Document Management and the Remote Workforce

Today’s workforce is more nomadic than ever. Employees are working from home offices, coffee shops, airplanes and hotels, and it’s because modern technology is allowing them to access information and communicate with their teams from anywhere, anytime.

Having the right tools that companies have in place to support employees is essential in allowing them to work flexibly and remotely. It gives them the opportunity to work from the locations they prefer and stay on-task with all the data they need at their fingertips. One piece of technology that makes it seamless for companies to hire remote workers is document management/paperless automation software.

Here’s how it helps:

Visibility: When your employees aren’t all in the same place, congregated in a conference room or huddled around a water cooler, it’s absolutely vital that managers and members of the C-Suite have visibility into business processes and procedures without having to frantically call employees wondering where invoices are at in the payment process. A document management system provides real-time updates with charts and dashboards so that you can always see what’s pending, what’s late and what’s paid. This helps managers identify bottlenecks, areas that are working well and areas that need improvement, allowing them to easily follow up with employees located all over the state, country or world.

Compliance: It may seem unsafe to permit employees all over the world to access data and information, but a document management system is very safe and secure. In fact, it even helps companies improve compliance. It’s extremely beneficial for the remote workforce because the system is able to track every movement within the workflow. This means that there’s a record of who touched a document, when they accessed it and what they did with it, leaving a comprehensive audit trail so that the AP manager in Toledo knows what the AP employee in LA did with the batch of invoices they received. This keeps operations streamlined, secure and compliant in the case of a potential audit. It also keeps your email inbox a little cleaner as the automated workflow keeps AP staff updated throughout every step of the process. No stamps, phone calls, emails or paper-passing necessary. Many document management systems are also role-based, so managers can control the functionality and permissions that certain employees have on an individual basis.

Mobile: These days, we are all attached to our smartphones – remote employees more than anyone! Luckily, many document management systems also come with a mobile option, including MetaViewer. Employees get full visibility into pending invoices, the ability to approve, reject and escalate invoices, a view of the original copy of invoices (as well as line-item details), intuitive dashboards and document retrieval. This means that just about anything they can do from an office – either at home or at a workplace – can be done from a plane, train, beach or mountain.

The modern workforce is changing, which means it’s even more important for businesses to take steps to meet the needs of the new workforce that is inundated with digital nomads. Do you have the tools in place to accommodate a more mobile workforce?