Managing Contingent Workforce Needs with Docusign

Building a contingent workforce can be tricky in the best of times. Such challenges are exacerbated during labor shortages and times of inflation, requiring HR teams to become more flexible and agile to meet their organization’s workforce needs. Without the right tools and technologies to streamline workflows, they could waste hours of time on redundant manual tasks and miss out on hiring the best talent. These inefficiencies can limit the productivity of their own teams and the new employees they’re onboarding.

Modern HR and procurement teams rely on Docusign to manage several important processes related to the external workforce. In this blog, we’ll highlight five ways we’re making it easier to manage an external workforce.

1. Remote hiring/rehiring

Organizations need to act fast to lock in talent during today’s tight labor market. Docusign eSignature can help facilitate a smooth and speedy onboarding process, and can also be useful for organizations seeking to bring back previously furloughed employees by sending recall offer letters using prebuilt employee templates.

2. Digital onboarding

Staffing companies hired more than 14 million temp employees and contractors last year– and if it weren’t for modern technologies, boatloads of paperwork would be needed to onboard those new hires, ranging from employment contracts to NDAs..

Today’s new employees can sign onboarding forms quickly from anywhere on practically any device with eSignature. HR teams can utilize Docusign’s prebuilt templates to save time when sending W-4, I-9 and other frequently used forms using eSignature.

3. Identity verification

As sensitive, high-value agreements move online and are completed digitally, knowing who your signers are is more important than ever. You need to be able to trust the person you are doing business with to be the person they claim to be. In some cases, access to a known email or phone number is sufficient to trust the signer. In other cases, you need signers to prove their identity, beyond email. HR onboarding forms often require proof of identity.

Companies can use Docusign ID Verification to confirm identities online, saving both HR teams and temporary workers time.

4. Leverage existing investments

If you consider that 62% of HR departments process 500+ agreements every month and that processing those agreements can take over 25% of an HR professional’s time, there’s an incredible time-savings opportunity with a fully automated system. That’s even more true if that system connects to your existing HCM, ERP and ATS platforms.

Docusign has more than 400 integrations with popular business tools like Microsoft, Oracle, SAP SuccessFactors, and Fieldglass. By connecting to the systems your HR team already uses, you can reduce the amount of time HR professionals spend on document management and devote more energy to people.

5. Bulk send

Docusign’s Bulk Send tool helps organizations easily share standardized documents with multiple recipients, saving time and cutting costs in the process. The feature goes a long way for companies who frequently hire temporary workers.

For instance, professional services firm Aon hires over 150 seasonal contract workers to assist with annual open enrollment periods. To make those hires, Aon must send personalized offer letters to each contractor with information about compensation, dates of employment and more. Docusign’s bulk send and PowerForms features make contract preparation much easier.

The agreements can be signed by the contractors using eSignature and key information is routed to other business systems using integrations. The automated process eliminates manual data entry, ensures accuracy and relieves administrative headaches.

Utilizing all tools at your disposal can help streamlining the onboarding process for temporary hires during a time when time is at a premium for stretched-thin HR teams.

Managing an external workforce doesn’t end once contingent workers are hired and ensconced in their roles. With many temporary and contract workers performing their job duties remotely, ensuring your organization is secure should be another top priority. Using trusted and secure systems such as Docusign can help ensure the documents you’re processing remain protected throughout the process.