There is no doubt a clear preference for hybrid working arrangements is driving innovation in a race to keep employees and businesses productive and competitive. From collaboration platforms to automation tools, technology is helping businesses improve productivity, increase security and connect more efficiently with workers.
Like many other technological innovations that are now enjoying widespread use, platforms facilitating the use of electronic signatures have emerged as a vital tool to conduct businesses — either for locking in major projects, signing up new employees, or for enacting everyday business operations.
The good news is that COVID forced the law to catch up with practices and in Australia, Electronic Transaction Acts (for the Commonwealth and each State and Territory) now permit e-signatures, with the effect that they have the same legal status as handwritten signatures (if both parties agree to the use of the e-signatures).
So, there’s no excuse and businesses now can’t afford to drag the chain when it comes to offering their remote-based employees the tools they need to remain productive — this includes using e-signatures to execute contracts in a timely way.
The numbers don’t lie — more than two-thirds of people (68%) now prefer a hybrid working model, according to Future Forum’s latest quarterly survey of almost 11,000 knowledge workers in Australia, France, Germany, the UK and US. In addition, 95% of respondents want flexibility over when they work.
This switch to hybrid brings certain challenges — people can only work remotely effectively if they have the right tools. While businesses have adapted quickly, there are still some that haven’t provided workers with the tools they need.
According to a survey conducted by e-signature company DocuSign, for most Australians respondents (74%), working from home presented new challenges, with 80% of full-time office workers agreeing that there is much room for improvement.
When respondents in Australia had to choose the most challenging part of remote work, Millennial and Gen X employees (16% and 15%) pointed to the lack of digital support to do their jobs, far more than Baby Boomers (4%).
The research shows that most remote workers do not have the right technology to work remotely stress-free. One easy way to address some of those challenges is by adopting the use of e-signatures to remove the reliance on manual, paper-based systems. It should be a priority for businesses who understand it can help improve an organisation’s performance, security and productivity.
Teams no longer need to wait on others to be able to do their jobs as waiting times are reduced to hours — DocuSign reports an average 80% reduction in turnaround time, with 82% of agreements signed in one day.
Using e-signatures not only boosts productivity and frees up teams to focus on other areas of the business, it provides a greater level of security through a transparent digital workflow.
Organisations accustomed to using paper documents often also do not understand the risk of physically sending confidential, sensitive information. Even if it is delivered by a courier, there is not an overseen chain of control for the sender, which means they don’t know who will have access to the document.
In contrast, senders using e-signatures have complete visibility of the digital document from the moment it is sent and through its entire lifecycle. They can control access, which maintains security standards for the business.
With hybrid working becoming the norm, digital processes including the use of e-signatures, are empowering people to be more productive, creating more secure systems for information sharing and illustrating how innovation goes hand in hand with business success.
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DocuSign helps organisations connect and automate how they navigate their systems of agreement. As part of its industry leading product lineup, DocuSign offers eSignature, the world’s #1 way to sign electronically on practically any device, from almost anywhere, at any time. Today, over a million customers and more than a billion users in over 180 countries use the DocuSign platform to accelerate the process of doing business and simplify people’s lives.
For more information, visit http://www.docusign.com.au/ or call +61 2 9392 1998 or 1800-841-231 toll-free from within Australia.
