Transforming Onboarding with Workflow Automation

Case Study

Transforming Onboarding with
Workflow Automation

The Customer

And Their Challenge

Englewood Health, one of New Jersey’s leading healthcare systems, delivers nationally recognized inpatient and outpatient care through its hospital and network of physician practices, urgent care centers, and imaging centers.  Their manual, paper-based system for onboarding new hires proved slow, error-prone, and provided no way to track paperwork as it moved from Human Resources to the Information Technology Department. As a result, new staff members often waited up to 12 days before gaining full access to Englewood’s IT network and applications.

Recognizing that technology could address these inefficiencies, Englewood’s administrators sought an automated solution to streamline the onboarding process, reduce errors, and eliminate misplaced documents. They wanted a system that would replace paper forms with digital ones, provide legally binding electronic signatures, allow staff to track approvals and requests in real time, and decrease the time needed to provision new hires with network resources. By implementing such a solution, Englewood hoped to expedite and standardize the entire hiring process, allowing newly onboarded professionals to engage fully in their roles as quickly as possible.

The Solution

Paperless Workflow Automation System

Seeking to overcome the challenges of a paper-based onboarding process, Englewood managers teamed up with i3solutions to reimagine their hiring procedures. After an in-depth strategic consultation, i3solutions designed and delivered a Workflow Automation System that eliminates time-consuming manual tasks and accelerates new hires’ access to critical IT resources. This streamlined, fully digital solution has dramatically enhanced the hospital’s overall onboarding experience.

At the core of the new workflow technology is an electronic form approved via electronic signatures, replacing outdated pen-and-paper methods. IntelliSafe provides a digital signature application that guarantees both the authenticity and originality of any file. Their IntelliSafe Vault addresses EHMC’s critical need for conducting completely electronic transactions and approvals, giving staff the ability to create, sign, and securely store legally binding, authoritative documents in a paperless environment. This seamless integration of digital signatures into Englewoods’s processes ensures greater accuracy and reduces the likelihood of lost or incomplete paperwork.

Developed on Microsoft SharePoint, the Workflow Automation System further enhances efficiency by automatically routing digital forms to every required touch point, enabling electronic approval in a matter of seconds. Additionally, the system tracks requests throughout the entire process, giving administrators real-time visibility of each document’s status. Automated reminders are generated for those with pending tasks or overdue actions, ensuring that all parties are consistently informed and eliminating bottlenecks that previously caused lengthy delays.

By transforming a traditionally tedious, manual process into a fully automated one, Englewood empowers its employees to focus on their core responsibilities while speeding the time to productivity for new hires. This innovative system, has elevated the hospital’s onboarding approach to meet the high standards of care and efficiency that Englewood is known for, reinforcing the institution’s commitment to excellence in every aspect of patient care and healthcare administration.

Technologies

Used in the Solution

SharePoint serves as the core platform for automating workflows and routing digital forms, ensuring tasks are completed quickly and efficiently. By providing real-time visibility into each stage of the onboarding process, SharePoint enables administrators to track submissions, approvals, and reminders from a single, user-friendly interface.

IntelliSafe provides secure digital signatures that verify the authenticity and integrity of all electronic documents within the onboarding process. This enabled Englewood to confidently replace manual signatures with a legally binding, paperless system, reducing errors and expediting approvals.

Measurable Benefits
and Business Impact

Significantly Reduced
Onboarding Time

By replacing manual processes with digital workflows, Englewood cut the average onboarding cycle from nearly two weeks to just a few days. New hires can now receive full system access much faster, enabling them to start patient care and other responsibilities without delay.

Decreased Administrative
Overhead and Costs

Digital signatures and electronic tracking ensure each form is complete, valid, and secure, significantly reducing errors that often occurred with manual data entry. In turn, the hospital maintains higher standards of compliance and can easily audit approvals to meet regulatory requirements.

Enhanced Visibility and Efficiency Across
Departments

Thanks to SharePoint’s built-in tracking and reminders, employees and administrators have real-time insight into each form’s status. This transparency prevents bottlenecks, keeps everyone accountable, and expedites the entire onboarding process—leading to smoother collaboration between Human Resources, IT, and other departments.

Improved Decision-Making and
Accountability

The automation of form submissions and approvals dramatically lowered the need for paper, printing, and physical document handling. With real-time notifications and electronic signatures, Englewood reduced the resources spent on manual tasks and eliminated a substantial portion of its paper-related expenses.

Customer Says

The i3solutions team [was] able to transform our reactive processes into a more robust, proactive system – improving the process and saving us valuable time and resources. Instead of taking up to an average of 12 days, new employees’ information is almost immediately uploaded and all necessary system access is fully accessible in a matter of days. This enables new employees to be fully oriented and working on the first day of their employment, thereby improving productivity and increasing operational efficiencies.

- Gary Wilhelm, Manager of Englewood’s Business and Financial systems.