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Contents

Introduction 2

Part 1: The problem

An inconvenient truth: Paper pollution 3

Why save paper? 5

Part 2: The solution

Paperless payroll and HR 7

Integrated software: Features 10

Implementing paperless payroll and HR 11

What’s next? 13

Going Green: A Business Guide | PAGE 1Whitepaper

Going Green: A Business Guide | PAGE 1

Introduction

Our home, planet Earth, is neglected on a daily basis. We use its resources, pollute it with waste and rarely think about how we are leaving it for future generations.

There are millions of tonnes of waste produced in the world every day. But perhaps the biggest resource-wasting activity that some businesses routinely engage in is the needless generation of paper. Every year, countless trees are cut down to create payroll related documents that are typically used once and thrown away.

Although paper documents can be recycled, fuel-burning and pollution-generating factories are necessary to convert waste paper into usable material.

Paper also requires printing equipment that uses expensive ink and cartridges that also need to be recycled - and the printers themselves are often put on landfills when they are out of date. Paper documents are costly and wasteful.

In offices, a simple thing like saving paper can make a huge difference. While this won’t be a huge revelation to you, it just makes good business sense to reduce your daily operational costs – including paper.

Some businesses have already taken the first step to solving the problem and are focussing their efforts on green initiatives.

And it’s not just because of the ecological benefits - there are actually many other financial and efficiency benefits to saving paper.

Here, we outline some of the challenges facing businesses in this area, the benefits of saving paper, and some solutions to accomplish it.



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An inconvenient truth: Paper pollutionEvery year, 30 million acres of forest are destroyed, 40% of which is used for paper production - according to a 2011 report from the Environmental Paper Network. This figure is likely to grow more than 50% within 50 years. 1

Experts say that over 300 million tonnes of paper are produced annually. In the UK, more than 11 million tonnes of paper are consumed per year, much of which is imported from Scandinavia. 2

Destruction of plants and wildlife

The paper industry tries to prevent the complete destruction of forests by replacing them with ‘plantations’, which use pesticides, herbicides and fungicides.

To satisfy the UK’s growing demand for paper, Scandinavian forests have been turned into plantations, where wildlife struggles to survive. Just 5% of Scandinavia’s main forests still remain and hundreds of species are endangered. 3

Greenhouse gases

It’s not just the loss of wildlife that’s a concern. The paper industry makes up 4% of the world’s energy use and much of this energy need is satisfied by the burning of fossil fuels. In the production of one tonne of paper, it is estimated that over 2.6 tonnes of greenhouse gasses are released. 4

After the chemical and steel industries, the pulp and paper industry is the third greatest industrial greenhouse gas emitter. 5



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Water and transportation pollution

A large amount of water is used in paper production, which is often polluted with toxic chemicals and heavy metals such as copper and lead.

The vast majority of the transportation for paper is provided by ships, which are one of the fastest growing sources of air pollution. It is estimated that they will emit more pollutants than all land sources combined by 2020. 6 Then there’s the environmental impact of the inks and dyes used in the printing process.

Landfill

Over half of all paper produced ends up in land fill sites and incinerators within a year of production – and over one third of all landfill waste is believed to be paper. This waste paper decomposes releasing more greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere. 4

Is recycling paper much better?

Although recycling paper seems to be a better solution, recent studies have shown that it still has a detrimental effect on the environment. One tonne of 100% recycled paper releases 1.6 tonnes of greenhouse gasses.4

As you may have guessed, the only effective way to combat paper pollution is to become economical with our use of paper products.

1 Abramovitz, “Paper Cuts”, WorldWatch Institute 1999, p. 124 2 Pulp and Paper International (1997). Annual Review, July 1997.3 The Paper Federation of Great Britain pers. comm4 Environmental impact estimates made using the Environmental Defence Paper Calculator - http://www.papercalculator.org. 5 OECD Environmental Outlook, p. 218

6 Clean Air for Europe impact assessment, p31 (2005).

AN AVERAGE OFFICE WORKER USES

SHEETS OF COPYPAPER EACH YEAR

Offices waste a huge amount of paper. Employees use up to 50 sheets of A4 every single day and paper use is rising by around 2.8% every year. 7 It is estimated that UK businesses throw away five million tonnes of paper annually.

Wasting paper is not just bad for the environment - businesses waste money with every piece of paper they use needlessly, accounting for up to 4% of their turnover - according to Dr Martin Gibson, Envirowise Programme Director.

He says: “In our experience, most businesses don’t think enough about how much they are paying for items they throw away. There is tremendous scope for reducing waste in offices.”

As well as some companies being very dependent on a wasteful system, there’s also the cost of paper storage, lost documents, postage, needless documents, and inefficiency. But in reality, most office paper can be stored electronically.

A greater use of electronic data storage and transmission means that ‘hard copies’ only need to be produced if it is absolutely necessary - so there is little need for paper documents.

Going digital is quicker, easier and cheaper. Think about it – it’s much cheaper to send an electronic file via email to 50 different people than printing and delivering 50 hard copies.

Storing and backing up data is also much easier with an electronic document. With a million paper documents, an organisation could spend over £20,000 on filing cabinets alone – which take up valuable floor space.



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Why save paper?

Why not just store them on a single hard disk drive? Filing and sorting through paper documents is also time consuming. Digital systems allow millions of files to be indexed and searched in seconds.

A study performed by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, California, found that the cost per tonne of handling paper is 20 times the purchase cost and 200 times the disposal cost. 8Compare that to automated processes which can increase productivity by 50% or more. 9

Reducing paper within businesses is vital for both financial and environmental reasons.



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7 Envirowise publication – “Green Officiency: Running a cost

effective, environmentally aware office.”

8 “Useful Facts for Your Paper Efficient Office,” fact sheet.

Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, Energy Analysis Program.

November 16, 1994

9 Cardiff Presentation. AIIM International ECM Road Show.

Sacramento, CA. September 10, 2001.

PAPER ACCOUNTS FOR

OF LANDFILL WASTE

As we have suggested, one alternative to printed documents is to use computers and the Internet to create a paperless system that eliminates the production and distribution of payroll and HR documents.

Thanks to the continued growth of cloud computing, more and more businesses can now reduce their reliance on paper and instead, turn to the dependable, organisational benefits of web-based business solutions.

Cloud computing is the next stage in the Internet’s evolution, providing the means through which everything can be delivered to you as a service wherever and whenever you need.

Along with cloud-based storage resources, such as Google Drive and Dropbox, payroll and HR document processing is fast becoming one of the most common business practices to go paperless - and it’s not hard to see why.

How many HR processes can be done without any paper? All of them— as long as you use the right technology.

Combining HR software and paperless payroll into one system would be the most efficient paperless solution.

This provides a centralised system that provides a single, reliable tool for performing each function of a previously paper-based system with increased efficiency, cost savings, and enhanced analytics.



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The solution: Paperless payroll and HR



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Paperless HR software benefits

With paperless HR software, your HR team can create and maintain completely secure, fully digital personnel files. You can also replace file cabinets and folders with structured, controlled electronic records - saving space, slashing costs and enhancing security…

Lock down information

A good managed electronic HR system is noticeably more secure than paper files - even if they are locked away. Whereas in cabinets, file access is restricted on a user-by-user basis, electronic access means you can see exactly who accessed which document and when they did so. If you choose to access through The Cloud, even your IT department won’t have access to personnel files – your confidential and private data has never been safer.

Flexibility

Paperless HR software is uniquely flexible – and can be used to file, archive and access any HR related documents. They can be imported via scanned paper, PDFs, email or standard formats including Microsoft Word and Excel.

Best of all, creating a digital version of your workflows helps to minimise training and transition time. Data entry and repetitive tasks are reduced. Document version control is enhanced. It’s your HR practices — just paperless.

Easy tracking

With HR software, employee recordkeeping is easy. Built-in database tools let you track employee demographic information automatically. You can even create event schedules.

As you can see, as well as helping the environment, paperless payroll and HR reduces, or even eliminates, the costs associated with paper, printers, lost payslips and distribution. So, what you have to ask yourself is…is there any reason NOT to go paperless?

OF INDUSTRIAL WOOD HARVEST IS USED

TO MAKE PAPER



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Employer benefits

• Employee payroll data is in one place

• No need to print or fax time sheets to a payroll provider

• Process payroll on your own time, from any device

• No special trips needed to drop off forms or payslips

• Collaboration with your account-ant for tax preparation purposes

• HMRC tax filings and payments can be automated so you’re al-ways compliant

• Paperless payroll cuts down on paper and waste in the office

• Costs associated with printer, toners, ink cartridges, etc. will be reduced

• Eliminates the need for filing allowing for more usable office space

• A mobile environment means faster results

• Reduces the time your employ-ees spend searching for docu-ments

• Securely backs up all of your employee payroll data

• Allows you to promote your busi-ness as being “eco-friendly”

Employee benefits

• Payslips are immediately avail-able on payday

• No more worrying about lost or stolen payslips

• Payslips are available online 24/7, from anywhere

• Fewer payroll mistakes• No coming into work to pick up a

payslip• No more waiting at the bank to

deposit payslips

Paperless payroll benefits



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With paperless integrated HR and payroll software, you can perform many routine HR functions while keeping sensitive employee data safe and secure. Here are just some of the features...

• Employee self service: Employees can book holidays, review their payroll history, see what benefits they signed up for, access company policies, and much more. Meanwhile HR managers can look at their workforce data based on the security profile of each user.

• Online recruiting: Locate and recruit better qualified candidates for open positions. Positions are posted online, and CVs are received electronically. Candidates with the appropriate skill set can be filtered, and if employed details are stored in an electronic personnel file.

• Automated forms: Integrated HR and payroll software goes beyond routine admin. You can generate necessary HR forms automatically, send them to the correct people and get them approved without ever using a single piece of paper.

• Online benefits enrolment: Your employees can learn about their benefits and make selections online to shortern the enrolment cycle. The software will gather, format, and electronically transmit data about enrolled employees to benefits providers, avoiding the costly errors of a paper-based system, such as duplicate data entry and errors.

• Online payroll: Automated payroll allows companies to pay their employees electronically. This eliminates the costs associated with processing and issuing paper payslips while giving employees a convenient ways to receive their pay.

Integrated software: Features



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As you can see, as well as helping the environment, paperless payroll and HR reduces, or even eliminates, the costs associated with paper, printers, lost payslips and distribution. So, what you have to ask yourself is…is there any reason NOT to go paperless?

Here’s how to get started:

1 Analyse your current system

If your payroll and HR processes haven’t had a major overhaul in years, switching to a paperless system is the best time to take care of any outdated processes that are in place. If your current systems are up-to-date, take steps to blend it with the new technology.

2 Plan properly

As with any other major update, the details are important when you plan a paperless system. First, educate senior managers about the business and environmental benefits. Then, sit down with the departments involved to work out a system blueprint and timeline.

3 Check your data

You’ll probably have to collect information from your employees before launching your new system. For example, for direct deposits, you’ll have to ask employees for the names and addresses of their banks or building societies and their account numbers. You’ll also have to check your employees’ email addresses to digitally send them any payroll-related documents.

Implementing a paperless system



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4 Find the right provider

Few businesses have the internal expertise needed to implement a paperless payroll system or new HR software. Fortunately, there are many paperless payroll and HR service providers available.

Companies such as Moorepay will help you get on the paperless payroll and HR bandwagon with minimum effort on your part.

But before you commit to a particular provider, check the pricing and that it supports the features you need, such as:

• Payroll processing

• Time/attendance tracking

• Employee invoice and time sheet submission

• Direct deposit

• Tax forms and filing

5 Test the new system

Implementing a paperless payroll and HR system is a major project, and will need to be tested. You and your service provider should check the system for any gaps and bugs before going live. To limit any potential start-up damage, it’s best to check your system works properly before applying the new system to the entire work force.

6 Seek feedback

After it’s up and running, you need to get feedback and suggestions for improvements - this will help you to learn what you are doing right.



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What next?

Interested in paperless payroll or HR software?

Find out more at www.moorepay.co.uk.

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