Docusign helps Queensland Alumina unearth the best talent

Queensland Alumina Limited (QAL), located in Gladstone, Queensland, has been producing alumina since 1967. The business is an integral part of the Gladstone community and its 1000 employees. To help streamline its human resources operations and enhance the workflow, QAL began looking at digitisation. Enter Docusign eSignature and the Docusign Agreement Cloud.

 “We hire about 150 employees per year,” explains QAL’s HR Systems Payroll & Benefits Specialist, Brett Waddell.

“We needed to streamline our HR operations. We were emailing new employees a zip file with 16 new starter documents that they needed to print and fill out. We had to sell ourselves better to prospective employees as a modern business. So, we started using Docusign.”

Greater visibility and transparency for onboarding workflows

Docusign’s ease of use attracted QAL to the technology. The tool not only offers a future employee a simple way to sign multiple agreements but it also allows for greater transparency. The HR team had full visibility and transparency over the status of onboarding documentation.

“The big thing for us was the ability to share envelopes amongst HR advisors. Once an advisor had sent an offer, another could still view that envelope,” says Brett.

Also, instead of an employee writing their name on each form, Docusign lets them automatically populate signature fields. 

“It’s an elimination of unnecessary effort,” says Brett. “With Docusign’s functionality, we could make some fields mandatory and others optional. It streamlined the whole signing process.” 

A modern employer to attract the right talent

The company’s HR team has reacted positively to the implementation of Docusign eSignature and see it as a step in the right direction. 

Docusign’s eSignature platform has also helped QAL manage COVID-19 disruptions and appeal to a younger, digitally savvy demographic.

“We are embarking on a new project to modernise how we interact with new employees,” adds Brett.

“There’s a war on finding talent at the moment and it’s becoming harder to find good people,” explains Brett. “If someone has a few offers on the table and one’s in an email that needs printing, and another is sitting on a phone waiting for an electronic signature– the choice is obvious.”

“Docusign was commercially attractive, and the time it took to implement was second to none,” adds Brett. 

“QAL evaluates technology closely before implementing any solution.  There needs to be a business imperative to use it. And, Docusign is imperative.”