Paperless HR In, Greenhouse Gases Out

This HR News comes from SHRM.ORG

Paperless HR Can Facilitate Eco-Friendly Workspace

By Pete Wolfinger

CheckPoint HR, a New Jersey based company dedicated to helping mid-sized organizations automate their human resource operations, has released its top five steps to establishing an eco-conscious business environment.

Among its first suggestions is moving toward a paperless HR department.

According to a 2007 Environmental Paper Network (EPN) study, if the United States cut paper use by just 10 percent, it would prevent the emission of 1.6 million tons of greenhouse gases—equivalent to taking 280,000 cars off the road.

To begin this automation and to limit paper use, CheckP suggests that companies use a human resources management systems (HRMS) portal to allow employees to view paper-heavy documents such as company handbooks, pay stubs, PTO requests and benefit enrollment choices solely online.

“Choosing a method besides paper that allows documents to be viewed or updated at any time, it just makes sense,” said Tim Padva, CEO and co-founder of CheckPoint. “This automation should be incorporated into the workplace to make life that much easier for businesses.”

Other steps that can move HR departments in an eco-friendly direction include:

• Using direct deposit to eliminate printed pay stubs and payroll reports.
• Establishing an online training program that gets rid of lengthy training guides.• Viewing updated corporate policies online instead of via paper memos.
• Inputting personal information such as licenses and certifications electronically.

• Installing other programs that eliminate paper trails.

Going paperless has more than just environmental benefits, however.

“Going green is socially accepted, a hot topic, right now,” said Padva. “Yes, it’s going to save some trees, but it’s going to so do much more.”

Paperless records can be more secure than paper ones and not nearly as susceptible to hostile events such as natural disasters, he said.

“Your disaster recovery is much easier if you are paperless. If your vendors around the country are backing up your files, which they probably are, [the files] are not subject to the damage of that individual workplace,” said Padva.

“Paper is an old habit that can die very easily if you show people another way,” he added.

Pete Wolfinger is an editorial intern for SHRM.

Our Comments:

Paperless HR Software is becoming widely known throughout the HR community, and what a better time to start with the condition the environment is in (even though, we should have done this with all software years ago).

Our software product line is completely paperless, from the reports to the leave requests, you will never have to print another page. Speaking of disaster recovery,  making a backup of your database is the easiest way of dealing with disaster, just a simple copy and paste of your common directory will save you time and major HR headaches.

As always take care,

DeShea

Software Techniques, Inc.
deshea@softwaretech.com
http://www.softwaretech.com/

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