From paper to productivity: How manufacturers are transforming HR with Kainos EDM and Workday
In manufacturing, efficiency drives everything, from the production line to supply chain operations. Yet HR processes often lag behind, with paper-based onboarding, manual approvals, and slow compliance checks creating bottlenecks. These delays slow onboarding, keeping skilled workers off the production floor and away from the work that matters most.
Forward-thinking manufacturers are now embracing Kainos Employee Document Management (EDM), a Workday-approved solution that fully digitises HR document processes. The outcome? Faster onboarding, seamless compliance, and real productivity gains for your workforce.
The HR challenge: Paperwork slowing down the frontline
Large, often high-turnover workforces create unique HR pressures in manufacturing. Manual document management adds delays, cost, and risk.
Common challenges include:
• Manual onboarding with paper forms and in-person signatures
• Workforce without corporate email access
• Multilingual requirements and fragmented document storage
• Complex retention and legal hold obligations for OSHA, I-9, and more
When these processes remain disconnected from Workday, HR teams lose valuable time on admin tasks instead of focusing on workforce engagement and productivity.
The Kainos EDM difference: Streamlined HR Document Management inside Workday
Kainos EDM connects seamlessly into Workday to simplify how HR documents are created, signed, and managed, all in one secure, compliant system.
Key capabilities for manufacturing HR teams:
- Automated document workflows with in-person and digital signing (DocuSign/Adobe integration)
- Multilingual templates for diverse workforces
- Built-in automated compliance for retention, legal hold, and audit readiness
With Kainos EDM, HR teams can reduce onboarding time, improve compliance, and empower employees from day one.
Manufacturing industry success stories
Hilti: Balancing efficiency, security, and transparency
Industry: Construction and Manufacturing
Employees: ~33,000 globally, across 120+ countries
Challenges:
• Fragmented HR document management across multiple legacy platforms and regions
• Physical copies of employee documents leading to inefficiency and compliance risk
• Different regional systems making consistency, security, and transparency difficult
• Need for minimal manual work while meeting security, data protection, and compliance requirements
• Desire to give employees access to their own documents and improve overall HR experience
“We were always clear about the functional requirements we needed at a high level. We needed to cover document generation, electronic signatures, and document storage. And it had to be as little manual work as possible regarding security, data protection, and compliance.”
Kainos EDM Solution:
• Combined all HR document management processes under one system
• Local HR teams manage document templates, e-signature types, and workflows without IT intervention
• Automated document generation using Workday data placeholders
• Configurable retention, purging, and granular access rules to meet global compliance requirements
Impact:
• Centralised HR document management across 11 countries
• Significantly reduced manual HR workload
• Improved security, compliance, and transparency for employees and HR teams
• Empowered employees to access their own HR documents
• Provided a scalable, future-ready foundation for global HR operations
“We can be compliant. We can meet all the functional requirements. We can increase the efficiency of our HR administration teams. We can empower our employees.”
U.S. Manufacturer eliminates paper-based onboarding
Industry: Manufacturing
Employees: ~3,000 | Seasonal workforce
Challenges:
- Millions of documents in storage boxes
- Manual orientation and paper onboarding packets
- Multilingual workforce (75% Spanish-speaking)
- Compliance with OSHA and I-9 requirements
“If we could save six hours a week on orientation, that’s huge — that means a whole extra day for our people to be productive on the floor.”
Kainos EDM Solution:
• Digital employee records all stored in Workday
• Enabled in-person signing for employees without email access
• Applied plant-specific retention and compliance rules
• Embedded bilingual onboarding into Workday Learning
Impact:
• Eliminated 70-page orientation forms
• Saved 6 hours per orientation week, an extra day of productivity per employee
• Improved audit readiness and reduced HR workload
Global manufacturer simplifies HR operations across 100+ countries
Industry: Manufacturing and Supply Chain
Employees: 42,000+ globally, operating in over 100 countries
Challenges:
• Fragmented HR processes across multiple countries and systems
• Outdated, paper-based document management creating inefficiency and risk
• Growing data governance and compliance requirements
• HR teams carrying heavy operational load, risking errors and delays
• Systems lacking flexibility to scale, limiting agility and increasing costs
“Kainos EDM gave us flexibility, security, and automation allowing HR to focus on people, not paperwork.”
Kainos EDM Solution:
• Seamless integration into existing ways of working and business processes
• Utilised complex security setups while meeting local compliance needs
• User-friendly system leveraging Workday familiarity for employees and HR teams
• Automated mass document processes across global HR functions
Impact:
• 85% reduction in effort for creating and managing HR documents
• 80% of documents created without requiring any manual HR input
• Over 85% of HR colleagues highly satisfied with new workflows
• Improved global compliance and audit readiness
• Enabled HR teams to focus on people, not paperwork