Digitizing Employment Contracts in the School HR Department Reduced Signer Workload and Shortened Contract Completion Time

How were contracts created and exchanged before introducing SignTime?

At Laurus International School, the Human Resources Department mainly handled employment contracts for both fixed-term and permanent employees, while the General Affairs and Facilities Management departments managed outsourcing and vendor agreements.

In Human Resources, employment contracts, employee consent forms, and other documents were all managed on paper. Contract terms did not vary significantly by campus, but they differed depending on job category such as teachers, reception staff, and childcare workers.

Which tasks were especially burdensome under the paper-based process?

The biggest challenges were contract status tracking and document collection. Contracts were converted to PDF and sent by email, while progress was managed individually through Excel. This made it difficult to understand the overall contract situation in real time, often resulting in missed follow-ups and manual confirmation work.

The signing process also relied on paper. Signers had to print contracts, sign and stamp them, scan the documents, convert them into PDF files, and return them by email.

Because the process required many steps, waiting for signatures was common. In some cases, contract completion took up to one month through email exchanges.

During peak hiring and renewal periods in March and July to August, workloads increased significantly, creating backlogs and slowing overall operations.

What led you to introduce electronic contracts?

The main reason was the ongoing inefficiency in contract operations. Staff directly involved in the process, including myself and surrounding team members, repeatedly requested improvements. There was strong recognition that contract processing speed needed to improve.

As part of this initiative, the system was introduced simultaneously across three departments.

Why did you choose SignTime among many available services?

During the comparison process, SignTime and one other provider were shortlisted.
Compared with competing services, SignTime offered lower implementation costs while also receiving strong evaluations for ease of use and practical usability in day-to-day operations.
A key deciding factor was that even staff unfamiliar with IT tools could use the system intuitively, making internal adoption easier.
As a result, the organization felt confident that digitalization could move forward smoothly without increasing operational burden.

Please tell us about the workflow after introducing SignTime.

Now, after sending contracts, staff can track progress from signature request to final completion directly within SignTime. This allows the team to understand in real time who is responsible at each stage.
As a result, pending signatures are easier to identify, and follow-up actions can be handled more efficiently.
In addition, the search function allows past contracts to be accessed immediately, making document retrieval faster and smoother.

What results have you seen after introducing SignTime?

The main benefits gained through SignTime are as follows.

1. Reduced signer workload and faster contract completion
   Previously, signers had to receive emails, print PDFs, sign and stamp documents, scan them, and return them by email. After implementation, they only need to open the email and sign online.

This simplified workflow greatly reduced signer workload and significantly improved contract turnaround speed.

2. Reduced administrative work caused by scan errors
   Previously, returned scan files often had issues such as invisible signatures, cut-off pages, unreadable black-and-white copies, or pages arranged in the wrong order. Each issue required correction requests or resubmission handling.

After moving to electronic contracts, these problems were eliminated, significantly reducing administrative workload.

3. Improved management efficiency through status visibility and searchability
   Contract sending status and signature progress can now be checked in real time through SignTime, allowing staff to immediately identify which contracts are still awaiting signatures.

This reduced the need for manual follow-up and status checks.
In addition, past contracts can now be searched instantly, making it easier to confirm contract terms and reference previous cases. This has improved overall contract management efficiency.

How did business partners and counterparties respond to electronic contracts?

Business partners and related parties already familiar with electronic contracts accepted the system smoothly, and operations have continued without issues.

On the other hand, some counterparties such as foreign-owned companies prefer paper contracts due to internal security policies. For that reason, the school currently uses both electronic and paper contracts depending on the situation.

Are there any future workflows you would like to digitize or SignTime features you would like to use more?

Going forward, the school is considering digitizing internal documents such as evaluation sheets.
They also plan to utilize SignTime’s alert function to help prevent missed renewals of employment contracts.