Must-have functions for digital personnel files
The increasing digitization of all areas of life is also affecting the world of work and thus the HR department: from flexible work models such as home office to recruiting processes on online portals and the promotion of digital employee skills. If HR managers want to meet these growing demands, they need to streamline their administrative processes - for example, through electronic personnel files.
Personnel files contain all the data on an employee that is relevant to HR managers: employment contracts, interview records, wage and salary data and much more. Proper storage of these numerous sensitive documents is a major challenge for many companies. However, if the company implements a digital personnel file solution, all data is made available electronically: centralized, independent of time and location, and easily searchable. The forcont business technology gmbh (www.forcont.de), a software company specializing in enterprise content management (ECM), explains which functions a digital personnel file solution must have in order to sustainably optimize HRM processes. The following seven functions are essential for a digital personnel file:
- Contract preparation: Standardized employment contracts are best managed via a contract creation tool, with predefined fields and dynamic text modules.
- Document creation: Thanks to integrated document creation, employees can create not only contracts but also, for example, form letters or employee circulars - directly in the personnel files, where they are then also stored. HR managers can then send their documents directly from the system by e-mail.
- Resubmission: The advantage of a resubmission function is that HR employees do not lose sight of important deadlines. Ideally, this is flanked by an e-mail notification function that provides timely reminders of upcoming deadlines. In the case of fixed-term contracts, for example, it makes sense to set up an automatic reminder or resubmission in the system.
- Release processes: Many HR processes involve internal coordination and approval processes. The personnel file should support these processes comprehensively. Not only by automatically or semi-automatically obtaining approvals, but also by storing the - ideally electronically - signed documents in the system.
- Task management: HR managers should be able to easily manage and track the same processes - such as the return of an employee from parental leave, a change in tax class, or the preparation and execution of personnel interviews - in the electronic personnel file using templates. The person responsible can then also assign such tasks directly to the responsible processor.
- Full text search: Scanning documents is one thing, but making them conveniently searchable using OCR text recognition is another. If this is done automatically, all documents can be searched quickly for the desired keywords.
- Data erasure: Especially against the backdrop of new regulations (such as the EU General Data Protection Regulation DSGVO), it is essential for HR departments to handle contract or personnel files in a legally flawless manner. An electronic personnel file supports compliance by providing timely reminders of the necessary deletion - whether it's old applications, contracts of former employees or warnings.
For more information on the creation of digital personnel files, see a Whitepaper from forcont business technology gmbh.
