In this article, Amy O. Anderson, principal of Anderson Archival, discusses digitization as a best practice for human resources professionals. The article outlines the benefits of digitizing paper records and what it entails to go paperless. It also discusses how the shift toward a remote workforce makes digitization of employee records and other documents an absolute necessity.
Technology and digitization are often scary words in the world of HR. Advances in digital life can feel like the cause of human obsolescence, but at least in the case of paperless offices and digitized records, that is most certainly not the case.
Digitization is the norm – it is no longer best practice to keep only paper records. Beyond human error like accidental loss, destruction, or misfiling, paper records are often the first to go in a disaster. When dealing with essential information such as employee records, a loss is not an option.
The move to paperless provides easy access, organization, user restrictions, and protection from loss. And in the age of COVID-19 and remote work, the usefulness of a secure paperless office cannot be denied. Put the systems you need in place now. Don’t put the process of digitization off another day.
What Is a Paperless Office?
Instead of onsite storage using filing cabinets or boxes, documents like resumes, records, paychecks, and evaluations live on a server and are accessed through connected workstations or the cloud. Storing files digitally offers several benefits.
1. Security
Digital files can be encrypted or password-protected, ensuring that the information within will not fall into the wrong hands, even in a cyberattack.
2. Access
Through the use of Active Directory, permissions for each folder can be assigned and limited, making access easy for those needing limited access while keeping sensitive information secure from prying eyes without a literal lock and key.
3. Backups
Paperless offices, like all other offices, should be backed up regularly utilizing dual-destination backups, which save data both locally and to remote data centers. Once backups are in place, secure, and audited, they provide an essential safeguard against cyberattacks or accidental deletion.
4. Remote work
The cloud enables remote work. When working from home or a mobile device, instantly pull up the needed document. Any changes made will be reflected across systems, keeping everyone up to date.
5. Space waver
You might have gotten used to working among stacks of boxes and filing cabinets, but they take up a significant amount of space. After being carefully scanned and digitized, those papers you’re drowning in can be shredded or stored safely offsite.
6. Paper trail
Digital document preservation allows you to access any invoice, contract, or checklist the moment you need it and provides an accurate, up-to-the-minute record of your company’s history. Audits by IRS or HIPAA are facilitated by just how easy it is to pull up any information requested.
7. Data aggregation
Artificial intelligence doesn’t have to be the enemy of human-led HR departments. If discovering stats and trends is beneficial to your team, digitized documents make populating AI easy.
8. Environment
Digitizing records is a great way to improve your company’s environmental impact. Instead of storing paper to eventually shred and recycle once the data is no longer critical, use digital documents which have a much smaller carbon footprint.
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How to Get Started With a Paperless Office
1. Make a plan
Before scanning, create a team that includes HR, a scanning company or employee, and company leadership. Collaborate to develop a plan of action, deciding what will be digitized and what takes priority. Since these documents will include sensitive information, consider limiting scanning to a single employee who signs an NDA or who is already a part of the HR department. During the planning stage, you’ll want to address as many of the following questions as possible, so there are no unpleasant surprises.
- What is getting digitized? Your team may opt not to include some documents. Others may require immediate encryption. Know what you have going in.
- What will happen to the paper copies? Shred originals only after you have confirmed that a full and legible scan is complete and you have reliable backups. If the originals will be preserved, develop a storage plan that accounts for disasters, and keeps them secure.
- How will digital copies be stored? Envisioning how the digitized files will be used and creating a folder hierarchy will keep the records streamlined and ready for use. Consider consulting with an IT provider to ensure you have enough storage space available and research options for cloud storage. Consider HIPAA or other industry standards for security and file naming conventions. The International Organization for StandardizationOpens a new window is an excellent resource for making sure your files are saved in archival-safe formats.
- What do you need for the search? Consider how in-depth your search capabilities will need to be. OCR (optical character recognition) reads the text on a scanned image, making the full text searchable. Another powerful tool is metadata. Without taking the time to fully OCR a document, you can add tags like author, subject, and date, that will enhance future search.
- How will scanning proceed? Scanning in-house is an option as long as you have the workforce and equipment. Sometimes outsourcing the project is more feasible due to time constraints and the need for a high-quality end product.
- What digital safeguards will be put into place to keep the documents secure? This is the single most crucial step when creating and organizing your paperless office. Because personally identifiable data is a hot commodity, know that the risk for the attack is not a question of if but when. Working with an IT provider can illuminate gaps in your current digital security. They can also organize cloud storage, backups, and encryptions to keep multiple versions synced, available, and secure.
2. Scan
When scanning, slow, and steady is the name of the game. Sometimes a scanner’s feed will grab several pages at once or tear pages, causing blockages. If issues aren’t caught at the scanning stage, the final collection may end up missing sizable chunks.
Rather than invest in human resources and potential new equipment, it may be best to invest in an archival or paperless office company at this stage. Services and quality range from the lowest price point, with little attention to the process or your end goals, to more boutique companies that function as archival partners.
3. Enact cybersecurity protections and test backups
Work with your IT provider to be sure your company hardware firewall, software firewall, hardware, and email security are all kept up to date. This will be critical to ensure that your digital documents are protected and employee data privacy is respected.
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The immediate response to COVID-19 may prove to pave the way for a paperless, remote future. Going paperless will undoubtedly benefit your entire company through the enhanced HR tasks of a quick search, easy access, and secure remote work. A paperless office puts solutions at your fingertips.
Why do you think digitization will become new normal for document management? Share your thoughts with us on LinkedInOpens a new window , TwitterOpens a new window , or FacebookOpens a new window .