Streamlining Human Resources Records Management

Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services Embraces Digitization to Streamline Human Resources Records Management

The Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services (KCHFS), the state agency that administers programs to promote the mental and physical health of Kentuckians, faced significant challenges with its paper-based filing system for managing employee records. With 7,000 active employees and the requirement to maintain five years of inactive files, the manual process of managing and accessing records created tremendous backlogs. The department struggled with the inefficiencies of working with a paper filing system, the inability to keep up with the growing volumes of records, and overall wanted to expedite the response time for requests. The existing process required significant time and resources to manually locate physical records - finding a file to fulfill a request could take as long as a day. KCHFS also needed to a solution that would integrate digitized files seamlessly into the department's OnBase platform.

KCHFS collaborated with Iron Mountain to implement a comprehensive digitization solution to automate and streamline this process. A workflow was established to prioritize records for digitization based on demand, ensuring prompt service without compromising the chain of custody. The solution included metadata extraction to KCHFS parameters and direct imaging into the OnBase platform for frontend engagement, ensuring seamless integration and making all files searchable within the platform. Lastly, to meet KCHFS's retention policy, Iron Mountain also provided storage services for records after they were digitized to reduce onsite storage footprint.

All in all, KCHFS was able to digitize over 2 million records, and retrieval time went from days or hours to seconds. Automating the labor-intensive process of maintaining paper records also condensed hours of effort into minutes. As a result, the small team at KCHFS can now redirect their focus towards supporting hiring and retention initiatives, onboarding processes, and vital office administration tasks.

KCHFS and Iron Mountain's partnership is a prime example of the transformative potential of digital solutions in addressing the legacy processes faced by state agencies across the country. KCHFS's success serves as inspiration and guidance for the many agencies grappling with outdated paper-based systems and looking to kickstart their digitization journey. By embracing digital transformation, automation and industry partnerships, state agencies like KCHFS can empower their employees and better serve their citizens.