Leeds Mental Health Trust sees the Benefits of Scanning HR files

The Leeds Partnerships NHS Foundation Trust operates from more than 50 sites across Yorkshire and employs 2,500 staff. Although HR files for these staff are maintained at a central location, an employee who has moved between departments might easily have acquired three or four different personnel files. Employee files typically contain a range of paper documents as diverse as application forms, CVs, work permits, sick notes, records of disciplinary proceedings and so on.

When Gail Hird, took on the role of HR Planning & Information Manager at Leeds Partnerships NHS Foundation Trust, she found that the sheer volume of paper was becoming unmanageable and was taking up too much prime floor space. The urgent need to consolidate HR files was also driven by the fact that the trust employs health workers from all around the world and these staff require valid work permits. The Trust needs to comply with Home Office Reporting requirements for these staff and this too was becoming a real administrative headache.

The crunch came when the Trust needed to free up some space to create a Recreation/meeting Room and it was decided that the files should be digitally scanned and made available electronically. In all, it took a year to get approval for the project, during which time a number of document scanning options were considered. In the end, ADEC Preview Services was chosen to carry out the scanning work because it offered the best combination of value for money and absolute confidentiality, which were primary requirements of the project.

In all, just over 6,000 files were processed and 340,000 images were created. The images were cross-indexed by employee name and NI number and transferred to a set of just 23 CDs. The resulting images were loaded onto the Trust's Microsoft SharePoint server where they can now be accessed by authorised HR staff via the Trust's intranet.

The new system made it very easy to consolidate the records for one employee in the same file - thus ensuring that any given employee's file is completely up to date. Another significant benefit of scanning the HR files is that it makes it much easier to comply with Home Office Reporting requirements as the required work permit records are now available instantly, as and when they are needed.

Of ADEC Preview's management of the project, Gail says, "ADEC Preview carried out the scanning efficiently and accurately and delivered on schedule. We had absolutely no issues with this aspect of the project - in short, a top quality job from a highly professional company!"

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