Electronic signatures gaining ground in hiring, onboarding process

One would expect technology companies such as Google and Twitter to be at the forefront of using electronic signatures when recruiting talent. But increasingly, other industries are realizing the potential time and cost savings of using esignatures to increase hiring efficiency.

The use of esignatures “has seen some awesome growth in the past two years,” says Jon Perera, vice president and general manager of Adobe EchoSign, an electronic signature product that currently has 34 million users worldwide and cloud service transactions of 3 million documents per month.

A wide range of companies are using the tool, from tech giants like Google, Twitter and Foursquare to higher education, financial services and health care, Perera notes.

Also see: Foursquare increases HR efficiency with cloud-based onboarding

Deloitte’s use of EchoSign, for example, allowed the consulting company to reduce the workload of its hiring staff, allowing those employees to refocus their talents on more strategic work, he adds.

“What’s driving this is last mile of operational efficiency,” says Perera. Gone is that last bit of time when people need to print and fax documents, or “worse yet,” overnight an envelope to someone, he says.

With regard to talent acquisition, Perera says the top 10% of candidates are on the market for 10 days or less. In the final steps of the whole process, you’re mailing the offer letter for a signature to the employee. “You’re adding days to the mix, and those are days a competitor can swoop in and give a better offer,” he adds.

But the new technology goes beyond just the easing of paperwork, Perera says.

For example, Adobe itself used the esignature technology and in the past three years has completely eliminated the use of overnight mail for signatures, resulting in close to $300,000 in savings. 

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