Paperless...Smaperless

Go Green. Go Paperless. Help save trees. Save the environment.

I have worked for the leading staffing software company for over eleven years. I have mentioned all of the above statments when talking to TempWorks customers. I love technology and all the efficiencies it offers. I have told many people it's a great time to be alive because of all of the technological advancements which are happening every day. So much information at your fingertips (or all around you for that matter).

Just last week when visiting some of our customers, I showed a few people my iPhone. We then discussed how it allows me to send twitter updates, take pictures of my paper receipts, save the location of my car at the airport, and find the nearest Starbucks.

For many years TempWorks has developed paperless technologies which many of our customers use on a daily basis:

• WebCenter - Allows applicants, employees, and clients the ability to apply, find, as well as post jobs. Enter in time, approve time, look up a pay stub or last years w2, find out the amount of an invoice from six months ago, just to name a few.


• Time Clocks - allows a worker to punch in and out of an assignment via a computer instead of a paper ticket.


• DocCenter - saves all of the applicant on-boarding documents electronically. No paper, no filing or mis-filing (in some cases), no hassel.


• Scanning of timecards and emailing invoices - allows all of the time card documentation to be saved in our database and emailed to the client with the invoice.


• Direct Deposit/Pay Cards

All great products, right.

Again, Go Green! Go Paperless! Help save trees! Save the environment!

To some this is just...Blah, Blah, Blah. Maybe these products aren't in the plans for all.

I stopped in at a customer last week and was told, all of those paperless products are nice, but our staff won't be using them.

To which I said, "huh."

Excuse me Ms. Customer but you just got done telling me these products are "nice." And earlier you mentioned you could see some of the advantages. And before that, you mentioned "everyone else is jumping on the paperless bandwagon."

To which I was told:

• All of these things take away from the human part of our business. There is very little customer service to these products, and we are a customers service business.


• We don't want to go solely to direct deposit and pay cards because we enjoy the time we spend with our employees when they come into the office for their check. We can talk to them about their current assignment and find out how things are going with their families.


• We don't want our customers entering in all of their orders on-line because then we don't get to talk to them to find out what their needs might be in the up-coming weeks.


• We would prefer if our applicants came into the office to apply. We are able to get to know them, find out more about their needs, and discuss what the applicant is looking for, rather than using an applicant portal.

Honestly I didn't have a comeback for any of these. It wasn't what I expected. All were good and valid points. It was just a different philosophy than I am used to or what I have been hearing from other customers.

This is exactly the reason I enjoy visiting our customers in person. Different perspective.