Moving the HR manual online could save £297m and 100,000 trees

For many years, the printed employee manual has been the cornerstone of Human Resources. However with the move to digital channels, changing business priorities and the green agenda, they are becoming an expensive anachronism. Analysis by Transversal shows that moving the HR manual online could save UK organisations £297 million and over 100,000 trees.

Additionally, moving the company manual online makes it much easier for employees to access information and frees up the time of HR staff so that they can move to a strategic role as well as dealing with more complex queries.

 “In a digital age, large and complex manuals simply don’t match how people wish to receive information,” said Davin Yap, CEO, Transversal. “Staff normally have specific questions and want to receive focused, accurate answers rather than looking through pages and pages of general information. A manual is out of date from the minute it is printed – as such the HR department need to embrace more innovative, web-based ways to communicate with employees. The Human Resources department is changing. HR staff have moved on from the days of just ‘personnel management.’ They are under increasing pressure to become cost-effective, to improve its services to the rest of the company; and to implement and address the key business drivers of the organisation. Replacing HR manuals with an online interactive HR ‘manual’ not only save money and the environment, but also free up the time of HR staff to enable them to take a more strategic role in company management.”