Here are four ways an enterprise content management (ECM) solution can help HR departments mitigate risk and ease compliance headaches.
Wes Keller
Solution Marketing Manager
Job markets have always been dynamic, and HR teams have always had to adapt. Following the massive readjustment in the ways we work, the distributed workforce — and the technology it requires — continues to impact how HR teams recruit, interview and onboard. As any strategic HR team knows, what happens in HR greatly impacts whether or not organizations themselves are set up for success.
As a reaction to the pandemic, organizations began investing in and implementing connectivity tools to support productivity and business continuity in the face of an uncertain future. In fact, improving work-from-home capabilities and IT infrastructure were top priorities for organizations, according to a survey of IT decision-makers.
While connectivity is necessary, HR teams can’t afford to neglect their HR compliance systems, which house important security and compliance processes.
The good news is you can solve you HR risk and compliance headaches with the right technology: a secure enterprise content management (ECM) solution.
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Human resource information systems (HRIS) are systems of record; they store key data for every employee in an organization.
But your HRIS is simply not designed to do everything you need it to do.
Many HR departments use four or more systems in addition to the HRIS. Although the HRIS might have the capability to manage some necessary HR processes, a robust ECM solution manages all the unstructured content for employees — from applications and resumes to tax forms and employment contracts. ECM solutions can also automate processes, such as:
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Automating processes like the ones listed above must be a strategic priority for HR teams.
As volatile job markets persist, the “busy work” of managing all the hirings and departures falls on HR. If these processes are reliably automated, your team can keep up. However, in departments where a high-value employee has to be involved in each step of every process, or where several technology applications become unworkable or manual processes are the norm, HR teams may become overwhelmed — and eventually understaffed.
Automating lets you streamline processes to get more work done, faster, in particular around workflows subject to inaccuracies, data security and bottlenecks. Process automation could be the difference between gaining a valuable employee as soon as possible and losing them to the competition.
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Let’s take a look at the four ways content management can improve HR compliance and security.
A breach of confidential employee information can be disastrous. But the right ECM solution ensures the security of all your employee documents, guaranteeing they never get into the wrong hands.
ECM solutions accomplish this by being very granular with user access — down to the metadata level — to ensure that only users with the correct rights and privileges have access to those documents. User access is based on the principle of least privilege, in which users only have the minimum access required to do their jobs every day.
Every single document comes with a complete audit trail, letting you know who accessed the document, what they did with it and the date and time they accessed it. The information is also encrypted whenever data is at rest (not actively being used), in transit (moving between servers within the database) and in use (being accessed by authorized users).
In the complex world of HR regulations, how long you retain documents matters. Audits are stressful, and the associated fines can be hefty — especially if they’re charged per violation.
The complex time and event-based retention policies that HR departments must maintain for different employee files require a better-than-average solution to manage. The right ECM solution removes the burden of records management from HR staff — minimizing compliance risk and giving HR professionals the time to focus on creating a valuable employee experience as well as an effective recruitment process.
Here’s how it works: When a document enters the system, the solution automatically identifies and assigns a record type, applies the appropriate retention policies and purges the document when required.
It also gives you the benefits of:
Audits can be painful, especially when you don’t have complete visibility into where your employee documents are. And since the cost of the audit is likely based on how much time the auditor needs to perform the audit, a disorganized records system tends to mean higher audit costs. If it takes you a long time to find documents, then it will take your auditors three times as long.
You need a better HR compliance system.
Imagine going into an audit with confidence that all documents are complete, in order and secure on one central, digital repository. Imagine that audit compliance is as simple as granting auditors limited access to this system so they can perform their work without distracting your staff with requests. With content management, this isn’t a pipe dream.
A secure ECM solution allows an HR department to:
You can limit the auditor’s access to only the documents they’ve requested. This helps auditors focus on the scope of the audit, instead of finding potential gaps in the system. Even a remote audit can be a seamless process — simply provide the auditor with limited, time-based remote access.
It’s true that HR deals with a lot of paperwork, but some processes are more complex than just creating a document and routing it. For example, processes like employee onboarding and offboarding, handling a harassment claim or investigating a safety incident involve multiple stakeholders who need to take specific actions. You may need information from different people, which you may also need to track for reporting or compliance purposes.
Case management capabilities allow HR to store, track and access all the information and activity surrounding these complex processes. This gives you a complete view of your organization and increased visibility into those processes — which can be dynamic and unpredictable.
The amount of sensitive information HR must manage just from one incident — from the initial report to all the content and data that surrounds it — is overwhelming. And every step of the way, with every additional party involved, comes with additional risk of mismanagement and inconsistency, which can lead to employee morale issues, financial loss and irreparable reputational damage to your organization.
Taking a case management approach to employee relations with an ECM solution provides HR with a “single source of truth.” HR departments should have a single view of all information surrounding an employee issue or incident, so they never lose any information.
An ECM solution not only takes the guesswork out of document security and compliance, but it also removes the burden from your HR staff, empowering them to focus on your organization’s most important assets: its people. This means working efficiently to find and hire the best talent — and, crucially, keeping them engaged and motivated even through times of unprecedented disruption.
