Keeping your Human Resources department running smoothly can be a real challenge. Electronic personnel files 

can make a huge difference. 

The Human Resources department is a busy place. New employees are constantly being hired and active staff can require just as much assistance. Dealing with all of the paperwork that goes along with working in HR can be seriously challenging. Many companies have moved to electronic personnel files to help manage their HR documents easier. Moving away from paper and towards digital has a number of benefits, but this article will focus on 3 of the biggest. Here’s how electronic personnel files can help streamline your entire HR department. 

Instant File Retrieval 
When your HR files are on paper, finding an important document can be a time-intensive and stressful experience. Electronic personnel files allow your staff to access the documents you need quickly and easily from anywhere, at any time. 

“Indexed” systems allow you to tag your electronic personnel files by categories like the Employee Name, Document Type, Status, Office Location, Department, Expiration Date, etc. That way, you can search for documents based on their “indexing” information. For example, with just a couple of clicks, you can pull up all: Handbook Acknowledgements expiring within the next 60 days for Active employees working in the Sales department out of the Chicago office. 

“Cloud” systems allow you to securely access your files online. These are extremely popular with companies that have multiple offices so that staff in each location can access the files they need easily. 

Custom Audit Reports 
When you make the move to electronic personnel files, keeping track of documents becomes a lot easier. Maintaining compliance around storing and managing personnel files can be rigorous on paper. You need to ensure that each employee’s folder contains all required documentation and that all of those files are up-to-date. An electronic system can do this for you automatically. 

An audit or “exception report” is commonly used by HR staff to automatically check your electronic personnel files for required and expiring documents. The report is then automatically emailed to your HR team showing which employees are missing which required documents from their folders and which employees have a time-sensitive document expiring soon. This can make your HR audits significantly less stressful. 

Segmented Access 
One of the challenges of paper files is keeping protected information separated into different folders. With electronic personnel files, this is no longer an issue. Instead of having 3-5 different folders for every single employee, simply use “segmented access” to make certain types of documents only available to specific staff. 

For example, allow Payroll users to ONLY see Payroll documents when they view an employee’s folder. Or, lock down I-9’s so that only relevant HR staff can view them. Or, finally, give managers access to only certain types of documents in just their own staff’s folders. This allows your team to consolidate without sacrificing compliance. 

Learn more - 3 Easy Tips to Streamline HR with Electronic Personnel Files.