This afternoon, I had the opportunity of spending a few hours with several Human Resources professionals at the local IHRIM event in Atlanta.  These events attract those that are in a HR Technology role and whose primary function is to improve HR processes and to act as a liaison between HR and IT.  Professional speaker, author, and corporate culture expert, Larry Johnson, was the main attraction.  His message was about the infamous “C” word.  That’s right!  You guessed it — Change!  If any of you have bought a new home, gotten married,  or had a child, you really know what change is all about.  Furthermore, those of you that have implemented a new HR system or migrated to a new version of your existing HRMS, are sure to know what “change” is all about.  Perhaps you are even considering implementing a paperless onboarding solution.  Larry went on to describe how we all go through various stages during a major change: excitement and fear, disillusionment, frustration, and finally, integration and effectiveness.  Next, the speaker provided a formula that really made a lot of sense and should be applied to any type of change we are contemplating.  Let’s consider the following variables:

P1 – the pain of continuing with the old way

P2 – the pain of continuing with the new way

P3 – the pain of the journey

If P1 + P2 > P3, then change is necessary.

This thought process should certainly weigh into your decision to invest in an onboarding solution.  Consider the pain (P1) of the following paper intensive onboarding process:

• Typing an Offer Letter from scratch or in MS Word and having to print the completed form.  Multiply this step by x number of hires per year.
• Returning invalid W-4’s, I-9’s, and state withholding forms to your new employees and the re-entry of such forms into the HRMS.
• Spending $50-$100 dollars per new hire to prepare the new hire onboarding packet: fulfillment costs, mailing costs, and potential omission of certain required forms.
• Having your new employee spend 3-4 hours completing new hire paperwork through a paper intensive process.
• Data entry costs and costly errors.
• The loss of productivity and less than satisfactory acculturation of a new employee.

Next, let’s consider the new way and the pain (P2) of not having a paperless onboarding solution:

• An automated, paperless process with an Offer Letter generator.
• A perfect data package that enforces business rules on the I-9, W-4, and state withholding forms.
• Enter data once and populate many HR forms.
• An interface between the Onboarding system and your HRMS that eliminates data entry.
• A chance to meet the awesome team at Emerald Software Group.

After carefully reviewing the P1 and P2 bullet points above, you should ask yourself this question — Is the sum of the pain (P1) of continuing with our paper intensive onboarding system and the pain (P2) of not having a paperless onboarding solution, greater than the pain (P3) of the status quo?  If so, it’s time for a change and Emerald Software Group’s AllegroHR Product Suite is the answer.