A scanning and digitisation service turns client paper into searchable files at volume. Operators repeat the same movements for hours, quality checks decide whether the job is accepted, and the client's records must stay safe.
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Share your requirementsA digitisation service collects boxes of files from hospitals, banks, schools, builders or government offices, prepares them, scans them on production scanners, indexes them and returns both images and paper. The team has a project manager, preparation staff who remove staples and sort pages, scanner operators, quality checkers, indexing and data-entry staff, and drivers who carry boxes. Jobs are priced per page or per file, so output targets drive pay and mood. Work is repetitive and tiring for eyes and hands. Clients entrust confidential papers, and any loss or leak is serious. Project sizes vary, so staff are hired for months and released. Scanner downtime hits the whole line. See also HR for professional services.
These are the places the people side of this kind of business tends to give way. The rest of this page works through them.
HR here has to work for each of these groups, not only the office. The set-up below is written with all of them in mind.
GullyHR runs talent acquisition for permanent roles in document scanning and digitisation services. For each role we agree the job description with you, find and screen candidates against it, and support the offer through to joining. Tell us the role and the number of people, and we start there.
We recruit permanent employees. We do not supply contract or temporary staff.
Every business interviews, but few have a written process that works the same way for every role and every interviewer. GullyHR designs yours, from the role brief to the offer, trains your managers to run it, and can run it for you on the roles you hand us.
We agree what the role must deliver, the must-have and nice-to-have skills, and how each will be scored.
Screening call, assessment, interview rounds and decision points, sized to the role and the number of people you hire.
Structured questions for each role family and a rating guide, so two interviewers judge the same answer the same way.
A short briefing for your managers on what to ask, what to avoid and how to give a clear yes or no.
Who approves, how the offer is made, and how candidates are kept informed from first call to joining.
Operators race to hit a count, skipped or doubled pages creep in, and quality checkers become the people everyone blames.
Hours at the scanner and monitor cause strain, and nobody is told to stretch, rest or report pain.
Medical, financial and personal files pass through many hands, yet staff are rarely briefed on what they must not copy or discuss.
A big job needs fifty hands for two months and then none, so trained operators are released and new ones must be taught again.
Poor preparation, such as folded pages or mixed files, causes scanner jams and rework, but prep staff are the lowest paid and least recognised.
Deadlines near the end of a project mean extra shifts, with little thought for rest or safe travel at night.
Boxes move between the client, store, prep area and scanner, and if a box is unrecorded, a missing file may take days to find.
The best operator becomes a supervisor with no training in people management, and results suffer.
Start with the topics that matter most here: Performance Management; Health, Safety and Wellbeing; Policies, Compliance and Governance. Then work through the rest. Each topic is written for professional services, not in general.
Goals, reviews and ratings that hold up in a conversation.
Induction, records, incident reporting and follow-through.
Policies a manager can apply, and obligations with owners and dates.
How many people, in which roles, by when — and what they will cost.
Structure, reporting lines and who is allowed to decide what.
Requisition to joining, the same way every time.
A first day that is the same for the fifth joiner as the first.
Records, attendance, leave and the day-to-day HR that must simply work.
Salary structure, payroll inputs and a month that closes on time.
Training planned from need rather than from the calendar.
Named backups for the roles that cannot be vacant.
Communication, recognition and the conditions people actually work in.
Two routes — one for complaints, one for conduct — kept separate.
Who leaves, when, why — and which of them mattered.
Resignation to relieving letter, in a defined order.
Records that survive people, and approvals that do not queue.
A short monthly pack management actually reads.
An HR function that runs the same way every month.
The pieces a document scanning and digitisation services business puts in place, in an order that makes each easier. Open any card for the detail.
Count only accepted pages, publish the error rate and give small recognition for clean batches.
Count only accepted pages, publish the error rate and give small recognition for clean batches. Use the performance management process to track both.
Seating, screen height, short breaks and eye care guidance, supported by workplace health, safety and wellbeing.
Seating, screen height, short breaks and eye care guidance, supported by workplace health, safety and wellbeing.
A written code for staff and a short briefing at joining, plus rules on phones, bags and removable media on the floor.
A written code for staff and a short briefing at joining, plus rules on phones, bags and removable media on the floor. Document through the HR documentation process.
A list of good operators who return for the next project, with a simple call-back arrangement and a short refresher.
A list of good operators who return for the next project, with a simple call-back arrangement and a short refresher.
A sign-in and sign-out for each box at every stage, checked at day end.
A sign-in and sign-out for each box at every stage, checked at day end.
A short module on briefing, feedback and handling targets fairly.
A short module on briefing, feedback and handling targets fairly. The learning and development process can deliver it.
Before changing anything, find out what is true today. These checks take an afternoon and tell you which of the topics above to start with.
Share your requirementsConfirm with a qualified professional. What applies to you depends on your business, your state and your arrangements, and it changes. This page describes practice. It does not state a legal position.
The services below fit this kind of business best. Each starts by recording where you stand, and every later report compares against that. We do not promise outcomes.
Targets that count quality and output together.
Ergonomics and rest for repetitive scanning work.
Confidentiality terms and floor rules signed by every operator.
Supervisor training and refreshers for returning project staff.
Start with a free conversation, or see the paid HR Diagnostic.
Understand the business, its workforce, current processes and HR challenges.
Find the missing, weak, inconsistent or person-dependent processes.
Create the structure, processes, policies, SOPs, dashboards and systems needed.
Help HR and department managers actually adopt the new system.
Digitise repetitive and approval-based workflows where it is worth doing.
Track hiring, attendance, employee cost, performance, training and attrition.
Strengthen the people-management system continuously, not once.
From the GullyHR blog: one on HR in professional services, and one on each of the topics this page points to.
Why associates and managers leave consulting, accounting, legal and advisory firms, and how to ask about progression, workload and partners at exit.
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A practical design for an IT services appraisal cycle: when to run it, how to rate fairly across projects, and how to explain hikes so they hold.
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A shift, weekly and monthly safety routine for rubber plants that names who checks platen guards, mill trip bars, autoclave doors, burst-test cages and slings, and who acts on near misses.
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How an India head can sort a global parent's HR policies into apply, adapt or replace, write an India addendum with advisers, and keep headquarters on side.
7 min readRead articleMore on the GullyHR blog.
Count only accepted pages, show error rates beside output and reward clean batches. Speed alone quietly raises rework.
Adjust seating and screens, build short breaks into the shift and ask staff to report pain early. Consult a qualified professional on health duties.
Keep a call-back list, offer a first call on the next project and run a short refresher. Some will wait for you if they know the next start date.
Limit phones and bags, brief staff, log access to boxes and write the rules into terms. Check legal duties with a qualified professional.
Show how their work reduces jams and rework, give them a quality share and offer a route to operator or checker roles.
Targets and quality, rest and ergonomics, confidentiality and call-back of project staff are typical starting points. We begin by hearing how a recent project was staffed. Scope, timing and fees follow in writing.
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