In a company the size of TDC, the HR department has to handle a considerable volume of documents for distribution to individual employees. In many cases, signing the document is part of the process.
Like many other companies, TDC used to carry out this process manually. Usually, the workflow involved preparing, printing and signing a contract, and posting it to the recipient, who then signed it and returned it in the enclosed envelope. Then the document could be filed in that particular employee’s physical file.
In 2015, the telecom giant decided to look for another solution, investigating the possibility of digitising the process.
“We are keen to get on board with digitisation. And, among other things, this includes sending employment contracts and letters to e-Boks instead of by post to the employee’s home. That’s the future, and we want to be part of it,” says Jytte Hedegaard, head of HR Services at TDC.
Faster replies
TDC decided on the Nets Share Client, a cloud-based plug-and-play solution that provides a quick and easy way to send employment contracts and other documents directly to the recipient’s e-Boks.
TDC’s HR department launched the solution in March 2016. Over the past year, the journey to the employees’ home letterboxes has been replaced at least 6,000 times by pressing the Send button. The change can be felt in several ways:
“Generally speaking, case processing flows faster. The recipient has seven days to sign an employment contract in e-Boks. If we send a contract in the morning, we often get it back, signed, in the evening,” says Jytte Hedegaard, who also mentions the savings achieved on postage – though there will be ongoing costs for storage in the digital HR archive.
All-in-one archive creates flexibility in day-to-day work
Like many other companies, TDC has chosen to link an e-archive to its Nets Share solution.
“The archive means the documents are gathered in one place, which means we as a company do not need to have physical personnel files at different locations,” Jytte Hedegaard explains, highlighting this initiative as a major advantage in their everyday work when tasks are handled from various workplaces.
“When we submit an employment contract via e-Boks and the employee has signed it, the contract is automatically filed in the employee’s digital file. That’s a really smart idea!” She continues:
“We never had this level of flexibility before. Our group services the HR Helpdesk, and our managers and employees can contact us there on a daily basis. There’s tremendous flexibility here because our Helpdesk colleagues can look up the digital personnel file to help with the enquiry, no matter whether the employee dealing with the enquiry is in Copenhagen or Aarhus.”
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Before: Physical archives in many locations After: Easy access for the entire HR department | Before: 7.000 personnel files After: One digital archive | Before: Lack of compliance with the EU GDPR After: Automated storage with time limit on stored documents |
A system that helps compliance with legislation
The starting point for choosing Nets Share was a desire to digitise the HR department’s distribution and archiving processes, but the new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which comes into force in May 2018, was also a factor.
“We soon realised that Nets Share is the right solution to comply with the new legislation, too. We had 7,000 personnel files that had been filled with documents over the years, and we were aware that the archived data did not comply with the GDPR. The requirements for documentation and registration have been tightened up. For example, we have to be fully on top of where the personal data of employees is stored – and, not least, we have to be sure we do not store sensitive personal data for longer than necessary. So it was important to choose a digital system with the capability of managing what we store and what we delete. We can this with Nets Share,” Jytte Hedegaard explains.
Good groundwork paid off
She explains the work TDC had to do in selecting and categorising the document types to be used when forwarding to e-Boks and the archive. This also included defining when different types of documents should be deleted. Another important task in the running-in process was the preparation of a detailed guide for those employees who would be core users of the system on a daily basis.
“Clearly, some internal working procedures have to change when switching otherwise manual tasks to digital.
So good groundwork is what it’s all about. Nets was very good at coaching us and got us off to a good start. We’re happy that we took the plunge. Right now, we’re working with Nets on several applications that we intend to link to the solution as and when we are ready to do so.”
