4 Reasons to Use Digital Signatures for Employee Onboarding

When you hire a new employee, the initial paperwork it takes to officially welcome her as part of the team is inevitable, and cumbersome. From W-4s and employee eligibility forms to official job applications and non-disclosure agreements (NDAs), your new staff member will likely spend much of her first day on the job filling out and signing documents. 

Of course, that’s not ideal. First days should be about getting new hires up-to-speed and on-the-job quickly and effectively, not about pushing papers. Fortunately, technology tools like e-signatures and digital documents can make employee onboarding simpler, speedier and more secure.

Here are our top four reasons for using Independent E-Signatures™, or digital signatures, for employee onboarding:

1. Speed

When a new team member comes on board, it’s usually because the organization needs more support, so it’s vital the onboarding process doesn’t linger any longer than necessary.

With Independent E-Signatures™, which use cloud-based technology, documents can be signed on virtually any mobile device—anywhere, anytime there’s an Internet connection. And once a document is signed, users are instantly notified, reducing bottlenecks that often occur with emailing and printing new employee documentation. E-signature technology allows a new hire to quickly complete and execute the required employment paperwork so they can move on to the greater task at hand—becoming a contributing member of your organization.

2. Efficiency and Cost Savings

Independent E-Signatures™ are efficient and cost-effective. The technology reduces incomplete form submissions by making signing fields mandatory, and it cuts down on time spent filing and handling paperwork—allowing HR personnel to focus on more important projects.

Because of the volume of forms that are included in new employee documentation, Independent E-Signatures™ also save money because electronic forms reduce the paper, ink and potential mailing costs involved with new hire paperwork. 

3. Longevity and Compliance

Independent E-Signatures™ permanently embed the legal evidence of a signature into the signed document itself, giving you complete ownership and control of the document because you’re never relying on an e-signature vendor to access the e-signature’s validity. Additionally, our Independent E-Signatures™ adhere to international, published standards, so the e-signed document is valid forever, and the technology uses comprehensive audit trails to track and record every part of the signing process.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) requires that an employee’s personnel records, as well as benefit plan (including pension and insurance), be kept on file for at least one year from the date of termination. With Independent E-Signatures™, business owners and HR departments can know with certainty that they can independently prove the validity of a signature years after the document was signed or the employee has left the company. 

4. Security

Employee documentation can contain extremely private information from both the new hire and the organization, such as a Social Security number and employer identity number (EIN), so it’s important that those documents and credentials are secure.

Independent E-Signatures™ use tamper-evident technology to immediately detect any changes that are made to a document after each signature has occurred—reducing your risk of fraud. Further, identity authentication tools, such as knowledge-based authentication, make sure only authorized individuals have access to the documents.

Independent E-Signatures™ are making the workplace more efficient and secure, and these benefits are crucial when it comes to the process and paperwork it takes to onboard a new employee.

So, we have to ask. Are you using digital signatures to onboard new hires?

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