3 min read
Attestation and electronic signatures are two methods to confirm receipt of and comprehension of key documents with your employees. Attestation can be a simple digital check box. ESignature requires more sophisticated technology.
Employee attestation protects both the employee and the employer. Companies create policies and procedures to protect the company’s assets, to mitigate compliance risk, and operate efficiently. Some of these policies and procedures also help to keep employees safe from workplace hazards or to inform employees about their rights, company benefits, and job responsibilities.
Digital solutions for eSignatures provide a method for communicating, tracking, and reporting attestation in a legally compliant manner.
This article explores 6 use cases to consider.
6 Use Cases for Employee Attestation and eSignatures
1. Legal, Regulatory and Compliance Requirements
Staying compliant with evolving labor laws, industry regulations, and data protection requirements is a constant challenge for businesses. By utilizing eSignature solutions, organizations can ensure that all necessary legal documents, such as tax forms, nondisclosure agreements, separation agreements, and consent forms, are securely signed and stored electronically. This not only reduces the risk of non-compliance but also simplifies audits and regulatory reporting.
2. Policy Acknowledgment
Policy attestation is a common use for electronic signatures. Ensuring that employees are aware of and agree to company policies and procedures is crucial for maintaining a productive environment and creating a culture of accountability.
A perfect example is a company’s cybersecurity policy. In this case, attestation responses requires much more than a “check the box” mentality. Yes, it’s important for employees to verify they have read the policy. Ultimately, you need employees to put the knowledge into action daily.
A proper understanding of concepts like phishing, malware, and social engineering are critical for keeping the company’s data safe. Employee attestation that is tied to online cybersecurity training, testing, and attestation questions will enable organizations to ensure that employees are informed and accountable while providing a verifiable audit trail for compliance purposes.
3. Expense Reporting and Reimbursement
Managing expense reports and reimbursement requests manually can be cumbersome and error prone. Requests can get lost in the approvers email inbox, and approvals handled via email are difficult to track and organize.
By integrating eSignature capabilities into expense management systems, organizations can streamline the approval process. Employees can digitally attest to the accuracy of their expense reports, while managers can review and approve them electronically, expediting the reimbursement process for their team members. With the right system, the approval signature and the expense report are automatically linked together for future audits and review.
4. Performance Reviews and Feedback
Regular performance evaluations foster employee growth and development and help to address performance issues and opportunities for improvement. With many employees working remotely, face-to-face reviews are handled with video calls, but organizations still need an attestation process.
With eSignature solutions, businesses can automate the distribution and acknowledgment of performance review documents. Employees can electronically acknowledge receipt, provide feedback, and sign off on performance evaluations, facilitating a transparent and efficient review process.
5. Change Management
Whether it's policy updates, process revisions, or structural reorganizations, effective change management requires clear communication and employee acknowledgment. Employee attestation tools enable businesses to share change-related documents electronically and capture employees' acceptance digitally, ensuring smooth transitions and keeping all stakeholders properly informed.
6. Onboarding Processes
Smooth and efficient onboarding sets the tone for an employee's journey within an organization. The onboarding process is an opportunity to make a strong, positive impression on the new hire.
With eSignature solutions, businesses can streamline and digitize the entire onboarding process, including signing offer letters, employment agreements, confidentiality agreements, employee handbooks, and other essential benefit documents. This not only accelerates the onboarding timeline but also reduces administrative time and ensures compliance with legal requirements.
Zavanta Software Employee Attestation and eSignature
Zavanta is cloud-based policy management and SOP software that helps you streamline your “how to” content such as policies, procedures, manuals, and work instructions, into a single source of truth. Our electronic signature capabilities are completely integrated within the Zavanta system.
Read Verify
With Zavanta's Read Verify feature, employees can sign off that they have read the content and understand it with a simple employee attestation check box or a legally compliant electronic signature.
Managers can set up Read Verify campaigns with workflows that automatically send out email notifications on a schedule. For example, create a campaign that runs at the beginning of every year requiring employees to review the latest HR policies.
Testing
Zavanta includes a drag and drop test creator, so it's easy to create tests and quizzes on any topic. Because tests are mobile-friendly, employees can take tests from their desktop, tablet, or phone. An electronic signature can be added to any testing campaign, as well.
The Zavanta system will automatically email notify employees when it's time to take a test, notify managers when someone fails, and more.
Portal
The Zavanta Reader Portal features an intuitive interface with a widget for Read Verify and Testing campaigns so your employees can easily find their attestation assignments.
Legally Accepted Document and Receipt
The Zavanta system will capture all of the data required for the electronic signature to be legally accepted. The certificate of completion includes name, email address, date and time stamp, time zone, IP address, and signature creation with signature image.
Please contact us to learn more about how Zavanta can help streamline your standard operating procedures and elevate your employee attestation with our electronic signature feature.
Additional Resources:
