E-signature sometimes means not only saved time but also an increased number of customers. This can be confirmed by Biuro Baltic, creators of the recruitment platform workis.online. While the main expectation was to save time of their own employees and temporary workers and to simplify the recruitment process, e-platform that offered to sign employment contracts electronically, surpassed all expectations — the creators count the benefits on fingers of both hands.
Idea dictated by the technology generation
Workis.online introduces itself as a platform of innovative employers and progressive employees, a one-stop shop HR solution. It is an online platform for those seeking or offering a job, which belongs to Biuro Baltic, the biggest employment and recruitment service company in the Baltics.
When facing identical situations everyday, one starts to notice certain recurring tendencies. That is exactly what happened here as well. “We noticed that all the young people waiting for a job interview are passing time on their smartphones. Our biggest revelation was when once, two days before an event, additional staff was needed. Around 20 young people came to our office to sign paper contracts and while waiting for them to be prepared, everyone stared at their phones with their heads down. This is when it became clear that something was off”, Jurgis Kovas, the CEO of UAB Biuro Baltic that administers the platform workis.online, shared his memories.
Thus, by watching and looking for the best way to go hand in hand with the generation of technologies, the idea of online recruitment platform was born. However, it was crucial to think about technical details as well, such as how the contracts would be signed. In Lithuania, the only legal way to sign documents electronically is with an electronic signature. Here’s where Dokobit appeared. By integrating e-signing functionality into their system, workis.online has provided the ability to sign legally binding employment contracts using e-signature, namely, mobile signature and Smart-ID app, right on their platform.
This makes it easy to use the platform: after employers have announced available short-term jobs, the potential employees registered on the platform apply for the jobs they like, the employer then chooses a candidate, a contract is signed electronically and all the employee needs to do is to show up at the agreed time at the agreed place. Once the job is finished, the employer fills in working period, evaluates the employee and they receive the payment. Such a process facilitates the life of all the parties involved in the recruitment process, meanwhile, e-signature ensures that the signed contracts and the signatures in them are legally binding.
Comprehensive benefits
One of the key benefits for all the parties is saved time and reduced amount of administrative work. For the potential employees, online employment allows to quickly and conveniently, based on personal timetable, choose a job without even having to go to an interview. Meanwhile, for the employers, the platform allows to instantly see all the potential candidates and evaluations of their former employers. Besides, it makes it convenient to manage everything in one place.
According to J. Kovas, in this case not only saved time is important. “It is easier for employees to take upon short-term jobs, they can simply choose a job online, apply and if confirmed sign employment agreement using e-signature whenever it is convenient for them. Companies can thus find employees faster. This is especially useful when regular employees get sick, go on vacation or the workload increases. Companies already registered to the platform can hire a person in just 5 minutes”, J. Kovas said.
Out of 15,000 workis.online users, one third has at least once signed employment agreement electronically. Each month e-signed contracts comprise around 1,500-2,000, and in total in less than a year already over 20,000 contracts have been signed using e-signature. There’s also an interesting fact — although the majority of those choosing e-signature are young people, the innovations keep up with the elders as well: the oldest person to sign employment contract with e-signature was 75 years old!
As for the benefits of e-signature for Biuro Baltic themselves, the first thing is saved time of administrative staff, as well as simpler recruitment process for short-term jobs. “We’ve become much more flexible. Since we can sign employment contracts faster and more conveniently, in the documents we can provide more accurate information such as working time, duration and payment details. Simplification of the process has led to an increase in some numbers — with the possibility to choose work conveniently and independently, the number of potential employees has risen sharply. Whereas before, if an employee was needed fast, it was physically impossible to take care of things that quickly”, J. Kovas said.
The creators of the platform also remind that the signing of electronic employment contracts reveals the transparency of business: “E-signature has a timestamp, which means that contracts can’t be backdated. It is an important aspect for the business supervising institutions“, J. Kovas stressed.
This post is also available in: Lithuanian