Social collaboration in hospitality executive brief
Zzw03241 usen human capital management
1. Enterprise Content Management
IBM Software April 2013
Human capital management
Achieving efficiency in key employee lifecycle processes
2. 2 Human capital management
As the workplace grows more diverse and budgets shrink,
human resources (HR) professionals have strong incentives
to improve overall HR efficiency and reduce the cost of
managing critical employee information. Streamlining content
and process management is instrumental in achieving these
goals. The challenge for HR departments is how to cut those
costs across a broad range of activities, including managing
forms, documents, communications and content associated
with hiring, maintaining employee records, managing labor
relations, publishing policies and procedures, complying with
regulations and supporting myriad employee interactions.
Enterprise content management (ECM) can help HR
departments optimize processes to achieve these goals. Today,
HR organizations around the world are leveraging the IBM®
Enterprise Content Management (ECM) platform to:
• Manage content, communications and processes associated
with the employee lifecycle—from hiring to retiring
• Enable consistency and accuracy in the development and
publication of policies, procedures, forms, documentation and
training materials by establishing a central source for content
and standardized processes across geographically distributed
HR departments
• Improve efficiency and auditability in hiring, status change,
dispute investigation and resolution, labor relations,
retirement, and regulatory compliance processes associated
with thousands of employees
• Eliminate the physical storage costs of retaining paper
documents and records
• Provide a unified “single view” of individual employees by
linking unstructured employee information to the employee
record in the HR management system (HRMS), thereby
reducing administrative costs related to searching and
handling of employee documents
3. IBM Software 3
Streamlining HR processes
Innovative IBM ECM capabilities enhance a variety of
HR processes and activities with support for information
capture (scanning, optical character recognition and
classification of paper documents); document-centric business
process management (BPM); integration of enterprise
resource planning (ERP) and HRMS; case management;
electronic forms; content analytics; and information
lifecycle governance. IBM ECM offers these capabilities as
shared services to support HR and other departments that
frequently collaborate with HR, including legal, finance,
operations and IT groups as well as outside agencies.
Improved efficiency frees skilled HR specialists from time-
consuming administrative tasks, so they can focus on value-
added activities such as consulting, business leadership,
compensation, workforce planning, labor relations and
employee development.
Addressing 10 major HR challenges
HR organizations must contend with increasing complexity
and diminishing resources—even more so for widely
distributed organizations or those operating internationally.
IBM ECM capabilities promote overall cost and workforce
efficiencies for managing document-centric business
processes by enabling HR organizations to address 10
persistent challenges:
1. Reducing the cost, overhead and risk of managing paper-
based employee records
2. Tracking, managing and retaining critical communications
among HR and applicants, employees, agencies and
regulatory organizations
3. Developing and publishing accurate, consistent HR forms,
policies, procedures and guidelines in a timely manner
4. Managing complex employee lifecycle processes and
interactions requiring the focused skills and experience of
HR specialists
5. Stopping the proliferation of paper forms that impede
accurate information-gathering and inhibit efficient
processing
6. Providing authorized personnel with easy, secure access to
employee information
7. Evaluating and implementing an increasing amount of
corporate, industry and government regulations in a timely
manner
8. Minimizing administrative overhead, allowing HR specialists
to focus on value-added activities
9. Exploiting insights regarding employee skills, ideas and
attitudes contained in employment applications, résumés and
surveys to help guide planning, recruiting and staffing
10. Retaining critical HR information to remain compliant with
evolving regulations
The following sections discuss these 10 challenges, explaining
how specific IBM ECM capabilities enable HR organizations
to improve efficiency and reduce costs.
4. 4 Human capital management
Reducing the cost, overhead and risk of managing
employee records on paper
Paper documents—applications, résumés, faxes, contracts,
forms and acceptance letters—are a source of vital employee
information and at the same time, a hindrance to efficiency.
Volumes of employee records contained in file cabinets
or stored off-site have associated costs of physical storage,
manual filing and refiling, copying and mailing. These
associated costs can be substantial, especially for widely
distributed organizations.
Additionally, paper can expose organizations to confidentiality
breaches and other risks if data is incorrectly keyed from
hardcopy forms into the HRMS or misfiled. The AIIM
Industry Watch states, “The average proportion of office space
taken up by paper is now 15.3 percent, and it would drop to
7.4 percent with an all-electronic filing policy, a saving of
nearly 8 percent in overall office costs.”1
Consequently, HR
organizations evaluating long-term storage costs may find that
reduction or elimination of on-site and off-site file storage can
easily justify an investment in a content management solution.
In addition to storing thousands of employee files in its HR
office, one insurance company was paying annual off-site
storage charges for approximately 80,000 (former)
employee records—conservatively estimated to fill a file
drawer 1.57 miles (2.5 kilometers) long.
There are two ways to avoid the inefficiencies of paper
documents. First, organizations with a substantial volume
of employee files—both current and historical—can digitize
these files to virtually eliminate physical cost and risk. Modern
scanning and optical character recognition (OCR) technologies
enable an HR organization to accurately capture information
from a paper document, classify the document and then create
a digital version of it. These digital documents can then be
linked to individual employee records in the ERP/HRMS to
provide a single view of information relevant to each specific
employee. The single view is a complete, unified profile that
spans multiple departments and data sources.
Second, organizations can process paper documents using
scanners or OCR devices at the point of entry, thereby
eliminating paper from the start to heighten document-
processing efficiency and security (often with the aid of BPM).
According to AIIM research, mobile capture can speed data
availability and keep paper out of the process while also
improving data accuracy and reducing the number of lost or
incomplete forms.2
Tracking, managing and retaining critical
communications among HR and other groups
Certain email, faxes, formal agreements, employment
contracts and other communications among the HR
organization and candidates, employees, employment
agencies, regulatory agencies, collective bargaining units and
benefits providers must be retained for future reference and
adherence to regulatory requirements. Often, however, these
5. IBM Software 5
communications remain in isolated silos such as email archives,
file shares or desktop computers, making it difficult for an
HR specialist to quickly access the relevant information when
conferring with an employee, agency or benefits provider. In
a worst-case practice, some organizations have been known to
print these communications and then file duplicate copies in
different locations.
Email is typically the most prevalent form of communication.
The ability to automatically capture inbound and outbound
emails—and logically associate them with a specific entity,
such as a candidate, employee, labor relations group,
recruitment agency or regulatory organization—offers the
HR specialist a detailed understanding of the relationship
and prior interactions. Providing that understanding of
relationships and interactions can in turn expedite responses to
an inquiry or resolution of an issue. Other forms of important
communications that record the interaction or relationship,
including faxes, word processing documents and PDFs, can
be logically associated with a specific entity and automatically
retained as corporate records in conformance with company or
regulatory requirements.
Developing and publishing accurate, consistent HR
materials in a timely manner
HR publishes an increasing volume of corporate content,
such as forms, policies, procedures, handbooks, regulatory
guidelines and benefits information. In many instances,
production of this information is a collaborative effort that
involves several different departments. The majority of these
documents are drafted, reviewed and revised using Microsoft
Office productivity software. However, the process can get
complicated and lead to delays depending on the number of
participants, length of publication, number of publications in
process, and variations based upon line of business, language or
geographic location. The process of synchronizing document
edits and versions among the various contributors often bogs
down otherwise efficient collaboration.
Applying a formal business process to the document lifecycle—
including creation, review, approval and publishing—allows
authors and reviewers to work within the familiar Microsoft
Office environment to accelerate the development and delivery
of accurate and timely information to the appropriate channels,
such as an employee portal. Creating a single source for
accurate HR content helps eliminate the problem of employees
acting on outdated information, initiating processes using
obsolete forms or following incorrect procedures. If required,
previous document versions can be retained automatically for
future reference or compliance with regulatory policy.
Retaining all relevant inbound and outbound email
communications associated with collective bargaining
processes can be critical in the development and defense
of a contract. Questions regarding the reason for a certain
term or clause in the contract can be answered by
referencing email history and draft versions of the contract.
6. 6 Human capital management
Managing complex employee lifecycle processes
and interactions
HR initiates and coordinates complex, protracted activities
such as background checks, employee relocations, labor
contracts, dispute investigations and resolutions, medical
claims, disciplinary action and implementation of new
regulations. These activities might involve subject-matter
experts across the organization—from management, legal,
labor relations, health and safety and compliance. They might
also involve external parties such as recruiting agencies, outside
counsel or collective bargaining units.
However, HR activities are also highly variable. They
might include formal as well as ad hoc processes to flexibly
accommodate the uniqueness of each situation. A variety of
supporting documentation may be acquired throughout the
process. Inbound and outbound email may be important
artifacts of the process. In certain situations—such as employee
claims, response to collective bargaining, and regulatory
reporting—an organization must meet specific deadlines for
response or completion.
Too frequently, organizations lack the appropriate solutions to
facilitate productivity and coordination. As a result, relevant
information may be distributed across multiple sources and
HR organizations may be unable to determine the current
status of the activity. Other consequences include duplication
of efforts and an incomplete context for understanding the
issues or completing the process.
A case management approach significantly improves initiation,
processing, investigation and resolution of complex HR
activities by providing a secure, collaborative environment that
allows both required and optional tasks to be executed. This
approach also aggregates all relevant information—documents,
email, reports and faxes together with data from ERP, data
warehouses, HRMS and so forth—to offer participants a
complete context for understanding and resolving any given
issue in a timely manner. Case management solutions capture
real-time communications such as instant messaging as well
as comments among participants to provide up-to-the-minute
context that aids decision making while it documents the
reasons for specific decisions. Business rules can be applied
to high-volume processes such as employee on-boarding or
separation to minimize administrative overhead. A particular
strength of the case management approach is the capability
to retain all of the documents, communications, decisions,
record of processes and tasks completed—essentially, the entire
context of the case—if any of that information needs to be
referenced in the future.
A private aviation service is using IBM ECM to help ensure
consistent dissemination of common business content,
forms, processes and procedures for its highly mobile
global workforce, which accesses this information through
the employee portal. Corporate news, job postings, health
and safety alerts, compensation, benefits and education
are examples of content made available to employees
based upon geography and line of business.
7. IBM Software 7
Stopping the proliferation of paper forms
Converting paper to a digital format using scanner and
OCR technologies can deliver immediate efficiency and
cost-reduction benefits. In addition, organizations using
numerous paper forms to capture employee information and
initiate processes stand to achieve even greater efficiencies by
replacing paper forms with electronic forms.
For example, electronic forms help ensure that an employee
is always accessing the correct, current form, not an outdated
paper copy, to initiate a request. At many organizations,
electronic forms now play a vital role in enabling employee
self-service (typically available via an employee portal),
alleviating the administrative burden on HR personnel.
Electronic forms can contain sophisticated rules that verify
whether correct information is entered in form fields,
access existing data in HRMS to prepopulate forms and
intelligently present the form to request only relevant, required
information. Data from the electronic form can be used to
immediately launch a business process upon completion of the
form. As part of the process, a copy of the form as well as the
information entered on the form can automatically be saved as
a corporate record, if required.
An international foods company with over 25,000 employees
converted paper forms to electronic forms to capture
employee information and, based on that information,
automatically launch the appropriate process such as hiring,
salary increase, transfer, promotion, retirement or skills
training. Tight integration of electronic forms and BPM allows
quick process modification. Completed electronic forms are
automatically retained as a record of the transaction.
A US government agency is adopting a case management
strategy to facilitate employee on-boarding and separation
processes involving the HR, payroll, financial and legal
departments. The case management approach enables
consistent and efficient cross-departmental HR processes
for the tens of thousands of employee transactions
executed annually.
8. 8 Human capital management
Providing authorized personnel with easy, secure
access to employee information
Rarely is all relevant employee information available through
a single, secure point of access. The HRMS contains employee
master records, while other critical employee information—
such as résumés, applications, performance appraisals, medical
records and certifications—is typically maintained elsewhere.
Information isolated in multiple systems or locations
prevents the HR specialist from easily accessing the relevant
information in a timely manner.
This inefficiency can be mitigated by digitally capturing
pertinent unstructured information that is acquired
during the employee’s tenure and linking that information to
the employee’s master record. Creating a single view of the
employee helps provide complete context for understanding
a specific employee’s situation and efficiently resolving the
request or issue. Accessible through the HRMS, it enhances
the security of personnel information while offering greater
efficiency for authorized parties. Plus, HR specialists no longer
need to request and wait for information from different sources
to complete their tasks.
Evaluating and implementing regulations in a
timely manner
HR contends with a rapidly increasing number of new
or changing laws and regulations that must be reviewed
and evaluated, often in conjunction with the legal and
financial departments, before being implemented. The
difficulty of the process is proportionate to the number of
pending regulations, potential impact of the regulations and
implementation timeline.
Here too, the case management approach streamlines
the process by providing a collaborative environment
that supports formal workflows and ad hoc tasks, instant
messaging, comments and document versioning. By
developing a formal, repeatable process for the creation,
review, approval and publishing of policy and procedure
documentation, case management helps smooth workflows
and pushes them toward completion.
Managing regulations as cases enables key personnel across
departments, and even countries, to evaluate new regulations,
assess their impact, develop implementation plans and create
and publish new or updated policies or procedures. For
example, it helps ensure that the appropriate subject-matter
experts from HR, legal, financial and operations participate in
the review process at the appropriate time, and in the proper
sequence, to develop the final regulatory guidelines and
implementation plans. In cases where new regulations supplant
previous ones, previous versions of policies and regulatory
guidance documents can be retained for reference.
A European telecommunications provider links relevant
unstructured employee information to the ERP HR module.
This approach allows HR specialists to work within a
familiar user interface while providing secure access to
employee information—expediting employee consultations
and accelerating response to management requests.
9. IBM Software 9
After a consumer packaged goods company adopted
electronic forms to replace all of its HR forms and integrated
BPM with HRMS, it realized productivity gains equivalent to
hiring two additional FTEs in its HR department.
Minimizing administrative overhead
Large HR organizations are involved in many high-volume,
transactional processes such as hiring, on-boarding, employee
provisioning, updating employee data, renewing benefits and
managing retirements. These processes may involve numerous
forms, disparate information sources and many manual tasks.
Inability to determine the status of a particular employee’s
process often results in duplication of effort and delayed
completion. The net effect is that HR specialists spend an
inordinate amount of time on administrative activities.
By integrating the capabilities of electronic forms and BPM
with the HRMS, organizations can eliminate many employee
requests, interactions and administrative tasks. Electronic
forms support self-service by allowing employees to initiate a
process or update information, typically through an employee
portal. BPM avoids manual processes and enables tracking of
important activities, allowing HR specialists to devote time
and skills to high-value activities when working with their
constituents. Process efficiency also allows an HR organization
to accommodate employment growth or widen its range of
services without adding staff.
10. 10 Human capital management
Exploiting insights contained in employment
materials to help guide planning, recruiting
and staffing
A report from the Cornell University Center for Advanced
Human Resource Studies highlights the growing interest in
applying analytics to HR data. While only 13 percent of survey
respondents indicated they had “the necessary technology/
systems to facilitate HR analytics,” 67 percent reported having
“the support of senior leaders for HR analytics projects and
initiatives.” In addition, all respondents indicated that they
“used HR data for basic reporting purposes.”3
Indeed, HR has access to vast amounts of employee data
contained in HRMS, finance and payroll. HR groups
often overlook unstructured employee information that
resides outside these systems. Organizations can apply
content analytics to that unstructured information to help
uncover valuable details and generate new insights into the
organization’s current state.
For example, organizations can apply content analytics to
unstructured information in résumés to quickly assess the
experience and skill sets of applicants or employees. They can
analyze surveys that ask open-ended questions to uncover
employee opinions and sentiment. In addition, they can
analyze social media posts to assess the company’s current
reputation. And they can analyze performance reviews to
determine what skills, practices and perspectives contribute to
good (or poor) performance. Analyzing job classification, line
of business, division or geography can provide a more detailed
understanding of corporate culture and attitudes.
Used in conjunction with analyses derived from other sources,
content analytics offers HR professionals accurate, detailed
insight to help determine how employee skills, capabilities and
perspectives may influence organizational performance.
Retaining critical HR information to remain compliant
with evolving regulations
Most documents created or managed by an HR organization
are essential for ongoing corporate operations. However,
consistent and cost-effective retention of these documents
can be challenging given corporate, industry or regulatory
requirements that often vary by size of organization, type
of document or geography. Many HR organizations waste
productive office space and budget by retaining paper
documents on-site and off-site.
Electronic retention of HR documentation and communications
can produce significant benefits. First, it can save physical
storage space and costs. Second, it enables immediate and secure
information access for authorized persons—not only for HR
personnel, managers and employees but also for departments
such as legal and finance that need access in response to audits,
discovery or litigation.
Organizations can capitalize on the information lifecycle
governance capabilities (classification, records management
and defensible disposal) of the IBM ECM platform to provide
HR with the ability to automatically retain information only
as long as legally required. As a result, these organizations
can reduce the cost of digital storage and mitigate the risk of
retaining outdated information.
11. IBM Software 11
A report from the Compliance, Governance and Oversight
Council (CGOC) shows that 75 percent of respondents
cited the inability to defensibly dispose of data as the
greatest challenge. Many respondents also highlighted
massive legacy data as a financial drag on the business
and a compliance hazard.4
Next steps: Assessing immediate
HR optimization needs
This white paper addresses 10 major challenges that HR
organizations face and describes how strategic capabilities of
the IBM ECM platform are designed to increase efficiency,
reduce costs and minimize risk. To help determine how your
organization will benefit most from the IBM ECM portfolio of
solutions, consider which of these following statements most
strongly reflect your most pressing challenges.
• Paper personnel files are usurping valuable office space or
incurring high annual off-site storage costs.
• Important communications—such as email, faxes and
documents—are stored separately from the entity or project
with which they are associated.
• Numerous policies, procedures and guidelines need to be
created or updated and published frequently; variations are
required to meet specific line-of-business and geographic needs.
• Complex HR processes are delayed because of an inability to
coordinate participants, information and tasks.
• Paper forms predominate, leading to data input errors, manual
processes and misplacement.
• Inefficient access to employee information distributed
across multiple systems prevents formation of a single view
of each employee.
• There are delays in the evaluation, implementation or response
to the growing volume of new or updated regulations.
• Administrative overhead has become unsustainable as a result
of high-volume, manual processes; there is an inability to
respond to employee requests in a timely manner.
• Personnel documents must be analyzed to uncover detailed
insights that can guide HR strategy and planning.
• Personnel records and critical HR documents are retained
longer than legally required, leading to increased physical and
digital storage costs.
For more information
To learn more about the IBM ECM portfolio, please contact
your IBM representative or IBM Business Partner, or visit:
ibm.com/software/ecm
To learn more about specific IBM ECM products and
capabilities, please visit: ibm.com/software/products/us/en/
category/SWN00?lnk=mprSO-ecma-usen
To learn more about IBM partner solutions that work with the
IBM ECM platform to address specific HR needs, please visit:
ibm.co/12QhXnH
