Human Resources – Not exempt From Organization!

A professional that works in human resources has more responsibility than interviewing and insurance benefit presentations.  They have many federal regulations they must follow, and must enforce on all employees.  As you can imagine, they generate a lot of paperwork.  If you work in HR, you know all too well.  What would it be like, for you, if all your records were digital?  What if every employee had an electronic file and all the paperwork she or he filled out was under that file?  What would that eliminate for you?

For those who aren’t in HR – this is an example of what they must keep, and for how long:

• Application Records & Resumes – Under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, employers must keep resumes for a period of a year.  However, if the applicant is over 40, they are required to keep it for 2 years.  Did you know that it is illegal to ask someone how old they are in an interview?  So it can be hard to verify age, therefore it’s safer to keep all resumes anyway.

• Wage Records, Hours Worked – This seems like a no brainer.  To ensure that they’re following the Equal Pay Act, employers must keep wage information for 2 years, and payroll records for 3.

• FMLA Paperwork – If you need to leave work for a family medical emergency – the documentation of your leave must be kept for 3 years under the Family Medical Leave Act.

That list doesn’t even begin to cover everything that HR has to keep track of, but rather an example of how easily things can get chaotic if something is filed or done incorrectly.  Here are some examples of how eliminating paper could help streamline the productivity of HR:

• All incoming resumes are scanned, and emailed to the appropriate department manager if necessary.

• Employees request time off online, eliminating the paper that gets shuffled around and lost – resulting in anger from both sides!

• File cabinets will be a thing of the past!  You may actually be able to relocate some of your staff, as there won’t be a need for digging around in boxes to find someone’s direct deposit form!

• All commonly used forms can be kept on your hard drive and printed only when you need them. Free up the prized desk space!  Fill it with pictures of your happy employees!

• Everything is protected!  Disaster protocol is something that is regulated by HR, wouldn’t it make sense if they were prepared for a disaster?  Also, since everything is protected on computers, take it a step more and password protect every document!

• Instead of physical applications, have employees take 5 minutes and fill out benefit information from their computer.  If they’re anything like me, they’ll still push the deadline – but they won’t lose the application!

• Most importantly – you’re following the law!

As you can see – I’m a big advocate for organization, especially when it’s regulated!  Start out by scanning a few things and see how that goes.  Scan things that pertain to current employees only.  If you have resumes or files for people that were never hired or no longer work for you, put them in storage!

HR, being the literal center of every business, if it is poorly managed, it directly reflects on the company.  By getting organized now, you’re saving yourself from doing mountains of follow up paperwork, getting disciplined, or worse – getting fined!

If you have any questions or would like more information, give us a call at 1-800-785-7505.