Here's Why Your Candidate Experience Depends on Your Agreement Process

Hear from one HR leader about how technology and AI are improving the experience for job candidates and HR teams alike.

I recently got back from HR Tech in Las Vegas. It's so great to spend time with other People and Talent professionals talking about how technology, and now AI, are really changing the game of HR. While our function has long been known for caring for our employees and being a strategic partner, for too long, we've also been known for being bureaucratic and process-heavy. There are a few reasons for this, but one of them is that we've built processes to meet the technical limitations of the tools we use every day.

Getting this right starts even before the employee life cycle does. Landing a top candidate feels great for both the employer and employee, especially in the current dynamic job market. It's no easy feat, and no cheap one, either. SHRM's most recent analysis put the average cost of hiring a single employee in the U.S. at $4,700, but employers estimate a more accurate prediction is three to four times the position's salary. That's because both hard costs-the actual dollar amount-and soft costs-the less tangible but still very expensive investment that goes into hiring-should be considered.

What's more, 30% of employees quit within their first 90 days of employment. Why? Because the employee experience that new hires are expecting isn't there. Onboarding is unstructured, manual and tedious, and culture takes a back seat to process and paperwork. So what can you do to combat this pricey turnover?

Providing a good candidate experience can make all the difference. That means you need to make processes and documents clear, intuitive and efficient, and your talent can focus on being excited about their new role. Here's how Docusign can help.

A better candidate-to-employee experience

Over the course of the hiring and onboarding process, there's an abundance of forms that candidates have to fill out. From NDAs to offer letters to employee handbooks, candidates can be inundated with requests for information, agreement and acknowledgement. Additionally, each new document can make employees feel like they are starting from scratch, entering and re-entering their information across multiple platforms. Once completed, these documents are often stored in different systems, not to mention the status of the candidate likely shifts between these agreements. This leaves candidates and employees trying to keep track of their own documents over the course of their employment rather than having one easy reference point for all of their agreements.

This type of disjointed and inefficient agreement process isn't great for your company's brand or for HR's. The time it takes to get all the necessary paperwork signed can be a crucial window during which a top candidate might receive and accept another offer.

Modernizing HR workflows with intelligent agreement management (IAM) helps accelerate the hiring process from even before day one. By leveraging pre-approved templates and automated workflows, you can accelerate the entire agreement process. Real-time tracking gives HR teams visibility into where agreements are stalled, allowing them to quickly address bottlenecks. The solution also provides a secure, integrated central location for employees to access all the documents they have signed, from their offer letter to their annual reviews, empowering them with self-service and improving trust. This digital-first approach shows new hires that the company is modern and values their time, helping to prevent talent loss and retain top performers.

Enhanced compliance and security

Companies often prioritize customer data, but what about your employees' data? Compromised employee data can cause huge HR and legal issues and put your company at risk. Agreements are chock-full of confidential data, so safeguarding these documents is non-negotiable.

The Docusign IAM platform for HR helps organizations gain control over sensitive employee information. Agreement data is stored in a secure, searchable repository with robust access controls, ensuring that only appropriate parties can view confidential information, including Personally Identifiable Information (PII). Secure authorization and identity verification functionality further strengthens the security of the agreement process, reducing legal exposure and helping to ensure compliance with changing regulations.

Mobile-friendly experience

Too many organizations still rely on a clunky, manual process that requires new hires to print, sign, scan, or email documents. Some e-signature solutions offer a mobile experience; however, the interface is clumsy and redundant, forcing candidates to pinch and zoom on poorly formatted documents and reenter key details that should autopopulate. Today's candidates are expecting digital experiences to be easy, similar to the consumer apps they use every day. To do this right, recruiting teams need to meet the candidates where they are.

The IAM platform provides a clean, mobile-friendly user experience for reviewing, understanding and signing documents, making it easy for candidates to complete onboarding paperwork from any device, anywhere. This accessibility, combined with the ability to easily track the status of agreements, creates a positive and professional impression, setting a strong foundation for the employee-employer relationship.

Automated data entry

Getting all of this experience right starts before your candidates even apply. One of the most significant bottlenecks in onboarding is the repetitive entry of data across multiple forms. A new hire's information might be entered into an applicant tracking system (ATS) during the recruiting phase, only to be re-entered manually into various other forms, such as tax documents, benefits enrollment forms, and emergency contact sheets. This is not only time-consuming but also prone to human error, which can lead to compliance issues and delays.

The Docusign IAM platform helps both employees and employers get down to business. With often unforeseen challenges constantly occurring in the hiring space, alleviating controllable issues-like the agreement process-is a great way to make sure that no matter what macro uncertainties are on the horizon, your hiring and onboarding process can still move forward.

Learn more about how the Docusign IAM platform is helping HR teams deliver a better employee experience.

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