Job offers come with the inevitable packets of onboarding forms that we must send via FedEx before candidates can officially start working. I can’t help but think that using all that paper, money, manpower and gas on sending an envelope from New York to my campus in Medford, MA is all wasted when a simple e-mail could have accomplished the same thing.

Put simply, paper forms are a waste, and they kinda make your company look dumb. Technology has reached a point where an electronic system is secure enough, reliable enough and user-friendly enough to do away with papers for good. We all love lists, so here’s a 4 point list on why you need to go paperless right now.

1. Green Paper

No, not that 8.5 x 11 inch sheet on your desk. I’m talking about the Benjamins. Did you know that shipping a 0.5lb new hire packet 200 miles from New York to Boston costs $13.08? That same packet of paper would then have to be stored in a file cabinet that eats up your precious office space, or locked away at Iron Mountain where you have to pay an additional $15 to see it again, or $30 to have it shred and dropped in a bath of ink eating acid. Retype it into your HRIS, Onboarding, Payroll, intranet, ERP, and whatever cloud-based whosawhat you have bought yourself and you can easily triple that number.
With a paperless system, the same information could be sent, received and processed electronically for virtually nothing, and all the information would be stored securely in an online database.

$180.24 for one packet for one new hire. How many hires do you make a year?

2. Time

With a paperless system, everything is one click away. To view a candidate’s resume and information from 2 years ago you don’t have to spend time rummaging through cabinets to find what you want.

That new hire packet that cost $13.08 to ship from New York to Boston also takes at least 2 business days to get there. That same packet when sent via e-mail and handled electronically would take less than one day to process.

You went to school and took the exams to recruit. You shouldn’t be wasting your time on things like looking for paper files or waiting on FedEx shipments. Remember, point, click and ship was the old-school way to save time. Today, its point, click and you’re done.

3. Go green

Go paperless and pat yourself on the back for being an enlightened individual who understands the importance of preserving the environment. The fact that you can use a paperless system as leverage to re-brand your company as being environmentally-friendly and socially conscious is just a nice bonus.

4. Better records

Any paperless ATS system worth its salt will have features that allow you to keep accurate and detailed records of your HR activity. Cost-per-hire metrics, automated pipeline data on each individual requisition, an online interface that encourages collaboration between hiring managers and more. Those HR improvements you brainstorm about but never get around to doing can all be implemented by switching over to paperless.

For those who want to learn more, there are plenty of resources available. Know your business and select a paperless system that best fits your needs.