Human capital management—finding and retaining people whose competencies, skills, and personalities will deliver the maximum economic value to your organization—is more critical than ever. As business becomes increasingly global, employers are requiring broader skill sets, and creating a cost-efficient environment in which they can work effectively is essential. Finding and retaining the right people is challenging; hiring the wrong ones is costly. A well-structured organization with clearly defined job descriptions doesn’t guarantee you will find, engage, and process strong candidates ahead of your competitors, nor does it ensure they will perform consistently after they are hired.

As the workplace continues to transform, organizational structures are flattening, enabling the project- and skill-based problem solving that modern, global, and mobile business increasingly needs. We’re turning away from traditional hierarchies and beginning to look for ways to capitalize on the unique value each smart hire offers. Remember Aesop’s fable, The Lion and the Mouse, where the tiny and ostensibly powerless mouse freed a captured lion by gnawing the ropes that ensnared him? Without the mouse’s saw-like teeth and matchless speed, the lion would have breathed his last, helplessly tangled in a web of ropes. The moral of the story: Don’t underestimate others’ capabilities. It takes all kinds…

Yet how can you find and engage the right hires quickly and with certainty—before your competitors do—then make the most of their unique qualities, and keep them in your employ? Part of the equation is left to your management style, but electronic document management (EDM) and workflow automation go a long way in supporting your efforts.

Human Resources and Technology: The 21st Century Workplace

According to the Society for Human Resource Management’s (SHRM) most recent Future Insights report (2009), the landscape for human resources technology is changing:

• Initiatives are centered less on new and/or transformational projects.

• The focus on cost-cutting has increased.

• Business is becoming more global for organizations of all sizes.

• Employers are striving to offer greater workplace flexibility.

• Talent management platforms are shifting from siloed solutions to those offering holistic views.

• Organizations are striving to make information more transparent and mobile.

As a platform that centralizes storage and retrieval of digitally captured information, EDM is well positioned to meet these challenges. Coupled with workflow, which enables the automation of standard business processes according to an organization’s rules, EDM:

• Creates a central access point for information, leveraging your existing technology investments.

• Streamlines document access and data management, lowering recruiting, employment, and training costs.

• Enables seamless, secure access to business information from any location with a web browser.

• Offers workplace flexibility while making employees productive from any location.

• Provides a holistic overview of applicant and employee information for smarter decision making.

• Makes information appropriately transparent and accessible from any location.

Whether you’re collecting resumes, cover letters, and supporting documents; modifying job descriptions, offer letters, or contracts; or addressing document deficiencies with the W-4s, I-9s, benefits applications, direct deposits, and other forms, EDM and workflow answer the call. Together, they create a mobile, cost-efficient, secure, supportive, and process-friendly workplace.

Capture, Store, Retrieve, Manage: Put Information In the Right Hands

EDM and workflow don’t replace existing systems, but when they are integrated with existing technologies, they enhance each component’s performance. By centralizing access to digital information and providing a common foundation for work, they let you:

• Gather scattered information quickly and cost-efficiently.

• Prescribe who can view, edit, annotate, or delete documents according to their job role.

• Accelerate decision making and make job offers to top candidates before your competitors.

• Create a rules-driven work environment that standardizes and accelerates cumbersome processes, assuring successful on-boarding and earlier successes.

• Ensure (and verify) compliance with HIPAA and other regulations.

• Improve internal communications, resulting in greater employee satisfaction.

EDM lets you standardize rules for accessing, viewing, and using electronic information across your organization, regardless of the source. It gives authorized employees the data and insight they need to make smart decisions. Centralized reporting and auditing simplifies work, lowering costs and raising profits. Accuracy improves. Service does, too.

Treat Applicants Consistently: Standardize with Workflow

Standardizing and automating the flow of work using pre-set business rules streamlines routine and unwieldy processes, making sure timely and correct information and files are provided to the right people as they are needed. It ends manual searches and juggling of tasks, letting staff focus on work that requires analysis and higher-level thinking. Consider these routine tasks in a standard job application process:

Challenge: Prioritize incoming documents and tasks

Solution: Workflow uses date/time stamps and extracts data about documents (such as priority level, document type, or due dates) to automate task prioritization.

Challenge: Eliminate processing bottlenecks by optimizing work distribution

Solution: Workflow allocates jobs using techniques such as circular task distribution, broadcasting tasks to available workers, assigning work to employees with lighter workloads, more experience, etc., as business rules dictate.

Challenge: Gather, package, and process applications quickly

Solution: Workflow gathers required applicant information, noting missing or deficient documentation; sends requests for outstanding information; and notifies appropriate person(s) when materials are ready for review.

Challenge: Answer applicant inquiries about the status of their candidacy.

Solution: Workflow tracking gives authorized employees an instant overview of applicant standing. Files, documentation reviews, interview schedules, and more are appropriately visible with a single click. As steps are completed or deficiencies are noted, emails, letters, and calls can be created automatically according to your business rules, ensuring swift turnaround and greater satisfaction for both the employer and applicants in a process that otherwise can be stressful.

Helping Workers to Succeed: Keeping Employees Happy

Even though EDM and workflow help you to evaluate, decide upon, and ultimately hire top applicants quickly, the challenges continue as employees enter the work environment. Instead of expecting new employees to remember every rule, policy, regulation, and deadline, EDM and workflow assume the burden, making sure rules are followed and deadlines are met. As regulatory and policy changes occur, they are instantly adopted by simply reconfiguring the EDM system to reflect new dictates. No more need to trust work to memory: rules are followed immediately and consistently.

Summary

Finding, hiring, and preparing the right people to help your business succeed is a never-ending challenge. Even when you have the right team, freeing each ‘mouse’ to do his or her job requires a supportive management approach. By implementing document management and workflow, however, you’re far better positioned to:

• Simplify, standardize, and accelerate hiring so you can make informed decisions quickly.

• Hire top candidates before your peers can lure them away with a competitive offer.

• Help new employees to be productive, successful, compliant, and content with their work environment.

Every organization needs diverse talents to succeed in a world of constant change. When a job demands the unique skill of the mouse, you want to make sure you have him or her in your court, armed with the necessary tools and ready to respond without delay.