Dumping the traditional printed HR manual for employees in favour of a digital version could save UK firms nearly £300m, as well as preserving over 100,000 trees, according to new research from eServices provider Transversal.
In addition to the financial and environmental benefits the move could also improve productivity as a digital version would make it much easier for employees to access the information as well as make sure that it is up to date and searchable.
It will also enable HR staff to concentrate on more business-critical operations, according to Transversal.
“In a digital age, large and complex manuals simply don’t match how people wish to receive information,” said Davin Yap, CEO, Transversal. “Staff normally have specific questions and want to receive focused, accurate answers rather than looking through pages and pages of general information. A manual is out of date from the minute it is printed – as such the HR department need to embrace more innovative, web-based ways to communicate with employees.”
Printing off an HR manual for each of the UK’s 21.26 million workers at an average cost of £14 means a total investment of £297.64m, money that Transversal says does not have to be spent. Similarly with each manual an average of 40 pages, one manual per worker means that 102,048 trees have to be cut down to provide the paper.
“The HR department is changing. HR staff have moved on from the days of just ‘personnel management.’” said Yap. “They are under increasing pressure to become cost-effective, to improve its services to the rest of the company; and to implement and address the key business drivers of the organisation. Replacing HR manuals with an online interactive HR ‘manual’ not only save money and the environment, but also free up the time of HR staff to enable them to take a more strategic role in company management.”
Transversal’s clients include Barclays, Play.com, BBC, Fujifilm and National Express.
