(Start Small With One Process)
If you have tuned in to any of our other blogs, then you know how much we hate paperwork. Our reasons for this are endless. They range from the lack of security and communication between departments, to the overall confusion and frustration that comes with housing thousands of forms in filing cabinets across your district for years or even decades. In our opinion, paperless paperwork is the way to go, and others agree.
We have spent the past few years consulting with hundreds of school districts across the nation, bringing these issues to light and offering solutions that have improved the lives of stakeholders district-wide. From upper administration all the way down to students and even parents, automating and digitizing workflows has been a game-changer.
Going Paperless in Three Simple Steps
The biggest issue we’ve encountered over time is the notion that going paperless district is nearly impossible. Many believe it would require every staff and faculty member becoming a technology wizard capable of understanding complex programs. We can understand how new technology can be intimidating but, with LINQ, we guarantee that taking your district paperless is easier than you think. In fact, it’s a simple, three-step process.
Step 1: Choose Your Process
If your district is like most then you likely have no shortage of paper-based processes to choose from – new student registration, employee PTO requests, vendor contracts, you name it!
Feeling overwhelmed by your options? Start with the process that has given you or your teams the biggest headaches in the last school year. A good rule of thumb is this: if the thought of never dealing with that process ever again makes you smile, you have chosen the right one!
You can also browse through some of the processes that have helped other districts go paperless, as well as the benefits they’ve experienced as a result.
Step 2: Start Using Digital Forms
Once you’ve chosen your first process, it’s time to eliminate paper by using digital forms. You may be thinking that digital forms are complicated and expensive, right? Well, that may be true with other services out there, but LINQ offers a digital form gallery that allows you to download forms and start using them right away for free!
Choose from over 50 forms, input your school’s information, and voila – they’re ready to go. We understand your job as an educator is demanding, and that’s why we created this free tool for you to use whenever you need it – no commitment required!
Should you decide to take your paperless journey even further and start working with us here at LINQ, you will have the ability to create your own customized forms from scratch in a matter of minutes. In fact, you can even recreate the exact same forms you have been using for years with our form builder. Now you won’t even have to bother your IT guy!
Step 3: Create a Workflow
Your journey towards a paperless district won’t make it very far without a workflow automation tool like LINQ. Sure, you could download all of the documents your district needs, fill them out and email them around to the staff members that need them, and it wouldn’t cost you a cent!
However, it would require an unnecessary amount of emails, and you’d be missing out on the biggest benefit of going paperless – automated workflows.
What LINQ offers your school district is more than just a simplified way to digitize your documents. With LINQ, you can create workflows, or process maps, that run from beginning to end automatically. Your processes can be created, distributed, approved, and securely filed 100% digitally. Say goodbye to the need for printers, copiers, shredders, and our least favorite, filing cabinets.
These are just a few of the benefits of going paperless:
- A heightened level of security to your district’s most sensitive information
- Powerful analytics that can give administrators a line of sight into their finances
- Help improve what’s most important – your students’ education.
If you’d like to have some of these benefits for your district, reach out to us and we’ll tell you exactly how we can help.