HR Process Automation with M-Files

Given the amount of information human resource departments are required to manage and secure, it’s not unfathomable that these HR processes can become difficult to organize. Enterprise Content Management solutions, such as M-Files, provide tools that can assist in streamlining and automating these activities while keeping private records in compliance and secure.

Human resources is a central department that has to deal with a lot of daily challenges. One of the biggest being that every decision is recorded and documented. Regardless of the size of the company, the HR department is in charge of collecting information and documents for every department and employee. They must collect, categorize, and share sensitive documents while providing employees the peace of mind that their personal information is being stored securely. This can become time-consuming and messy without tools that can help automate some of these HR processes.

Human Resources Means Managing Human Data

If we think of the variety of documents that HR employees have to handle on a daily basis, we could easily think of things like contracts, non-disclosure agreements, performance reviews, and legal issues. In most cases, these documents are tied to private information. Human resources, across the board, faces the challenge of completing their activities while maintaining compliance with internal company and governmental rules and ensuring the privacy and data security of each employee.

Here are a few of the challenges and risks HR departments face on a day-to-day basis:

  • Visibility: Employee information is typically hard to find. Most information is stored in paper form or in systems that are unintuitive for finding information easily.

  • Risk: Increased risk of PII data being exposed due to uncontrolled or unsecured processes.

  • Process: Inefficiencies in HR processes that lower utilization and effectiveness of HR resources.

  • Retention: Compliance and legal issues because of undefined policies or controls in place.

These are some of the reasons to consider implementing an Enterprise Content Management (ECM) solution like M-Files in your company.

Maintaining Compliance by Centralizing Storage

Companies have the responsibility to maintain records properly, and it is in their best interest to have good practices around storing and organizing regulated documents. Especially when companies are in highly-regulated industries, it is essential to have an effective information management system.

The best way to achieve and maintain compliance is by creating a centralized organization-tool. Otherwise, companies are very susceptible to issues and fall into non-compliance. Duplication, confusing storing, or poor management are some of the main concerns that affect most HR departments.

Ensuring Data Security

Compliance not only means keeping your records tidy; it also means making sure all data is being secured and used properly. HR departments have a critical requirement to keep data confidential and private. There are many details such as social security numbers, salaries, bank information, and personal information that could easily be accessed if the necessary precautions are not taken.

It is important to have security layers that will grant only designated employees access to such sensitive information. With an ECM solution, permissions are granted to the database, locations, and document levels, giving a granular method to security.

hr process automation with m-files

Improving Accessibility and Discoverability

As important as it is to maintain compliance, it is equally important to find the necessary information in an intuitive way that is based on the context rather than the location of the content.

By leveraging metadata-based structures, ECM solutions such as M-Files allow HR employees to locate information more efficiently based on the context of information. Its powerful built-in OCR scanning and data capture features and smart search capabilities using Artificial Intelligence (AI) allow content to instantly be discovered, classified, and searched.

Why ECM Solutions are Effective

Having a software tool accessible, easy to use, and effective is what any human resource department desires. Here are three points that make ECM solutions a great asset to organizations:

  • Cloud-Based

    Having a cloud-based solution gives HR departments uninterrupted access to documents and data as long as they have a connection to the internet.

  • Integrations

    ECM solutions offer integrations with many platforms that companies might be using, such as Dropbox, Microsoft Office, QuickBooks, and Salesforce, among others. The best part is that ECM solutions, such as M-Files, can utilize what you have without the hassle of migrating data.

  • Workflows

    ECM solutions offer workflow management which provides an increase in efficiency to users. These workflows enable best practices and new ways to collect, access, and manage documents.

At Smartbridge, we are proud to be partnered with M-Files, an ECM solution that offers the above benefits and more. Our consultants provide cutting-edge solutions to our clients, allowing HR and many other departments the ability to manage documents better, improve efficiency, reduce errors, and enable collaboration among employees. Moreover, we are able to ensure the security of sensitive information by implementing security models within Workflows for more complex requirements.

Keep Reading: Remote Document Management – ECM for a Virtual Workforce

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