or 12 months. As long as it is set out in your Data Policy (which we will help you create), then you are covered legally. Once that limit is reached DocuWare simply deletes the data.

So that’s highly restricted access, a data retention policy baked in and DocuWare’s reputation for optimum security you can rely on.

Summary – Key Benefits

• End to End Coverage: Your HR process is covered from job creation to managing applicants, the hiring process and the life of the employment right through to the exit process and last day of work…and beyond with your data retention policy
• Self Reliant Employees: Giving your employees the power to manage their own HR records (to a point) dramatically reduces the administrative tasks you or your HR department have to deal with, saving precious time
• Versatility: DocuWare’s preconfigured HR solution works brilliantly “out of the box” – but it’s also really easy to customise to a company’s specific needs so even if you need to make changes it won’t cost you a fortune in development time, in fact you’ll make huge savings coopared to other HR software packages
• Integration: With itself and with third party software. If you’re already using DocuWare, for invoice processing for example, then adding the preconfigured HR solution will require minimal effort. If this is your first implementation then you can add further functionality for other areas of the business with just as much ease. And, if you truly need to transfer data from DocuWare to another bit of software, we can do that too
• Centralised & Paperless: All your employee data is stored in one, secure place, easily and quickly accessible anywhere there’s an internet connection and Wifi-enabled device – and only to those with access rights. And we’ve eliminated the need for any physical paperwork at any stage. Your HR function is now entirely paperless

Speaking as someone who develops DocuWare for our customers, the preconfigured HR solution is by far the best thing to hit DocuWare in the last two years at least and I highly recommend you talk to us about implementing it within your business. I am convinced it will save you time and money in the long run.