Digital Signatures: Streamlining Remote Work

The Covid-19 pandemic has made several noteworthy changes to the way we work and remote work is definitely one of those most significant shifts. As businesses reopened following the pandemic, many organizations saw the benefits of remote networking and implemented innovative solutions that yielded positive results.

According to a report by Gartner, 82% of business leaders plan to maintain a work-from-home structure even after the pandemic has ended.

The shift to remote work has benefited not only employers but also employees. A recent survey found that more than half of employees expressed a desire to work from home for three or more days each week. In addition, remote work has allowed people to have a better work-life balance, eliminate commuting time, and reduce stress levels.

However, as with any major shift, remote work also comes with new challenges. Cybersecurity is a significant concern, with cybercriminals adapting their tactics to exploit the public's COVID-19 concerns.

According to a survey, over three months, cyber attackers sent 1.5 million malicious emails per day related to the pandemic.

To address these concerns, organizations must reassess their security processes and infrastructure to support their remote workforce. Digital communication has become crucial, and traditional paper-based documentation is no longer sufficient. Digital signatures offer an additional layer of protection by verifying the authenticity of emails, documents, applications, or signatures and confirming that they have not been tampered with during transit and that they come from the intended sender.

With remote work becoming more prevalent, companies face the challenge of protecting their employees, and eSignatures have emerged as an indispensable tool to guarantee secure communications. Here's a sneak peek at how digital signatures can help businesses with remote work.

How digital signatures can help enterprises with remote work 

The rise of digital technology was supposed to usher in the paperless office era. However, despite this expectation, offices are still inundated with paper documents. Fortunately, electronic signatures have emerged as a powerful tool that streamlines business operations, eliminates manual paperwork, and enhances business efficiency. In today's digital world, electronic signature solutions have made capturing, transmitting, processing, and displaying various kinds of information easy. This is particularly important for organizations where crucial documents like quotes, contracts, statements of work, and proposals can now be digitized and stored electronically. With electronic signatures, these documents can be easily indexed, searched, and disseminated with just a single click, helping businesses to operate more efficiently.

The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the adoption of remote work culture, further highlighting the need for electronic signature solutions. Remote work made completing business processes that relied on physical signatures and paperwork challenging. With electronic signature solutions, organizations can send agreements and contracts from anywhere and anytime, allowing geographically dispersed teams to collaborate effectively. The signee can even sign the document from their device, making the process even more convenient.

Overall, eSignature solutions have become indispensable for organizations looking to improve efficiency and streamline their operations. By digitizing manual paperwork, electronic signatures enable businesses to reduce the time and costs associated with paper-based document management. In the next section, we'll explore how electronic signatures help streamline remote work.

How do digital signatures streamline operations for businesses with remote work? 

In today's increasingly remote work environment, digital signatures have emerged as a game-changer for businesses seeking to streamline their operations. Here are some of the benefits that digital signatures offer:

• Enhanced Security

  Contrary to popular belief, remotely signing documents with digital signatures can actually enhance data security. Unlike traditional paper documents that are vulnerable to theft, loss, and damage, digital documents can be encrypted and secured at various levels, making them more secure and better protected. Additionally, digital signature authentication has undergone significant advancements over time, reducing the dangers associated with electronic document forgery.

• Operational Efficiency

  Digital signatures offer several advantages for businesses, such as facilitating faster approvals from clients and suppliers while eliminating the need for tedious back-and-forth postage of hard-copy documents with handwritten signatures. Furthermore, digital signatures enable cross-platform mobility and support the virtual execution of agreements, allowing for seamless searching, signing, and sending of documents without the need for printing, manual signing, scanning, and sending to relevant parties. This virtual approach to executing agreements allows for faster reviewing, signing, approving, and archiving of documents, especially during a global pandemic where travel restrictions may hinder business transactions. Digital signatures also enable customers and staff to sign quickly from anywhere and at any time, regardless of location, while ensuring all relevant fields are filled before the agreement is executed to eliminate errors and streamline the onboarding process.

• Simplified HR Process

  Integrating e-signatures into your HR procedures can enhance the effectiveness of your recruitment process. Instead of the traditional route of printing, scanning, and sending physical copies of job descriptions, resumes, applications, and employment contracts, digital signatures can streamline the recruitment and hiring process, enabling your HR teams to manage the process in a more efficient and structured manner.

Also Read: 12 Must-Use Digital Tools for HR Departments

• Efficient Contract Management

  Digital signatures streamline and automate the contract management process, eliminating concerns about essential documents being lost or bypassed in email inboxes or physical trays. By using tools such as DrySign, businesses can easily track agreement statuses, and any binding contracts can be sent, signed, and stored securely within minutes.

• Effective Compliance

  Remaining compliant with internal and government agency standards is a complex task that companies must handle. Digital signatures can simplify this process by providing a transparent audit trail. For instance, DrySign, a leading e-signature platform, complies with specific e-signature laws, such as the IT Act of 2000. Therefore, documents signed using eSignatures are considered valid and can be used as proof of the transaction in a court of law.

• Cost Savings

  Utilizing a digital signature solution to manage documentation can provide substantial cost savings. By minimizing printing and paper expenses and archiving paper copies, space and manpower can be saved. Furthermore, adopting electronic signature technology in managing documents can result in significant savings in logistics by eliminating the need for courier services. It also eliminates the need for printers, scanners, and physical paper by providing easy access to digital documents that can be scanned, sent, and signed easily within minutes.

• Higher Productivity Rates

  Research suggests that a significant proportion (21%) of business productivity losses are attributable to documentation-related issues. Employing electronic document signature software can be an effective method for boosting productivity by minimizing the waiting period for document signing. Several organizations have reported waiting several days for signatures from managers or clients, significantly hindering productivity. By decreasing this waiting period, productivity levels could experience a notable improvement over time. Moreover, employees would not have to spend countless hours unnecessarily on redundant tasks, allowing them to focus on more critical tasks, thereby increasing productivity.

Digital signature solutions offer significant benefits for businesses seeking to optimize their operations in a remote work environment.

Conclusion 

The pandemic-induced shift to remote work has shown us that digital solutions are not only a means of simplifying processes and reducing costs, but are also crucial for business survival during times of crisis. Digital signatures have emerged as a top technology for automating and streamlining document workflows, offering significant benefits for organizations. One such platform is DrySign, which provides a plethora of features to help businesses thrive in the modern world. To experience the platform and its features firsthand, try DrySign for free today. Sign up now and start DrySigning!

DISCLAIMER: The information on this site is for general information purposes only and is not intended to serve as legal advice. Laws governing the subject matter may change quickly, and Exela cannot guarantee that all the information on this site is current or correct. Should you have specific legal questions about any of the information on this site, you should consult with a licensed attorney in your area.

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