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Technology priorities typically are given to individual departments that need to solve a specific problem immediately. Often, the nod goes to the people who need to speed processes or close a loan, leaving departments like human resources to fend for themselves when trying to find, attract and retain the best employees for the credit union.
What if there was a way to automate some of these processes without investing in new technology? More credit unions are looking to extend their current technology investments by leveraging the capabilities of their existing document management or enterprise content management solutions across the credit union, including the HR department.
Here are three areas in HR where your ECM solution can help you the most:
Recruiting
Your ECM solution captures and stores applications and resumes as you receive them. With that applicant information centrally located, everyone on the HR team has access to all the information they need, when they need it. Prepared with that information, they make smart hiring decisions (and before the competition snaps up that great job applicant).
Once the ECM solution captures applications, it automatically forwards them for quick decision-making. And when you’ve chosen a candidate, document templates generate the offer letter, route it through approvals, and track changes by managers so your credit union quickly sends the offer letter. This allows recruiters to spend more time identifying the best candidates for jobs and less time organizing paperwork and supporting documentation.
Onboarding
ECM gives HR personnel the tools they need to better manage the onboarding process and provide new employees with smooth transitions. By providing HR with a holistic view of all related information in a single location, staff easily tracks the entire onboarding process and monitors tasks across departments.
Through automation, increased visibility and centralized information management, new employees are ready for work on day one.
Policies and Procedures
When you store HR policies and procedures on paper, ensuring employees review and acknowledge these documents is time-consuming and prone to error. And you don’t want to frustrate promising new team members before they start their job.
Using your ECM solution, your HR department efficiently creates, distributes and tracks employee acknowledgement of policies and procedures electronically. The technology also reduces associated administrative tasks, such as filing, copying and mailing documents.
With this documented proof of both policy distribution and employee sign-off, organizations strengthen compliance and minimize liability while holding employees accountable.
HR’s applicability for ECM has grown mainly due to legal and compliance reasons, such as protection against age-discrimination lawsuits or certifying an employee’s receipt of a required form. But it also involves the growing need for efficiencies in storage and processing of documents in personnel offices. From recruiting and onboarding to payroll and records management, ECM manages documents and processes so HR can focus on employees, not paper.
The three areas outlined above are a great way to extend your ECM solution to gain additional return on investment. To learn how other credit union departments can leverage the benefits of ECM, visit Hyland Software or contact me directly.
Michelle Harbinak Shapiro brings more than a decade of experience in the banking industry to her role as financial services industry expert at CUES Supplier member Hyland Software. Her mission is to share best practices and evangelize the power of ECM as a tool for banks, credit unions and lenders to help automate paper-based processes and proactively manage regulations.
CUES’ Credit Union Management’s online-only “HR Answers” column runs the first Tuesday of every month.
