The majority of HR teams still rely on emails, paper documents and spreadsheets to process their new hires.
It’s an approach that means it will typically take days or weeks to complete all of the paperwork that’s required before an incoming employee can start.
It’s an inefficient way of working but the forthcoming Good Work Plan 2002 legislation makes it a much greater potential problem.
The Good Work Plan employment law changes, which come into effect on April 6th, 2020, raise the bar on what’s required from employers when bringing new hires into their organisation.
It removes the current two-month period within which new starters must be provided with ‘written particulars’. Instead, this has to be done on or before a person’s first day in their job.
Fundamental onboarding rethink
It’s a change which forces the issue for those hiring managers who have been contemplating making the switch to a cloud-based and paperless onboarding process.
A system such as Webonboarding provides chosen candidates with everything they need via an online portal. A personal dashboard allows employment information to be checked, amended and digitally signed.
The real-time nature of this approach allows paperwork to be completed in a matter of minutes. It removes the need for documents to be posted or for information to be manually transferred.
Two-thirds currently failing
It’s an approach that more organisations are moving to but the 2019 ‘Welcome Aboard’ survey found that two-thirds (66%) of new starters in the UK are still processed using paper-based administration.
More than two-thirds (71%) of these said that their onboarding paperwork had not been completed before their role started. For a quarter (27%), they had to wait up to a month.
From April 6th, this kind of inefficiency will become a potential compliance breach. The Good Work Plan legislation increases the maximum fines from £5,000 to £20,000.
So as the Good Work Plan deadline approaches, there has never been a better time to upgrade your organisation’s onboarding process. The switch to a paperless process provides HR with the tools they need to handle the new employment law requirements.
