Digital Signature

Nov

2021

Type of Signatures

It’s no secret that professionals all over the world sign various documents daily. Whether it’s a notice board in your school or a file in your office, signatures are quite ubiquitous. There was a time when signatures meant doing signatures using pen and paper. If you’re wondering what the different types of signatures for your name are, you’d be surprised to know that there are plenty of ways to sign a document.

In this article, we aim to discuss every popular type of signature. Apart from that, we’d also guide you on which signature you should use and why. Let’s delve further!

Wet Signature

Wet signature is the traditional type of signature. When you use a pen to manually sign a paper or document, it is called a wet signature. Like other kinds of signatures, the main purpose of wet signatures is to indicate that the signatory has read, understood, and agreed to the contents of that document.

It’s said that wet signatures were first practised in 1677 when a law was passed in the UK, which states that every contract should be written and signed in order to have legal standing.

Since then, every contract was signed manually until the invention of electronic signatures.

Considering the fact that a wet signature could be forged, it’s a good rule of thumb to do a wet signature in the presence of at least two or three people that you trust. A wet signature could be your nickname, real name (first or second name), your company’s name, or even a symbol or mark.

Electronic Signature

An electronic signature, also known as e-signature, is another widely used type of signature. It has gained so much popularity lately and organizations across the globe have switched to it. It’s an online version of your wet signatures. In other words, it’s an illustration of your wet signatures in digital form. A scanned picture of a signatory’s wet signatures or a bio-metric signing on signing hardware are a few electronic signatures examples.

As technology grows, signing documents has become more convenient. Gone are the days when you had to spend a great deal of your time signing the documents manually. The most obvious benefit of electronic signatures is that they save your time and money. The thing with the wet signature is that you have to buy pen and ink week in, week out, or you’d be caught short. Thankfully, that’s not the case with electronic signatures.

In the light of the differences described by the EIDAS regulations (Electronic Identification, Authentication, and Trust Services regulations) in 2016, let’s discuss the types of electronic signatures briefly:

Simple Electronic Signature: In simple electronic signatures, you don’t have to go through any hassle of verifying your identity. Predictably then, they are not as secure as the other types of electronic signatures. You can go for these signatures, but it’s recommended not to trust them in case of sensitive documents as they are more vulnerable to fraudulent activities.
Advanced Electronic Signature: Next, we have the advanced electronic signature. In this type, you have to provide some verification of your identity. Generally, the signatory is verified by certificates, which are often delivered via a delivery service. They are safer than simple electronic signatures, as they require verification.

Digital Signature

A digital signature, also known as the qualified electronic signature, is the most secure type of electronic signatures. They take the verification a step further to comply with the eIDAS regulations. All the details about the signatory are saved in these signatures. If you want your signing process to be the safest, then you can’t go wrong with the digital signatures, plain and simple!

Our Verdict

There are times when wet signatures or electronic signatures are the only options. But if the choice is yours, we recommend using electronic signatures.

If you own a company and rely on wet signatures only, you are very likely to lag behind, as signing documents manually consumes a lot of time. Switching to electronic signatures will save time for you that you can invest in doing something productive. And yes, unlike wet signatures, electronic signatures can hardly be forged. This is why most organizations have replaced wet signatures with electronic signatures already.

Formats

Talking about e signature format, electronic signatures nowadays are compatible with pretty much every file format. Although PDF is the most widely used one, you can sign documents of other formats as well. The same goes for the digital signature formats. You can also save your wet signatures in PDF format. Many software such as Adobe Acrobat, Autograph signature app, are available that allow you to save your wet signatures.

Lunarpen- A Name of Trust

There are dozens of websites and software that offer electronic signatures, none better than the Lunarpen. It’s a company that offers the safest and seamless signing experience. Individuals and companies all over the world use Lunarpen to sign documents every day - and for good reasons. This entire procedure is quite meticulous for users’ convenience. A major part of the reason why it has won the trust of professionals is that it’s safe and easy. The signing process requires the signatory to confirm his identity via a private code.

The collected signatures at Lunarpen are in compliance with all the regulations.

From One-drive to Dropbox, you can connect your account to many applications. Apart from that, it comes with a highly advanced feature that helps you track the document and see the progress. Sign up now for a free account on Lunarpen and take your signing up a notch.

Final Thoughts

Wet signatures and electronic signatures are the two main types of signatures. While the wet signature is the traditional type of signature, an electronic signature is its digital form.

Organizations can save a great deal of their time by switching to electronic signatures.

Lunarpen is a well-known company that offers electronic signatures. Tons of innovative features at Lunarpen make the signing process an absolute breeze.

Nov

2021

Wet Signature vs Electronic Signature

Signatures hold paramount importance for any legal document or file. Any legal document or file is meaningless without a signature. From a press release to your kid’s result card, signatures could be found everywhere.

Everything has moved digital in this internet-driven era, and the same is the case with signatures. Now long gone are the days when you required ink, pen, and paper to sign a document. But which kind of signature should you prefer? Today, this will be the premise of our discussion. We’d also try to debunk the myths surrounding electronic signatures, once and for all. Keep reading till the end to know more about wet signature vs electronic signature.

So, what is a wet signature? A wet signature, also known as a traditional signature, refers to the signatures that you place on the paper to indicate that you have read and agreed to the content written in the document or a file. In order to do wet signatures, you’d have to sign manually on paper using a pen or any other machine. It’s usually done in the presence of one or two trustworthy persons. Moreover, a signature is also used to identify the signer as everyone has his unique signature. It could be a person’s name (first or full name), a brand name, nickname, or any symbol or mark.

Prior to the invention of electronic signatures, wet signatures were the only way to sign a document.

The roots of wet signatures go as far back as 1677. A law was passed in the UK back then, which holds that for a contract to hold any legal standing, it must be written and signed. Experts suggest that this was when the signatures were given any legal importance. In the light of this law, it was made compulsory for all companies or individuals to sign the contracts and other documentation.

Wet Signatures in PDF Form

It’s no secret that PDFs are the most widely used kind of online documents. Now, you might be wondering if you can save your signatures in pdf format. Well, you’d be glad to know that there are dozens of applications available that enable you to save your wet signature on pdf. Among all those software, we recommend using Adobe Acrobat. All you need to do is just open this software and click on “Add Signature.” The coolest thing about this software is that you get three options to choose from, i.e., draw, type, and image. This will make signing contracts far more convenient for you.

Sending a Wet Signature?

Now that we have discussed how to save wet signatures on PDF, let’s discuss how to send a wet signature. Well, there are many ways when it comes to sending a wet signature. It all comes down to your personal preferences. Mail is the traditional way which has been used for years. It’s more widely used than other mediums as it’s considered safer and faster. Apart from Mail, you can go for scanned signatures as well. If that’s your preference, you can consider using Approve me. Both ways are equally effective and convenient.

Electronically Generated Original Signatures

Amid COVID 19, many countries around the globe, including the USA, have made it mandatory to provide an electronically reproduced original signature. This simply means that the signature must be handwritten on a scanned document, or an image should be provided at least.

Digital vs Electronic Signature

These two terms are confusing for a lot of users and have been used interchangeably at times.

However, you’d be surprised to know that these are actually two different kinds of signatures.

Electronic signature refers to the signatures to signify your consent on an electronic document or contract. A digital signature, on the other hand, is a form of electronic signatures, which encrypts the data

Final Verdict

There’s a lot to debate when it comes to discussing wet-signature vs electronic signature. Both forms have their legal standing, but the elephant in the room is that wet signatures could be forged, and they consume more time and effort as well.

If your organization spends too much time on getting contacts signed, then you should find yourself considering electronic signatures.

All the reasons why you should switch to electronic signatures would make a long and detailed list.

For starters, they save your time and money that you could spend on something productive. Organizations that solely depend on wet signatures often lag behind. As a cherry on the cake, they are cost-effective as well. You no longer need to shell out your money to buy a pen and paper every now and then. So, it’s safe to say that the digital signature is the winner in the digital signature vs handwritten signature comparison.

Is Lunarpen Considered a Wet Signature?

Lunarpen is a company that allows you to sign any document anytime, from anywhere. It offers tons of groundbreaking features to ensure the fastest and safest signing experience for thousands of professionals all over the world. Since it asks the user to confirm his identity via a private code, you can rest assured knowing that it’s safe. The collected signatures comply with all the norms.

Furthermore, sending a document to several parties is just a click away. And yes, did we mention that you can also track your document and see the progress easily. Seriously, electronic signing cannot get any easier than this. What’s even better? You can connect your Lunarpen account to other applications, such as OneDrive, Dropbox, and many others. Signup for a free account now to seamlessly sign your documents online.

Final Thoughts

Electronic signatures have secured so much popularity over the past few years, and for good reasons. They hit the nail on the head as they are more convenient, safe, time-saving, and cheap. To electronically sign your documents online, professionals use Lunarpen. Signup for a free account now and save a great deal of your time and money.

Oct

2021

How can the Tourism Industry use Electronic Signatures?

The tourism industry is the world’s largest employer with more than 260 million employees and has more than 1.2 billion travellers taking trips outside their own country. This sector contributes a huge part of the world’s GDP and is one of the fastest-growing lucrative industries.

The industry has its fair share of problems with lots of challenges like last-minute cancellations, surprise accommodation requests to people not showing up at all, along with a lot of paperwork for admission requests and guest records.

There is a great way to deal with these challenges with electronic signatures, which are now a common thing that is rapidly being incorporated in the tourism industry. In this business, you can use electronic signatures to make your life easier and your company more efficient.

Why electronic signature is the solution to Tourism industry woes?

The present form of tourism industry has several shortcomings in the way it works. It suffers from paper-based processes, which are time-consuming and can be error-prone too. Electronic signature solves all these issues by providing secure and instant digital transactions that do not need any paper for further processing or storing.

With a digital signature, you can:

Protect the integrity of your records from manipulation and tampering
Do away with all the paperwork that has been used for centuries
Create a seamless process - be it your travel bookings, hotel check-ins or even bill payments - just by pressing a button!

Once you have this excellent solution in place, it will benefit you and make life easier for millions of tourists across the globe.

How do electronic signatures simplify the guest check-in experience?

It is crucial to assist guests in spending less time on paperwork and enjoying services in the tourism industry. Electronic Signature apps help the sector in the following ways:

Guest check-in and checkout processes are accelerated as the guests can register themselves in just a few seconds and receive personalized itineraries for their entire stay.
Substitutes precise, appealing digital forms for paper forms shown on eSignature enabled devices to reduce errors and improve customer experience.
Retains the reassuringly familiar sign-in experience that many guests appreciate without depending on the inefficient and wasteful use of paper.
Allows fast cross- and up-selling by displaying new services and special offers on colour screens while not in signing mode.
It helps the guest avoid the hassle of carrying bulky pen and paper as they can sign their name digitally, which is then stored in the database for access at any time.

How the electronic signatures help the tourism industry?

Streamlines back-end activities & paperwork at the front desk through digitalization, reducing the hassles of storing paper documents.
Creates a good first impression on the customers by differentiating the premium experience and convenience in a competitive market.
It saves significant time on paperwork allowing your guests to enjoy a better experience by capturing details of your guest like identity, preferences & more.
The innovative technology provides a cost-effective solution to fraud, forgery or alteration of documents and signatures in the tourism industry.

Tourism Industry documents that can be signed using eSignature

Booking confirmations
Hotel check-ins & checkouts
Commercial hotel bookings
Expense reports
Audit reports
Time & attendance records
Travel policy
Consent forms
Employment contracts
Data entry
Cash settlements
Employee instructions

Tours & Travels Case Study

About the company

H&S Travels and Tours began operations in 2004. From humble beginnings, they’ve grown to deal with over 200 airlines worldwide, assisting customers in getting affordable aircraft tickets without any hassles or confusion. Additionally, they have a global presence, with offices in the United States, Canada, South Africa, and India.

Challenge

H&S Travels processes paperwork for passengers and tourists worldwide, with the majority based in the United States.Before implementing eSignatures, travellers were required to print, scan, and email the documentation to H&S Travels, which was confirmed only after receiving the countersigned documents on email. Turnaround times were slow, and it wasn’t easy to track which traveller had signed and who had not.

Rather than tracking hundreds of separate contracts scattered across email inboxes, H&S Travels determined it was time to build a centralized hub for all the document signing needs.

Solution

These were the benefits enjoyed by H&S Travels after the implementation of eSignature solutions:

Significantly reduces turnaround times

H&S received positive feedback from their clients, who report that the signing process is now easier than ever as they received signed contracts back in as little as five to ten minutes.

A simple way to track the progress

The H&S eSignature dashboard enables them to see who has signed and who has not signed their documents. All data is easily understood and accessible in a single, convenient place.

Templates that save time

The company uses the functionality of the templates to load customer contracts rather than creating a new document each time. They save their agreement to the software, make minor adjustments for each new customer, and then send it off.

Hotels Case Study

About the company

Hotel 1926 is operated by Roosendaal Hotels, a modest hospitality firm with three facilities on the Mediterranean island, governed by Bortex group holdings. Following a big makeover a few years ago, Hotel 1926 now has a unique focus on eco-friendliness and sustainability woven into their entire business model.

Challenge

Throughout its year-long hiatus, the hotel was completely renovated with an emphasis on modernity & sustainability. It took significant efforts for being environmentally friendly: paperless brochures, hotel information printouts, tablets in every room, and PIN admission for guest rooms rather than plastic key cards.

Before exploring eSignatures, Hotel 1926 signed most contractor agreements & corporate partnership agreements during in-person meetings. The hotel employed local contractors to assist them in managing other properties on the island. Inviting them in was another cumbersome step that hampered the process.

However, delays frequently happen when parties desire additional time to analyze a contract before signing on the spot. As they were already going paperless by digitizing brochures and other assets, it seemed sensible to do the same with the physical documents of hotels 1926.

Solution

Streamlined workflows for signing

Rather than requiring partners, contractors, and guests to sign documents immediately upon receipt, Hotel 1926 staff can notify the signees. This way, nobody feels rushed or pressured. Their signature is requested over email, which allows them ample time to review the documents. Once they’re finished, they can quickly sign and return it.

Enhancements to customer service

Hotel 1926 appreciated the ability to get digital signatures on credit card authorization documents. It is far more convenient to offer a digital signature than to print the document, sign it, and email a scanned copy. It is incredibly suitable for those who do not have access to a printer at home.

Templates that save time

Before implementing electronic signatures, Hotel 1926 painstakingly changed the company’s name whenever they drafted a new contract or agreement, then spent time manually entering dates, terms, and other information. They breezed through this phase with templates, as all their standard fields are recorded in the appropriate locations.

Conclusion

The tourism industry has tremendous potential to grow in the future, but it is difficult to achieve it without the help of technology. The main concern of travellers is to have a hassle-free travel experience. They want the complete travel management to be done online. That is why the tourism industry is moving towards digitization. Digital signatures have made it easier for travellers to plan their trips with ease.

Register free to use the eSignature application and learn more about how electronic signatures can help the tourism industry reach new heights.

Sep

2021

How Can Electronic Signatures Help The Logistics Industry?

Documents are at the heart of all logistic processes. Many logistics companies struggle to stay on top of the avalanche of paperwork, toil with obsolete software, and fumble through sophisticated workflows. These problems intensify when the supply chain spans international borders.

Different industrial sectors use logistics to plan & control the movement of goods and services within a supply chain. The only concern is the paperwork to keep records, track stored and shipped goods.

Every industrial sector is witnessing a digital transformation in 2021, and even the logistics industry is waiting for a solution that allows them to do online paperwork without any hassles, complexity, and delays.

An electronic signature is the critical technological solution desired by every player in the logistic industry for a faster documentation process, significantly reducing the risk of legal disputes by providing more substantial tamper-proof digital evidence.

Logistic documents that need electronic signatures

Consignment Notes
Online contract signing
Bill of lading (BOL)
Freight bill
Delivery order
Dock receipt
Waybill form
Customer Agreement
Certificate of Origin
Cargo Insurance Certificate
Dangerous Good Declaration note
Packing List
Delivery Note

Are eSignatures safe for signing logistic-related documents?

International laws like ESIGN, UETA and the EIDAS Act support electronic signature technology, which gives logistic businesses the authority to use it for international business opportunities.

Additionally, digital signatures have many security and authentication layers like HTTPS connection, multi-factor authentication, cloud storage & user privacy to protect and store the eSigned documents, along with court-admissible transaction proof (Audit Trail)backed by the law. Such strong measures make eSignatures incredibly safe for signing any logistics-related documents.

Why does the Logistics industry need electronic signatures?

The logistics industry contributes a lot to the economic growth of countries. There is a constant need to keep up with the demand for faster delivery of goods and services related to FMCG, manufacturing & other sectors. That’s not all - logistic companies need to comply with more regulations as they target domestic and international clients. These companies must adopt innovative practices and technology to make the distribution process faster to meet these demands.

It is only possible through quick signing & approval of logistic documents related to the agreement, packaging, and safe receipt of goods at the customer end. eSignatures assure better integrity, visibility, and security in the logistics process enabling businesses to reduce costs, improve customer satisfaction, and comply with emerging regulations.

How electronic signatures benefit the logistics industry?

Improve supply chain visibility: Electronic signatures are the best way to ensure that critical documents are signed before the actual shipment gets completed. It provides the highest level of security and also helps reduce errors in communication between the involved parties.

The technology improves supply chain visibility by providing a validated proof of delivery from the moment goods leave suppliers to the minute they reach their destination. It has been made possible through a digitization process by securing and managing digital data to be shared, tracked, and communicated quickly.

Get rid of paperwork: Paperwork is one of the most time-consuming, tedious, and error-prone aspects of logistics. The number of documents that need signatures for each shipment is staggering, especially when most shipments cross multiple borders. With electronic signatures, all parties can sign and approve documents in real-time electronically.

Reduce Operational costs: In the logistics industry, a shipment can have at least six documents that need to be signed by various stakeholders, including the carrier, warehouse operator, and the buyer - all of which require an in-person visit to sign. It results in a rise in operational costs. Digital signatures help cut these costs by eliminating the need for these visits and enabling everyone to sign documents from their desktops or mobile devices digitally.

Improves Productivity: According to Forrester, there will be an 85% improvement in productivity by adopting e-signatures. Once you have e-signatures integrated into your business, you will be able to create effortlessly, sign, and send documents online, substantially speeding up the entire process. Once less time is spent on document processing and signing, the team may focus on more vital tasks such as closing sales and making logistic deliveries on time.

Case Study

Halvor Lines is a family-owned and operated trucking and logistics firm. With an exceptional staff of drivers, they provide premium transportation and logistical services across the US and Canada. America’s Best Fleets to Drive For (seven years running), several EPA awards, and American Heart Association distinctions for Halvor’s focus on driver and employee health.

Challenge

As Safety Office Administrator, Kendra Payette manages compliance and driver log infractions with a team of five. The safety department’s goal is to meet industry requirements and correct errors.

Those goals were practically hard to achieve before using electronic signatures. Halvor’s drivers are regularly on the road across the US & Canada, so they rarely have time to stop by a terminal and sign a document on-site. In some situations, it used to take up to a year to deliver a wet ink signature, and by then, months had passed since the driver’s violation was logged.

Due to these extensive delays, the safety department could not respond quickly and was vulnerable to regulatory risks.

Halvor Lines went digital to bridge this massive distance between drivers and their documents.

Solution

Halvor Lines finalized an eSignature solution. Here is how it’s workflow has helped solved the challenges:

Complete compliance

Rather than waiting months – or even a year – for their dispersed drivers to sign documents in person, the application enables Halvor to get eSignatures from on-the-go drivers. Regardless of their location, drivers may use their tablets to view and edit logs on the fly. As a result, the organization may comply with all applicable standards and requirements, save significant time, and avoid unwelcome DOT audits.

Signage on the road

Passenger forms authorize drivers to transport a passenger in their truck. Drivers can phone the office and request the document that is transferred to their tablet. The driver can then sign and return the passenger form at their leisure - no physical paperwork is required.

Streamlined human resource management

Due to the geographical dispersion of Halvor Lines’ drivers, the application makes it much easier to collect their signatures if anything changes in their personnel file (insurance, salary, etc.). Previously, HR had to mail documentation to each driver’s physical address, a time-consuming process that caused considerable delays.

Management of mobile devices

Each driver has a tablet that the IT department handles. IT can manage which mobile apps and permissions are available to drivers and pre-install the app on each tablet with the driver’s unique login already configured. It eliminates the need for drivers to waste time performing technical tasks: they merely need to sign a document and click submit to have it forwarded to the office.

Conclusion

Electronic signatures help the logistic industry accelerate its digital transformation and reduce its dependability on paper by running operations more quickly, efficiently, and with higher-quality data. It makes the technology highly critical for businesses with a strong market reputation.

Sign up for a free e-Signature account to put your logistic firm years ahead of the competition and enhance its sales, delivery, and customer understanding.

Aug

2021

Why Should The Retail Industry Use Electronic Signatures?

Global retail sales are expected to reach 26.7 trillion USD in 2022, up from 23.6 trillion USD in 2018. Retailers are doing business on a much bigger scale due to globalization and numerous trade agreements between the marketplaces and the governments.

Rapidly growing business activities in the retail industry mean bulk-hiring employees to attend to the huge footfall of customers in retail stores and managing the supply of retail products. This repetitive process generates tonnes of customer & supplier-based documents like sales receipts, sales orders, supplier forms, & a lot more. The traditional paper-based document signing process presents multiple challenges to the global retail industry, including high costs, procedural delays, lack of transparency, and security concerns.

Electronic signatures help address all the concerns by moving from paper-based to paperless documentation, improving customer and retail brand experience.

Types of retail business where you can use electronic signatures:

eCommerce store – Fully customized responsive online store that speaks to your customers and showcases your products.

Discount store – A retail store that sells products at a lower price than most of the other retail stores

Warehouses – They are used by manufacturers, importers, exporters, wholesalers, and transporters located on the outskirts of cities, towns, or villages.

Supermarket- A self-service shop offering a variety of food, beverages & household products.

Departmental stores – They are large-scale retail stores that deal in selling gods under one roof and single control.

Convenience stores- They are small retail businesses that stock everyday commodities like groceries, snack food, confectionery, etc.

Specialty stores – A specialty retail store focuses exclusively on a few product categories instead of retailers who sell a wide variety of consumer items.

Integrating electronic signatures in retail business

Retail businesses can integrate electronic signatures easily in their workflows by following these steps:

Download the eSignature application from the technology partner’s webpage
Open the app interface & upload a document for eSignature
Enter the email of other people to decide who receives the document
Type the message for email recipients to explain the document agenda
Draw, write or upload your signature using the eSignature interface
Click “Send” to share the documents on specified emails
Document stakeholders receive the signed documents by email

Opportunities in the retail industry for delivering more value with electronic signatures

Developing a flexible workforce

The retail industry requires additional staff to serve customers during holidays and other noteworthy events. As a result, they frequently need to hire quickly, even more so during the peak season.

For example, a large clothes retailer requires seasonal workers, which is challenging to secure in the temporary work industry. As a result, the hiring process must be accelerated from job posting to onboarding.

Electronic signatures eliminate the need for the contract signing, a substantial obstacle to the onboarding process. Employers and contractors benefit from quicker employee onboarding by increasing business responsiveness, thereby positively impacting customer experience.

Accelerated Supply chain

Nowadays, the retail industry is characterized by constant change, shorter product lifecycles, and uncertain demand. Supply chain agility demands the freedom to improve processes across supplier, logistics, and customs networks.

How to ensure supply chain agility?

Retail businesses can digitalize the supply chain using digital signatures. The technology helps by speeding up requisitions, approvals, and supplier contracts.

Great products require supply chains that enable businesses to enhance their services and consumer experiences.

Signing any form remotely

Every transaction in the retail sector needs some form of agreement. Here are some common types of paperwork used in the retail industry which can be signed by electronic signatures:

Recruitment contracts
Concession documents
Order invoice
Supplier application forms
Sales quotation
Purchase order invoice
Delivery notes
Sales return
Sales receipt
Sales order

Case Study

Introduction

Krispy Kreme is a famous doughnut company with over 100 stores in the UK and almost anywhere in the British Isles.

The Pain Points

Contract Management: Keeping track of new employee contracts was difficult as they had more than 2000 employees in hundred stores.

Slow recruitment process: The recruitment procedure was slowed down using paper-based documentation requiring multiple signatures and validation.

Lowering overall costs: For a company of the size of Krispy Kreme, the expenditures associated with stamps were quite substantial. Contracts for new hires, as well as contract changes as positions changed, contributed to the expense.

Solution

Easier employee contract search: Login to the eSignature solution and search for any employee contract, which is easier than paper copies.

Create new contracts: Electronic Signature is used for creating new contracts, amendment contracts, and any change in employment.

Save time on recruitment: The ease with which documents can be sent and received is remarkable. There is no wait, and employees are quickly integrated into the work culture, saving time on general recruitment.

Cost-cutting: Electronic signatures have significantly reduced costs by eliminating the requirement to deliver pre-stamped documents.

Why should the retail industry use electronic signatures?

Using electronic signatures has numerous benefits for the retail industry. Here are some of them:

Eliminate paperwork: Electronic signatures eliminate unnecessary paperwork for inventory reconciliation, staff timesheets, and printed receipts in retail, benefitting both the customer and the retailer.

The business saves time by guaranteeing that all information is readily accessible and searchable digitally, decreases storage expenses and space required to hold papers, and eliminates continuing expenditures associated with printers, ink, and paper.

For consumers, digital receipts offer greater convenience than paper receipts. Few customers appreciate the concept of carrying paper receipts, sorting and saving them at home in an era of digital wallets.

Improve customer experience: Customer experience is a top priority for many organizations. Research says that 80% of customers are more likely to purchase from brands offering personalized experiences to them.

Many clients dislike dealing with enormous stacks of paper agreements, contracts, warranties, and bills. It is annoying, time-consuming, and inconvenient. In this case, an electronic signature is beneficial as it improves the customer experience during the purchasing process saving enough time for customers to focus on other important tasks.

Save money: An important research by a leading news source states that an average US office spends USD 80/year on paper per employee, and 50%-70% of the office space is dedicated to filing and storage of documentation. Another study says that American companies spend an estimated USD 20 on labor costs to file a document, USD 120 on finding a misfiled document, and USD 220 to reproduce a lost document.

You can see that the cost of handling & reproducing a document multiplies after the document storage stage.

One significant way the retail industry can reduce the overall costs is by investing in electronic signatures solutions. The technology helps retail businesses in cutting costs related to document storage, security & management.

Save time: Electronic signatures in the retail industry are beneficial to everyone involved: suppliers, clients, and employees alike. It is possible to complete authorization more quickly due to the availability of documents and supporting resources in real-time. Employees will have more time to dedicate to listening to the demands of clients and suppliers as a result of this change.

Minimize hand-to-hand contact: Digital signatures eliminate the need to print, sign, and scan the document before giving it to the other parties, hence minimizing time spent in person for managing every document. Employees can always electronically sign and return the papers, and there is no physical touch between them at any stage during the process.

Conclusion

Electronic signatures have huge scope in the retail industry. When cost-cutting is more critical than ever, a simple investment in technology to enable paperless transactions can revolutionize retail productivity.

Along with cost and time savings, it has immense potential to enhance the customer experience, satisfy the expectations of the environmentally-conscious consumer, and assist the retail sector in reducing its environmental imprint.

Jul

2021

Benefits of using Electronic Signatures in the Healthcare Industry

Do you know that physicians waste two-third of their time doing paperwork? In the last two years, it has become overwhelming for them with a swelling number of patients, understaffed medical facilities, and challenges in recording and storing their data.

A study has confirmed that the amount of paperwork that doctors have to do is out of control. Physicians spent 27% of their time seeing patients in their offices and 49.2% of their time on paperwork. Even when doctors were in the examination room with patients, they spent only 52.9% of their time conversing with or examining them and 37% on paperwork.

The data is only the tip of the iceberg. We also have to consider medical insurance forms, claims, and the time spent filling these forms.

This study shows that the amount of paperwork is getting insane and worse over time.

The healthcare industry faces many changes like government regulations, technological innovations, and patient expectations that pose new challenges to healthcare organizations in 2021. Some of which are cybersecurity, patient experience, invoicing & payment processing.

The industry deals with sensitive client data exchanges every day. It is imperative to ensure that all client data is collected accurately, and precautions are needed to eliminate tampering of the medical document by assuring its safe storage and security.

What if there is a technologically proven solution to eliminate paperwork and enable a paperless document workflow with uncrackable security & safety?

Welcome to electronic signature technology! Using an eSignature solution, healthcare providers can speed up the collection of the consent of the doctor and patient while maintaining a level of compliance that meets traditional signatures or exceeds them.

Here are the core benefits of using electronic signatures in the healthcare industry:

1) Focus on the patients rather than the paperwork

For a long time, doctors, nurses, and other healthcare workers have complained about the time-consuming paperwork, which they say is a massive waste of time. They cannot see as many patients in a day and can’t spend much time focusing on improving their medical condition.

These are the top 4 specialties in the medical industry spending most of the time on paperwork:

Psychiatrists (20.3%)
General practitioners (17.3%)
Internists (17.3%)
Paediatricians (14.1%)

LunarPen application helps reduce paperwork for your health staff to increase the quality of care received by the patient and focus more on saving their lives.

Electronic signatures help capture and securely store all the end-to-end details of patients in a single application, starting from paperless:

Admission of patients
Doctor’s prescription
Progress report
Discharge of patient
Medical insurance claims
Hospital bills

2) Fast track crucial processes in healthcare

Most healthcare processes were a bit different decades ago. In 2021, most hospitals practice the same age-old methods that waste both the patients and healthcare time. The hospital administrator would hand out registration forms for filling and signing patient information. It is still happening to plan & confirm doctors’ appointments, which would eventually get processed manually by the staff.

When it comes to medical records, we use hand-written signatures on every medical document.

After some time, the older document gets destroyed because it is no longer needed.

Below is the existing lifecycle of documents without electronic signatures:

Print – Sign – Scan – Store – Destroy

Digital transformation empowers the industry to sign documents on any digital device anytime, from anywhere. Secure cloud storage is responsible for the storage, retrieval, and disposal of records.

New lifecycle of documents with electronic signatures:

Sign – Store

You can see the complete reduction in process steps with eSignatures that helps fast-track crucial processes in the healthcare industry.

That means the moment you sign the documents with digital signatures, they are stored securely in the cloud without the need of printing-signing-scanning-storing. It brings several benefits to the ailing patient and the overloaded healthcare personnel, which are:

Patients don’t have to carry their medical documents every time
Doctors can make important decisions about patients quickly
Save expenses related to printing, copying, scanning & document storage
Verify the authenticity of medical bills with ease
Tampering is impossible with online medical documents

3) Keep confidential patient data secure

Manual signatures have physical limitations, like they can be misplaced, copied, or damaged easily. They take longer to create, collect and store, making them easily prone to destruction, theft, and forgery.

Also, they fail to capture relevant information like the party’s intent to sign or the verifiable date and time of signing of agreements.

Electronic signatures successfully fill all the gaps left opened by manual signatures.

All critical documents are present on the eSignature application in digital format, assuring complete confidentiality of patient’s data against any attempts to steal it.

The eSignature application is accessible only by trusted healthcare professionals approved by the admin that keeps the data safe from unwanted sources. Additionally, the electronic signature technology uses multi-factor authentication to enhance security by requiring signers to express the intent to sign by utilizing the E-signature application.

There are several available options like secret Q&A, user id & password, uploading identification images, and many others for e-sign transactions.

Such security measures assure that only the permitted person can edit, access, and view the data.

4) Improve patient experience

Patients usually waiting in long lines, having little or no time to read forms carefully, and experiencing delays in getting access to doctor’s care are not the ingredients for a positive patient experience.

Digitizing documentation is the most effective method of eliminating the need for patients to be held up by paperwork. Every documentation is covered in electronic signature application, whether onboarding, discharge forms, or improving the efficiency of insurance claims processing.

Healthcare professionals and patients can read, accept and sign the forms from the comfort of their own homes, thanks to the remote capabilities of the application.

Furthermore, as the physicians are no longer required to do the tedious task of covering documentation, they can give much-needed time to the patients, which is a win-win situation for everyone.

5) Legal compliance

There are numerous laws to safeguard businesses using electronic signature applications and provide the required legal compliance to paperless signatures for a smooth user experience in every industry. Check out the details of these laws that assure legal cover to eSignatures:

eIDAS: eIDAS facilitates electronic transactions between citizens, enterprises, and the governments of any state of the Union. It ensures a market for trust services and legally protects the electronic signature based processes. The tremendous benefit of eIDAS is that it is permissible across all EU countries and can be used to open up additional EU markets for businesses.

HIPAA: Compliance with HIPAA can be helpful to your business. They are trusted more in the market since patients and clients believe you keep their data secure. Its primary benefit is profitability. Loyalty to customers results in greater profitability for your company. A majority of insurance companies and employers in the US sponsor or co-sponsor their employees’ health insurance.

ESIGN: The ESIGN Act helps expedite the use of electronic signatures in all places where federal laws apply. It ensures that eSignatures are permitted in the courts as credible evidence. Additionally, it makes sure that electronic documents have indisputable proof of validity, effect, and enforceability.

UETA: UETA provides a legal framework for electronic signature use per state. It is used to deal with everything from transferable records to automated transactions and record retention. 48 US states have adopted it.

Digital signature complies with the requirements of all the laws and assists organizations in meeting compliance requirements across the health industry. It covers health plans, medical equipment manufacturers, pharmaceutical companies, and providers by managing the signing process and ensuring that all information is authenticated and kept secure.

Case Study

Chupik Counseling has provided mental health services to central Texas patients for nearly three decades. Bread and butter for the therapists and counselors are therapy and counseling, offering evaluations, medication management, and additional services. In the year 2020, they opened five brick-and-mortar locations. During the severe global health crisis, their telehealth initiatives expanded rapidly.

Challenge

The CEO of the company, Jeffery Chupik, was a big believer in face-to-face therapy. Then in the year 2020, as the global pandemic struck, the entire world changed, shunning physical interactions and relying more on digital mediums for meetings.

It didn’t take long for staff to realize that they had no proper system to get patient consent for their telehealth services. They needed a solution to rapidly onboard new patients that didn’t rely on face-to-face meetings.

The Pain Point

Chupik required a rapid transition to telehealth to bring their onboarding and consent process online.

The Solution

Electronic signature made customer onboarding easier by including links to readymade onboarding document templates instead of PDF files. As the patient signs forms, their therapists automatically receive a digital copy of the patient with all the details.

Here are the features that clicked electronic signatures with Chupik:

Lightning-fast adoption

In a matter of a few hours, Chupik was able to get started with eSignatures. No complicated setup backed by quick and convenient signing.

Time-saving templates

It is easier to create templates easily for commonly used documents.

Conclusion

More efficient patient service is possible while maintaining compliance and standards by utilizing a digital eSignature solution. If you are a healthcare service provider and interested in using digital signatures to boost the efficiency of existing healthcare processes, please get in touch with us now.

Frequently Asked Questions

What documents could healthcare companies be signing?

Every document can be quickly converted into an online format using the readymade templates of electronic signatures. Healthcare companies can sign multiple documents like:

Patient intake form
Patient consent form
Care documents
Billing documents
Provider agreements
Claims processing forms
Drug prescriptions
Lab reports
Staffing forms
HIPAA forms

Are e signatures on medical forms and records legally enforceable?

Medical forms and records are among the documents that can be signed electronically, including prescriptions and medical records.

The Uniform Electronic Transactions Act (UETA) and the Global and National Commerce Act (GNCA) must be taken into consideration when determining the conditions necessary for electronic signatures under HIPAA law (ESIGN Act).

Both the UETA and ESIGN establish that electronic signatures and forms have the same weight and legal effect as hand-written signatures and traditional paper documents, just as they do with hand-written signatures and conventional paper documents. A specific provision of the ESIGN Act specifies that the signed document’s legal enforceability cannot be denied in electronic format.

What are the requirements of e signatures under HIPAA?

Electronic signatures are not under HIPAA rule. They are acceptable if they are compliant with the ESIGN Act and the UETA Act.

The conditions of the UETA and ESIGN Act are:

Legal compliance: The contract, document, agreement, or authorization should comply with federal rules for e-signatures, must display the terms, and should offer the signatory the option to receive a printed or emailed copy of the contract.

User Authentication: For preventing disputes, the covered entities must implement a system to validate the identity of all parties in the contract. Two-step verification can solve this problem.

Message Integrity: It is necessary to implement a system to ensure the integrity of the agreement. This condition is similar to the HIPAA security requirements for electronic communications and therefore deserves the same level of importance.

Ownership and control: The requirement is to make e-signatures HIPAA-compliant to stored signed documents on servers of e-signature service providers.

How can eSignature technology be used in the healthcare industry?

Here are the other important uses of electronic signatures in the healthcare industry:

Customer documentation: Every patient has a file that keeps their documents intact. Often, patients need to sign the papers. Doctors can also eSign the documents during a patient’s checkup.

Approving medical procedures: All hospitals require consent from all patients before engaging in any process. It is necessary to prevent a patient from making a charge in court against the hospital.

The signing of medical certificates: A certificate issued by a medical professional verifies an individual’s ability and approval by the relevant healthcare provider. The medical profession can use eSignature solutions for healthcare signing of documents.

Medical receipts: An electronic signature is used instead of manual stamps to prevent faded or unclear stamps.

Jul

2021

How Electronic Signatures Benefit the Finance Sector

Paperwork in the financial industry is unavoidable. Tons of paperwork everywhere, every day is a hard-hitting reality here. It is impossible to escape from it! Paperwork makes daily business operations complex as financial documents need printing, scanning and highly secure storage to protect confidential information like customer bank account details, signature, identity proof, self-attested applications, and more.

Competition in the sector is heating up due to the presence of financial companies with readily available, visible, and reachable products like SIP, mutual funds, stocks, fixed deposits, loan approvals, insurance, etc. Additionally, these companies have benefited from the extensive use of technology to expand their product penetration and market reach.

As the number of financial products in the market is rising with the increasing number of companies, so is the amount of paperwork for capturing customer details like interested customers, newly subscribed customers, daily transactions, and much more.

This increased paperwork is doing more harm than good to the industry.

The customer’s request for service activation on physical documents is used to verify user information on the application for starting the requested services. Unfortunately, this manual verification work has delayed the timely initiation of financial services for new and existing customers and made the waiting time for service initiation much longer.

Document security, increased paperwork, and inefficient business operations are vital factors troubling the finance sector in 2021.

For a long time, the industry seemed resistant to technological changes to end the paperwork. But now, modern financial institutions are incorporating new-age technologies like electronic signatures to stop paperwork, reduce service delays, enhance customer experience (CX) and keep them happy.

Here is how electronic signatures are playing a pivotal role in benefitting the finance sector.

1) Streamline client onboarding

Manual onboarding is often inconsistent and time-consuming. Electronic signatures are a vital step towards improving the onboarding experience. Financial institutions are increasingly replacing handwritten signatures with eSignatures as they allow clients to initiate and complete tasks digitally from the comfort of their homes at their own flexible time.

This flexible option in the form of an electronic signature saves the time and efforts of the customers. With electronic signatures, prospective customers can quickly fill an application and do the signature securely to become a customer in the streamlined process without further wait – all without stepping foot in the company office.

2) Make daily operations simpler

With eSigning, financial application processes are faster and less vulnerable to errors that need correction, such as customers leaving signatures at crucial places, incomplete applications resulting in more customer dropping-off during the application process.

Electronic signatures make operations of one of the highest in-demand financial products much simpler:

Account Opening: Account opening is much easier with electronic signatures. Applicants can sign their forms on eSignature apps and open an account from anywhere. Such swift and convenient processes make the companies extremely attractive for potential customers expecting fully automated processes right from signing the form to opening the account.

Loan applications: There is a considerable waiting period between loan applications and their acceptance. Electronic signatures help streamline in-person and online loan applications, drastically reducing the time for official approval of loans.

3) Get full benefits of a paperless organization

Finance companies eyeing to go paperless in the future can do it right away with the help of electronic signatures. Moreover, organizations using eSignature applications in the daily processes can experience some crucial benefits like:

Improved access: Electronic signatures allow you to find and access documents anytime from anywhere, from any device, allowing for smoother work completion, easier employee collaboration, document management, convenience, and drastic improvement in sales figures.

Faster business processes: There is no need for businesses to mail the document individually to the customers. Companies and individuals can exchange paperwork more efficiently, within seconds, in digital formats rather than waiting for documents to arrive by mail.

Secure your documents: Physical documents are prone to leakage during copying, printing, and scanning. Businesses using electronics can keep the paperwork secure with document encryption, cloud storage solutions, and encrypted browser connection (HTTPS), offering better visibility control and security to fend off threats for stealing or misusing the documents.

Cost Reduction: Electronic signatures save you a lot on office electricity bills (running printers & scanners), document storage costs (storing documents at physical locations), and stationary costs (Pen and paper costs).

Efficient organization: A paperless organization means getting freedom from the colossal clutter and mess of physical documents. Digitally stored documents are better organized for a faster, efficient, and headache-free organization.

4) Ensure top benefits for financial institutions

Business organizations achieve excellent benefits after using electronic signatures that are bothering them for decades:

Cut scanning errors: eSignatures reduce scanning errors by up to 92% in financial institutions.

Achieve audit efficiency: You can be 100% assured about documents signed using electronic signatures due to the audit trail feature that helps track each & every change to the record made by users accessing the documents.

Reduce missing files: There are negligible chances of missing files with electronic signatures. That is because signed documents in electronic formats are stored in cloud storage solutions that can be retrieved anytime by authorized users.

5) Achieve excellent business efficiency

Electronic signatures have helped fast track and optimize the workflow of millions of businesses to maximize target sales numbers and give a quantum boost to business revenue.

Here are some of the proven achievements of eSignatures positively affecting business efficiency:

40% reduction in time spent by customers to view and sign the documents
There is an 80% average reduction in turnaround time using electronic signatures
There is an 80% average error reduction in daily business processes
Businesses have improved overall productivity by up to 85%
Assured average cost savings of USD 20 per document
Companies observed a 500% increase in customer loyalty
Organizations can save 22,000 business hours annually
Companies using eSignature tools can cut down document handling costs by 85%
eSignature reduces scanning errors by up to 92% in financial institutions
eSignature implementation prevents file loss by up to 60% in financial institutions
Businesses achieve 70%-80% efficiency improvements after removal of manual processes
Companies that go paperless reduce processing errors by an average of 90%

6) Improves customer satisfaction

eSignatures make transactions easier on the client-side as they can sign and send the document without the hassles of printing & mailing from their laptop or smartphone at their own preferred time.

Customer satisfaction with the overall transaction process increases due to the convenience of signing documents from their secure remote location, with no chances of the electronically signed document getting leaked to fraudulent sources.

Signing any document is super easy with LunarPen. You have to draw the signature using the mouse, touch screen, typing their name, or uploading an image of the signature.

Clients do not have to pay the bills for sending the documents by mail, nor have they to spend on travel (local, national or international) to complete the signing of documents.

Digital signatures make the whole process easier, faster, less expensive, and more convenient.

LunarPen’s eSignature seamlessly integrates with the financial process as it reduces the steps in the business process rather than deleting it.

It is precisely what the customers expect from a business– speed, security, simplicity, transparent process, and quality service, vital ingredients in improving customer satisfaction in financial institutions.

7) Increases security and safety of documents

Numerous cases happen every day when the applied documents submitted by customers to avail services are lost in a massive pile of papers, or the document information is tampered with or leaked from the office.

Not only that, these physical documents need significant resources to store and keep them safe.

However, documents signed with the LunarPen application have meagre chances of being accessed by unauthorized persons. That’s because LunarPen eSignature apps are backed by robust features like user authentication, audit trail, and cloud security.

Furthermore, it is easy to keep electronically signed documents safe rather than storing them at designated physical storage. As a result, it helps businesses save huge document storage costs and incorporate more flexibility in daily operations.

Case Study

CI Assante is a wealth management firm supported by over 800 professional advisors responsible for managing over USD 40 Billion for individuals and families nationwide. They have a knack for intelligent risk management and help Canadians grow wealth and secure their financial future.

Challenge

Assante had several offices operating across Ontario, due to which moving paperwork across the branches was an everyday challenge for this firm. Each financial advisor had to sign more than 15-20 documents every week, including KYC documents and opening accounts. Not only that, those signed documents needed to be signed by the branch managers located at different locations on different days.

The Pain Point

Collecting manual signatures from different branches is a prolonged process
All documents needed signature within a time of 48 hours.
Client documents routinely needed a signature from people in different locations.

What happened if the documents were not signed within 48 hours?

Assante’s head office freezes the client accounts, due to which no transactions are done until the paperwork is completed with all the pending signatures.

Solution

Assante has gifted itself the most needed resource globally - time and money by switching to electronic signatures.

Cut Costs: Reduced expenditure on office equipment like a pen, paper, printers, and scanners, leading to the quick turnaround time of documents needing signatures. In addition, it assured fewer account restrictions and a smoother client onboarding.

Get signatures from anyone, anywhere: As signers were located in different cities on different schedules, adopting a digital document workflow made the daily work immensely easier for them. Now they can sign documents from anywhere, anytime, without receiving a reminder from the company.

Slash turnaround time & avoid account freeze: Client onboarding required the lengthy process of mailing the document to the administrator and printing it for everybody’s signature. It required a lot of running to meet the 48-hour deadline and the risks of freezing new accounts.

The onboarding documents can be directly scanned and sent to all the parties for eSignature before the deadline. The result was fewer account freezes and happy customers.

Enjoy significant savings: Adopting electronic signatures in their workflow helped Assante transform into a paperless company. Not only did they save huge on paper, but the adoption also helped their team save a whole lot of money on paper printing as well as ink and toner costs.

Conclusion

It is the right time for the finance sector to adopt eSignature technology, which is necessary to create a positive customer experience. eSigning documents is an absolute necessity in today’s times. If you are not offering remote signing of documents for different products of the finance sector, potential customers will leave you and find someone who is offering these benefits.

Wait no more! Let your business quickly avail of the benefits of electronic signature. Sign up free to open a LunarPen account and start eSigning the documents from today.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the drivers of the e Signature market?

e Signatures are helping organizations speed up business processes and achieve excellent business efficiency for almost three decades. It becomes challenging for businesses to meet deadlines due to lengthy paperwork that can be countered by digitizing the documents to sign them electronically, which is a far more efficient method than the pen and paper method.

eSignatures can provide significant efficiencies in assisting businesses of any size to eliminate paperwork bottlenecks for the organization’s progress.

Here are the leading drivers for the adoption of electronic signatures:

Reason 1: Customer expectation for digital adoption

Reason 2: Increased awareness of legal acceptance of e-signatures

Reason 3: To remain competitive & relevant in the market

Reason 4: Greater focus on compliance & security

Reason 5: Growth of mobile device use

When can electronic signatures be used?

One of the most critical elements of electronic signature validity is the signing party’s intent to be bound like a traditionally signed contract. Apart from these, one must keep these requirements in mind when considering the legal validity of electronic signatures:

Both the parties must have consent to use the electronic signature to sign the document.
The eSignature application must record the process by which the electronic version of the signature was created.
Records of the electronic signature must be retained and available for immediate reproduction.

What are the benefits of using eSignatures?

One small but powerful application like eSignature gives multiple benefits to organizations:

Intuitive and straightforward to use
Remote access and improved user convenience
It offers more security than traditional paper documents
Convenient solution than the alternative of mailing, printing & scanning
Faster turnaround gives businesses greater versatility in time-sensitive situations
More cost-effective than traditional pen and paper methods
Low consumption of time as the document is signed online instantly
You don’t have to spend money on paper & ink as there is no paperwork involved
Give real-time access of documents to clients for signature from anywhere
Access to centralized document storage assures you don’t have to search documents
Increase collaboration from multiple parties and keep projects moving ahead
Easily track who has opened, signed, and approved the document

Why do I need a eSignature for my bank?

Digital signature usage in banks improves customer satisfaction by offering them to complete their tasks quickly, efficiently, and safely. In addition, it makes customers think that the banks care for them, thereby increasing customer loyalty and boosting word-of-mouth marketing.

These are the primary purpose of the adoption of digital signature in banks:

Increased transparency & efficiency
Strengthen their brand image
Centralization of documents
Helps fight fraud
Saves annual expenses
Time savings

Jun

2021

Employee Onboarding using Electronic Signatures

Employee onboarding is a crucial focus of organizations in 2021 as pandemic has completely wiped off the traditional onboarding process, forcing every task to complete remotely. It has resulted in the unexpected extension of the hiring timelines from weeks to months.

The onboarding process is the systematic transformation of promising candidates into top-performing candidates by following these steps:

Welcome Mail: If the employee is selected, the HR sends a warm welcome mail, onboarding forms & offer letters.

Offer Acceptance: Once the employee accepts the offer, the company will set up a quick call to review the form, policies & benefits.

Waiting Period: During the waiting period, the new hire may be open for offers from other companies. It is always a good idea to plan the waiting period during the employee onboarding process.

The Joining Day: This is the day to welcome the new joiners. HR managers must make sure that the new hire feels welcome & comfortable.

Coordinate with new departments: It is essential to introduce and notify your coworkers & managers about the new hire. You can start by scheduling an orientation session or welcome meetings.

Training & orientation: This phase provides new hires with crucial information about the company’s teams, processes, and company policies.

Probation period: The objective of this period is to check if the hired employee is a fit for the organization. If the new hire meets the company expectations, then he is a confirmed employee. The probationary period may last from three to six months.

Electronic signatures have proved to be the most incredible helping hand to organizations. They are the quickest way to end enormous paperwork, ensuring authenticity and winning crucial employer trust to attract top talent, shorten their learning curve, and make them an inseparable organizational asset.

Moreover, worldwide electronic laws have reinforced the credibility and awareness of eSignatures, expanding its influence for employee onboarding and daily business operations in every possible sector of the industries.

Here are top reasons to use e-signatures for employee onboarding:

1) Aligns with a digital vision

In the digital age, organizations don’t want to survive. Instead, they want to thrive and ensure that their promise of thumping growth, cost savings, and employee productivity align with their digital vision. So, the entire focus is on digital transformation inside the organization and the results during its usage phase.

In 2021, it is evident that technology is not a choice anymore. It’s a no-nonsense necessity. If you fail to transform your business digitally, every second, a new competitor is ready to eat up your revenue and market share.

eSignatures are much easier to adapt and need comparatively lesser adaptation & implementation time than any other digital technologies in the industry.

Suppose you are a growth-hungry company eyeing digital transformation. Then you need to choose the best eSignature service provided by vendors who understand your business very clearly.

Once the eSignature solution integrates with your day-to-day business processes, you need a few clicks to complete business processes efficiently from virtually any device in real-time.

2) Speed and Convenience

Electronic signatures are much faster & process documents quickly than handwritten signatures, making speed and convenience one of the top reasons for using them in employee onboarding.

The current pandemic situation has delayed the joining of new employees due to worldwide travel and movement restrictions.

With eSignatures, one can rapidly share the employee agreement with the new hires in a blink of an eye. After that, they can conveniently sign it on a computer or any portable device, regardless of their geographical location.

Another critical point is that using e-signatures adds to the sense that your company culture is forward-thinking and geared toward efficiency. There is no need to print and store the online document as physical records. It helps you save good money annually as you don’t need to buy office stationery like ink and paper again & again.

Document tracking is another appealing feature of e-signatures.

Another important thing, you don’t have to run helter-skelter to get your document signed by new hires.

Even if the new employees have not signed the papers, you know about the esigning status due to the document tracking feature. You receive an immediate notification when the new employees sign the contract document.

These popular features of eSignatures make employee onboarding a breeze for HR departments.

3) Helps in Automation

Your new hires can complete the employee onboarding process remotely from anywhere using the eSignature application.

The HR department and the new hires do not have to depend on handwritten signatures, printers, scanners and the mail system to sign-copy-scan and mail the document.

The credit of the employee onboarding time getting lengthier goes to the above traditional document exchange process between the new employees and the HR department.

Electronic Signatures authorize you to send bulk onboarding documents to multiple new hires at the same time.

You do not need to remind other signees to sign the document as they get application notifications for eSigning.

Also, none of the parties needs to carry the physical documents. Once everybody has signed it, they are safely stored in the cloud storage.

You can reduce the signing process to a few minutes and clicks by automating the paperwork flow with eSignatures.

4) Centralized document management

Every human resource department has to get involved in document management after printing, storing, scanning, and uploading the documents of every employee.

It is one of the most demanding tasks as it takes lots of time to track and organize employee contracts.

The digital signature feature enables the HR department to centralize contract management and store the contract data in the cloud, accessible at any time via the eSignature dashboard.

There are multiple benefits of centralized document management with eSignature solutions:

Greater control: If files are stored in one central location, implementing controls related to retention and deposition becomes easy.

Efficient business operations: It actively encourages efficient operations because all files are located centrally, saving employees precious time to retrieve the HR data.

5) Decreased costs of printing and storage

HR professionals handle large amounts of paperwork every day, ranging from employee onboarding, transfer, contracts, performance appraisal documents, exit process, and many more things.

Using paper documents for newly hired employees can be expensive as company policy forms, confidentiality agreements, and employee handbooks are some of the crucial things that need to be reviewed by new hires. It is estimated that any HR department might be printing 50-100 pages per new hire. That’s a lot of ink, paper, and time spent preparing for a new hire’s first day.

Once you print these documents, you will have to find a place to store the published information that may inflate document storage costs.

Organizations using electronic signatures save huge on:

Paper purchase costs
Printing/photocopying costs
Paper delivery costs
Paper scanning costs
Paper storage costs
Paper disposal costs
Document retrieval costs

6) Security

Employee documentation can contain sensitive information from both the new hire and the organization, such as an employer identification number (EIN) and Social Security number (SSN). Those documents and credentials must be kept secure.

eSignatures use tamper-evident technology to detect any changes made to a document after each signature, lowering your risk of fraud. Furthermore, identity authentication tools, such as knowledge-based authentication, ensure that only authorized people access the documents.

These security measures ensure that confidential company information is challenging to duplicate, scan and edit.

Conclusion

eSignatures are a proven world-class technology allowing HR departments to complete the onboarding process efficiently, saves time & money while improving retention of employees.

Sign up for a free eSignature trial and see what LunarPen solutions can do for your business and help organizations in employee onboarding.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can you sign an employment contract electronically?

You can sign an employment contract electronically if you have an option to do so by the hiring company.

One can sign the employment contract and send them to the hiring company’s human resources in a matter of seconds using your smartphone, laptop, or any other portable device.

eSigned agreements save money and time by eliminating the need for printing, scanning, faxing, and overnight delivery.

You can send your eSigned contracts using the LunarPen App hassle-free anytime, anywhere.

How do you sign a contract virtually?

You can sign a contract virtually by following these steps:

- Upload the sales contract document that needs your signature

- Use LunarPen’s signed document sharing feature to share the document with a closed group of people

- Fill out subject & message details to explain the agenda of signed documents to the recipients

- Use the LunarPen interface to esign your document by inserting fields like name, initials, signature, signature date, and checkbox

- Use customized options to draw, insert or upload your signature

- eSign the documents and send them to the recipients

Are electronic signatures enforceable?

Electronic signatures are valid globally across every known company in the world due to the presence of eSignature laws like

- eIDAS Act

- ESIGN Act

- UETA Act

- IT Signature Act

These laws ensure that eSignatures are legal and enforceable in every country of the world.

What are the benefits of electronic onboarding?

Here are the top four benefits of hiring your new employees electronically:

Increase accuracy: Electronic onboarding places the information in the hands of the person who knows it best—the employee. It helps in increasing the accuracy of the signed documents.

Share documents quickly: You can share documents at the tap of a button using digital signature solutions as they are accessible on laptops, smartphones, or digital devices.

Create a personalized experience: Rather than sitting in a room with a clipboard filling out paperwork, you can spend more one-on-one time with your new hire and start interacting with them on a more personal level.

Ensure compliance: With electronic onboarding, you can ensure that no paperwork is overlooked when it comes to new employees. When compliance rules change, instead of actual processing paper, a simple click of a button is used to delete or add new paperwork.