Douglas is Europe’s largest omnichannel premium beauty platform and operates 90 physical stores across the Netherlands. From the headquarters in Nijmegen, administrative HR tasks, such as employment contracts and changes, are centrally managed. For managing their personnel files, Douglas was looking for a solution that not only saved time, but also aligned with the company’s digital ambitions. Specialist HR Operations Jiska van Rossum shares her experience with Archive-IT.
The challenge: a lot of work and limited space
Managing physical personnel files came with a considerable workload: “Everything was neatly sorted by employee number and store location, but it took an enormous amount of time to search through the cabinets. The paper files also took up a lot of space, and it simply wasn’t of this time anymore. Now that everything is digital, we work much more efficiently and retrieving documents only takes a few clicks,” says Jiska.
The choice for digitalisation
Douglas chose to digitise the personnel files and import them into AFAS to gain quicker access to information, maintain oversight, and comply with legal retention periods. When selecting a partner, speed, cost, and user-friendliness were essential.
Jiska continues: “Archive-IT first asked us: ‘What do you need?’ Then we looked together at how everything could be set up within AFAS. Our needs were always the starting point, and the end user was taken into account. The process went very smoothly, and Archive-IT really thought along with us in terms of budget.”
The personal connection also played a role. “There was an immediate click. That was the deciding factor for us,” Jiska adds.
A smooth digitisation process
The digitisation process was fast and carried out with care. All files were collected in Nijmegen and transported securely to Archive-IT. During the project, files could still be requested through Archive-IT’s system, which provided extra reassurance.
“Together with the Archive-IT employees, we defined five main document types. Everything that didn’t fit into these was placed under ‘other’. This was thoughtfully set up and ensures that all files are now uniformly available in AFAS. Super convenient!” Jiska explains.
Benefits of digital personnel files
The digitisation of personnel files offers Douglas clear advantages:
- Quick access: information is instantly available.
- Efficiency: less time spent searching and scanning physical documents.
- Compliance: automatic linking of retention periods to information.
- Clear structure and ease of use: a uniform setup in AFAS and easily retrievable information.
Fast and professional
Jiska concludes: "The project went very well and we are extremely satisfied. We often say to each other how great it is that we can now find everything so easily. This is partly thanks to the speed and professionalism of Archive-IT.”
Archive-IT thanks Douglas for their trust and looks forward to the future!