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HR, Accounting and Legal Departments Still Printing Too Much

A new study conducted by Wakefield Research and Infotrends has revealed the extent of the printing crisis in small to medium-sized businesses. Printing and other paper-based activities are still flourishing in the corporate office, despite new eco technologies, and the main offenders are those in HR departments, legal offices and accounting firms.

The studies show just how dependent businesses are on paper for daily routines – with 73% of owners and decision makers at companies with less than 500 employees print at least four times a day. Paper is still a major part of the workflow in many sectors, including legal and HR.

The Research Vice President of Gartner, Ken Weilerstein, says that companies have tried to go paperless but failed to eliminate it altogether. Today, he says employees print an average of 400 pages per month – that’s A LOT of paper. He says many companies have figured out the easiest ways to “go paperless” by scanning and storing documents online, but it wasn’t possible to eradicate all in-house printing and scanning completely.

The Key to the Paperless Office

The trouble with implementing a paperless office isn’t the in-house documents. Once all records are scanned and in an electronic management system, employees can convert to the paperless process quite easily. Being completely paperless becomes an issue when dealing with other businesses and sometimes clients, who still have a reliance on paper.

They may ask you to post a hard copy of a contract to sign, rather than use a digital signature. Some companies may want to fax or post you a shared document instead of email it across. Others may not accept a digital invoice...the list goes on. The secret of successfully implementing a paper office is cooperation. One company has to be brave and take the first step, start the tidal wave in the corporate world. Everything is being transferred to digital, it’s just a matter of time before those businesses which resist the movement have to conform.

So why not be ahead of the times and be the first company in your area to make the move to a paperless office? It’s something you could brag about in the future as a cutting edge forward thinking business.

Pearl Scan specialises in HR document scanning and legal scanning services. Join a number of businesses who have ignited the digital revolution and benefited from exceptional document management.

Human Resources departments up and down the country are leaking money from company budgets daily and you might not even realise it but with document scanning, those costs can be reclaimed from various different areas.

How are you wasting money?

With the current situation in your Human Resources department, you could be wasting money in a number of ways without even realising…

Storage (off-site and in office)

With hard-copy storage, there are two main locations the files can be stored in. Either they are taking up a great deal of valuable office space or you have decided to store them in off-site storage facilities and incur annual storage costs. Whichever method you choose, you are losing money regularly for something as simple as document storage.

Wasted time & unproductive tasks

With a system as inefficient as paper document storage, it is almost guaranteed that you are wasting a lot of time (up to 30% according to studies) searching for documents, re-filing and other admin tasks and that isn’t even mentioning the tasks that turn out to be unproductive because a file is lost or unavailable at the time. Time is money and with this much wasted just imagine what it’s doing to your profits.

Paper, ink and printing

This is a more obvious budget drainer. You can actually see the costs on your invoices regularly yet many companies still don’t take steps to reduce the amount of physical paperwork they are producing.

Poor reputation with clients

If your customer service is poor due to slow file retrieval and bad all-round file management then this will have a direct effect on your reputation with current clients as well as potential clients. If they don’t feel like they are getting/will get good service from you, they will turn to one of your competitors instead. Obviously, loss of clients can have a very damaging effect on profits so it’s definitely something that needs to be addressed.

If you’re worried your HR department may be experiencing lost money due to any of the above then don’t worry there is a solution and it’s a good one.

HR document scanning

Scanning HR documents and storing them digitally instead will provide a successful solution to those issues with cost. The storage of digital documents will abolish extortionate storage costs because, provided the digital copies are fully backed up and secure, you will no longer need to store the original paper documents. Digital documents are also much more flexible and reliable as they can be fully indexed and retrieved instantly. There is minimal chance of losing files and even when they are they can be found through text searches of relevant data. Files can be shared quickly too and via various methods reducing the need to print documents out. Digital business processes will reduce the costs spent on printing and sending files. Overall, the benefits that going digital will bring to the efficiency and budget of the company can then be transferred to the services you provide for your customers. This will give off a much better impression and maybe even persuade customers to join and stay with your company.

Other benefits

Not only does document scanning for HR offer annual and immediate cost savings for your business, you can also benefit from a range of other things too;

• Reclaimed space
• Time savings
• Improved security
• Boosted efficiency
• Environment
• Morale

Scan HR records with Pearl Scan

Here at Pearl Scan, we offer a completely bespoke document scanning service and document management solutions aimed at the HR departments of companies up and down the country. We can handle the entire project from collecting your documents right down to setting you up with your digital files in an efficient and usable system. You will receive high quality, OCR’d digital images in a quick turnaround to ensure minimum disruption to the company. We can even provide you with our document retrieval software, Halogen, free of charge. This specially designed software will aid the managing of HR files and help you to really reap the benefits mentioned above. For more information about how we scan HR records, take a look at our website and blogs or give us a call today.

How would you like a tailor-made scanning service specially designed for the HR sector? Pearl Scan can help, but let's start from the beginning.

What is HR Document Scanning?

We know that offices in Human Resources departments generate a lot of paper and most of that paper is required to be stored for future reference. Documents such as contracts, employee details, P45's and medical records can take up a significant amount of space in offices. It can also be costly to store so Pearl Scan offer a solution which means you can keep those important documents but they will no longer take up all that space. Scanning HR documents and keeping them in digital format rather than the hard copy alternative is a solution that many HR departments have found perfect for their needs.

What happens when the documents are scanned?

Once we have scanned your HR documents, they will be indexed and placed onto our online document management software, Halogen. This software was specially designed for HR Departments giving you security but easy access to your documents. Through Halogen, your documents can be accessed by anyone you have given permission to.

How can my office benefit from having documents scanned?

There is a seemingly endless list of advantages to scanning HR documents and implementing a digital document management system. You can save costs, space and time while also improving your green credentials with a paper light office. Documents will be more organised and could be accessed more efficiently through simple searches of content, title or date.

What makes Pearl Scan the best choice for my HR document scanning needs?

Many HR departments from reputable companies have already used our services for their document scanning needs and we are equipped to handle both small and large scale projects in Manchester, Birmingham and London as well as across the rest of the UK. We offer a bespoke service which you can easily tailor to suits your needs, whether you need your documents collecting from your premises or whether you would like them shredded afterwards, we endeavour to provide the best possible document scanning service for you.

If you have HR documents you would like scanned and implemented into a digital document management system, complete our online form for a free, no obligation quote and we'll be happy to help. For more information on the HR document scanning and HR document management services we offer here at Pearl Scan, browse our website or get in touch today.

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