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Converting to electronic employee files
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My company is in the process of converting all of our paper employee files to electronic employee files. Any suggestions for cost-effective and efficient ways to do this. Right now, we're scanning in
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Converting to electronic employee files

posted at 12/17/2007 8:10 AM EST
Posts: 63
First: 10/15/2002
Last: 1/30/2009
My company is in the process of converting all of our paper employee files to electronic employee files. Any suggestions for cost-effective and efficient ways to do this. Right now, we're scanning in documents from each employee file and indexing them. It's a very time-consuming process. I can't think of any other way to do it. Is there any technology that allows this to be done more quickly for a reasonable price? Please no vendor responses.

Converting to electronic employee files

posted at 12/18/2007 4:38 AM EST
Posts: 217
First: 3/22/2005
Last: 8/29/2011
Not that I'm aware of and I've been at a couple of places where we had to do it. Once you get the mass done it isn't as tough because hopefully you aren't producing paper, or as much of it, anymore to be scanned. But whether you're using bar codes or indexing someone still has to touch the paper and sometimes more than once.

Converting to electronic employee files

posted at 12/18/2007 4:48 AM EST
Posts: 2146
First: 2/15/2006
Last: 9/14/2011
Agree with Robin. Currently we bought a very nice scanner that can do lots of pages at once. Our receptionist, since she was the least busiest, is the one who scans all documents. But the person making the request is responsible for telling her how they want the document scanned/indexed.

For terminated employee files, I just had her scan the whole document as one with no indexing. Most are less than 50 pages total. For about 200 folders, it took her most of a week (and this is without indexing).

It is a time consuming process. We had to decide what information we would want to go back and retrieve and how hard it would be to look through the whole ee file. We decided that looking through the whole file would be adequate for our needs. We would very rarely have to go directly to any one part of the file. And the time it would take to set it up that way upfront was not worth it.

I have not had the current employee files scanned yet. Mostly because I haven't made that decision about indexing/breaking the files apart into pieces (since they tend to be a lot larger).

Converting to electronic employee files

posted at 12/18/2007 7:59 AM EST
Posts: 63
First: 10/15/2002
Last: 1/30/2009
Scanning some of the documents together as one entry is a good idea. Thanks for the suggestion.

Converting to electronic employee files

posted at 2/5/2008 8:45 AM EST
Posts: 1
First: 2/5/2008
Last: 2/5/2008
Hi
I would like to hear from anyone who has gone beyond scanning the paper and has actually gone into electronic signatures. I have been looking for documentation on this and have had difficulty finding any. I will check the posts but would love any replies sent to iringler@yahoo.com if you have some information

Converting to electronic employee files

posted at 2/6/2008 4:45 AM EST
Posts: 63
First: 10/15/2002
Last: 1/30/2009
We use electronic signatures on some of our documents. Our IT department scans in employees signatures and we can copy and paste those on different documents to use as our signature. We use them on timesheets, expense reports, etc.

Converting to electronic employee files

posted at 2/6/2008 5:18 AM EST
Posts: 217
First: 3/22/2005
Last: 8/29/2011
Or you can have your employees sign an electronic signature policy which states that when they hit Accept, or Enter on certain functions, such as timesheets or W4 forms or expense accounts, they acknowledge that it is their signature.

Converting to electronic employee files

posted at 8/13/2008 3:05 PM EDT
Posts: 1
First: 8/13/2008
Last: 8/13/2008
I am debating with my HR department. Can someone please tell me where I can find legal information on keeping electonic employee files.

Converting to electronic employee files

posted at 8/14/2008 6:09 AM EDT
Posts: 2146
First: 2/15/2006
Last: 9/14/2011
Most of the articles I have seen deal with the retention aspect of files rather than the setup/use of electronic files. I have seen some information on electronic signatures out on the WWW.

I suspect you would need to consult legal counsel on the legal aspects of the situation...because you will need to setup policies -- especially privacy/access/security policies, retention policies among others.

One website that might help a bit is:
http://www.aftab.com/documentretention.htm

Converting to electronic employee files

posted at 8/14/2008 6:13 AM EDT
Posts: 2146
First: 2/15/2006
Last: 9/14/2011
And the policies/setup can very often depend on the type of document and what laws affect it (ERISA, IRC, ADEA, ADA, FMLA, Title VII,just to name a few).

The major areas I have seen go paperless are payroll (stubs, W-4s, etc) and employee forms/communications/handbooks, etc.
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