Discover the new and modern approaches to employees’ files storage, access and the digitisation of employees’ files while taking care of GDPR.
Typically, the information held in an employee file includes pre-employment documents, background screening, ID verifications, employee relations, TUPE and for international organisations, the immigration documents.
Roll on 6 to 10 years later after an employee’s leave date, employee files are still being stored – taking up valuable office space! Depending on the industry and organisation and in some cases the storage retention period may be much longer, a common procedure within investment banking, certain government agencies and defence sector.
Most organisations will store their ex-employees (leavers) files either in their onsite archive room or offsite file storage facility for a long period of time and recall the file as and when is needed. The file recall, delivery and re-collection process can take from a few days to a few weeks! Which is dependant on the storage facility, contractual terms and with Covid restrictions – how will an employee who requested the file recall, access the file if working from home? All these factors come into the overall file recall & access process. This approach works, but time and access showcase its limitations.
However, two new approaches which most organisations are exploring now, which we have also recently delivered these solutions to various industry sectors can be found below:
- Digitisation of files with GDPR cleansing
- Scan-on-Demand
Digitisation of Files with GDPR Cleansing
Taking the first option in this instance – all files are scanned but each document is broken down (e.g., application form, contract, appraisal, etc.) into an individual PDF file and then indexed (named) by the three primary fields which can be found below.
- Document Category
- Document Title
- Document Date
Here is an example of a typical employee file with GDPR options:
John Smith
General
Contract_19/09/18
Recruitment and assessment info_15/08/18
Healthcare scheme membership_25/09/18
change of terms and conditions_18/09/20
ID_06/05/15
Occupational Health & Absence
Routine health surveillance reports_22/02/20
Appointment invite letters_14/03/21
Absence/Disciplinary/Grievance (Red file)
Absence Warning Stage 1_01/05/21
Meeting invite letter_28/04/21
Grievance
Grievance letter_15/06/21
Meeting invite letter_17/06/21
Meeting notes_19/06/21
Investigation: witness statements, copies of_25/06/21
The above approach can be applied to both X-employees as well as the current employees, if there are budgetary restrictions, then following approach can be considered.
Scan-on-Demand
Scan-On-Demand provides a hybrid approach of digitising and GDPR cleansing current employee files and Store & Scan on Demand the ex-Employees files. With several benefits to choosing this alternation approach:
- Delivering instant access to documents and files.
- Only pay for document scanning when you need it
- All files are available digitally but On-Demand.
- With the bonus of reducing clutter within the office – as we can shred all documents therefore reducing hard copy storage.
- In turn – reducing storage facility costs.
Most organisations will have some form of digital file management system such as Microsoft Office 365, Microsoft SharePoint, Google Drive and DropFile, etc. However, we have developed something which is more geared towards handling Employee digital files/documents incorporating GDPR compliance rules and easy to manage ongoing access & security of the documents.
Our Pearl Cloud HR system is an out of the box, user focused and a fully managed solution. It can be implemented by SME’s and large corporations with multiple locations/individual country rules.
- Simplicity and its ownership cost – are Pearl Clouds key use aim!
With almost 20 years of experience in employee file handling, scanning, creating list inventories, categorising documentation for various industries and client’s bespoke requirements has enabled us to be versatile, much more experienced than a box standard scanning service provider.
For each project we offer a free of charge onsite survey of your existing methodologies, your preferred approach, proof of concept for the ideal solution for your HR files digitisation at zero cost to you – its our way of saying thank you for the opportunity and let’s show you what we can do for you and above all, there is no obligation to go ahead or progress any further if it’s not for you!
We are available to have a chat every Monday to Friday between 9am till 5:30 pm, so feel free to call us or drop us an email at info@pearl-scan.co.uk and tell us what is on your mind.