One of the main roadblocks to electronic acceptance of key employment documents such as employment contracts, Tax File Number declarations and super choice information, is an organisation’s outdated policy on accepting electronically submitted documents or e-signatures.

The Australian Tax Office accept electronically submitted TFN declarations which should give companies the confidence to do so too.

Despite this, your organisation may like to play it safe and senior management will need some convincing.

Here are some arguments to win your case of bringing your business into the 21st century.

Legal Precedence

There is strong legal precedence for electronic acceptance of contracts. The Electronic Transactions Acts recognises the use of digital signatures and gives the same level of legal status to properly executed electronic contracts as it would to signed paper contracts.

Cost savings

Having electronic acceptance of employment documents saves significant paper, printing, printer ink and courier charges. A standard employment pack use 100 pages of paper, so when multiplied by your new hires, the costs quickly add up.

Better HR Compliance

When employment documents are approved online a full audit trail is generated,  which is easily reportable when the auditors come knocking.

Ensure you get your first choice candidate

The turnaround time for someone to accept an agreement online is light years quicker than snail mail or emailing, printing or scanning. You can also include electronic internal reviews, to speed up the process, to make sure you don’t miss out on your first choice candidate.

Highly secure

There are a number of ways to ensure the signer is who they say they are. A digital security validation step sends a verification code text to the signers mobile phone, which they need to enter to validate their identity. This process is just like online banking.

Save the environment

Of course, the benefits of being paperless lead to reducing our carbon footprint – which is a benefit to everyone.

Next steps

There are many advantages to online acceptance of new hire and employment contracts but you’ll need to present the benefits, show the ROI and make sure you pick an employee onboarding solution that allows you make the move to a paperless HR.

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