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Fortune 500 Company

Employee retention can be a challenge at any career point, but creating a favorable impression on job candidates, right from the start, is a step in the right direction. When leading Fortune 500 companies integrate Silanis' solution as part of their on-boarding process, it radically changes employees' first impression of working there.

Web-based electronic signatures, combined with a secure Web site, allow candidates to access, sign and return employment applications, agreements, personal history statements and offer letters in minutes, versus days.

Read on to find out how e-signatures have transformed HR processes.


Full Success Story

Gain a competitive advantage by onboarding with e-signatures

We often hear organizations say that their employees are their most valuable assets, and that attracting and retaining top-notch talent is becoming increasingly more difficult. But how many organizations are taking a holistic approach to HR management that begins the moment a candidate first connects with the company?

Silanis counts several leading Fortune 500 companies among its customers. Now Silanis' electronic signature and delivery solutions are being used to break new ground with their electronic onboarding process.

The solution enables candidates to review and sign documents electronically via the company’s secure Web site. Employment applications, agreements, personal history statements and offer letters are now accessed, signed and returned within minutes versus days. Not only has this significantly improved candidates’ overall experience with the company, it has reduced many of the administrative tasks and costs of its HR staffing and operations group. While the initiative may not seem as impressive as some of the new e-commerce and e-contracting solutions out there, consider this: four percent of new hires don’t return after their first day at work, while 40 percent of senior managers hired from outside the company fail within the first 18 months.

Losing a new hire within the first year costs organizations an average of $13,000 per employee. The cost for executives, however, can skyrocket to between two to three times their salaries. In fact, Bristol-Myers estimates that it loses $500,000 each time one of its executives leaves the company.

The first phase of company’s electronic onboarding process is aimed at creating the right first impression. Subsequent phases of the solution will address other onboarding processes to help increase employee retention.

The Problem

Many Fortune 500 and mid-size companies today are looking to improve the overall experience of its new hires, as well as reduce the administrative tasks and hard costs associated with taking a new employee on-board. Not surprising, considering just how long it takes for all parties involved.

Each time a candidate is offered a position within the company, for example, a new-hire package is prepared and couriered to the new employee. This typically contains the employment application, employment agreement, personal history statement and offer letter.

The documents are then signed and returned, but more often than not, information is entered incorrectly or missing entirely, or the handwriting is illegible. The HR department must then go back to the candidates to straighten out the information. This creates needless processing delays and frustration on both ends.

Once documents are correctly completed, the security check begins, and the documents are often scanned so that they can be stored in the company’s electronic filing system. The entire process often takes two to three days for new hires to sign and return application documents, and several hours for the HR group to verify and scan them. By adding electronic signatures to the mix, the onboarding process can be brought down to minutes.

The Solution

ApproveIt® Web Server from Silanis provides an ideal solution for onboarding. First, it is a transparent Web solution that does not require new hires to have any electronic signature software on their computers. Second, it is a secure solution with strong transactional evidence, and interoperates with company’s existing IT infrastructures.

New hires can quickly and easily review and sign all application documents electronically via a company’s secure, password-protected website. The HR department kicks off the process by uploading the PDF documents into the system and notifying new hires by e-mail that the documents are ready for them to review and sign.

New hires can then enter their e-mail address as the username, and select a password to access their unique application page.

All documents and disclosures are presented to new hires within the Web browser. As they move through the process, the list of documents grows. Users click ‘I agree’ buttons to accept or sign the documents, while ApproveIt Web Server works behind the scenes to secure the documents and create legal contracting records.

The Results

Companies can expect to see immediate and significant benefits from its electronic onboarding solution.

Not only will candidates complete and return their application documents online within minutes, they will no longer have to enter duplicate information in the various forms (i.e. name, address, employee #, etc.). The information can be programmed to automatically populate the various forms, thereby eliminating unnecessary data entry errors, omissions and processing delays.

Even the I-9 forms can be automatically populated with the correct information and electronically signed. On April 30, 2005, the Department of Homeland Security published a rule under which Employment Eligibility Verification forms, otherwise know as the I-9, can also be processed electronically. This means that organizations can finally implement a 100-percent-paperless on-boarding process.

Further, because documents remain electronic, the HR department no longer has the tedious task of scanning and indexing them. The electronically signed PDF files can be automatically uploaded into a company’s electronic storage system.

Finally, companies will eliminate tremendous hard costs, such as paper, printing and shipping.

Perhaps the greatest benefit of a fully automated onboarding process is the streamlining that improves the overall employee experience. ApproveIt Web Server solution can reduce internal processing of new hires to less than 30 minutes, and employee transfers to under 20 minutes.