The Adecco Group digitises workflows to deliver better experiences for clients and partners

For The Adecco Group, modernising the way agreements are prepared, signed, enacted and managed was essential. 

In Asia Pacific alone, the company processes thousands of agreements each week. These include a variety of contracts, but mainly service agreements with clients for permanent placement, temporary staffing and business process outsourcing services, as well as employment agreements with personnel seconded to their clients. 

In the past, the processes involved in coming to agreement were almost entirely manual, wasting time and resources on printing, scanning and shuffling agreements between three or four internal approvers before they were even sent out the door. 

There was also an unacceptable cost associated with storing paper-based contracts for seven years, based on the Adecco Group’s internal policies. 

The Adecco Group felt strongly that eliminating the inefficiency and frustration surrounding agreements would not only benefit employees, but also clients.

Driving digitisation 

By adopting DocuSign, The Adecco Group has brought decades old processes into the digital age. The DocuSign Agreement platform has a staggering 98 percent average adoption rate across users in the seven countries in APAC in which Adecco has deployed it. In the year to date, around 50,000 agreements have been completed digitally, saving the company significant costs, and providing a much faster and more compliant service to its many clients. 

“There’s a big opportunity for DocuSign to help us streamline and track approvals and better manage industry and internal compliance,” says Estrada. The Adecco Group is using DocuSign for contract management in Taiwan. There, contract owners use DocuSign to assemble agreements, route them to internal stakeholders for review and approval, and ultimately get them signed online, or even on a mobile phone. 

The digitisation of this process – which involved pen and paper in the past– improves the contract experience for everyone. Candidate approvals are faster, tracked through the contract process, and stored securely on the platform for auditing and compliance. 

The Adecco Group is far out-performing all client and candidate expectations when it comes to turnaround times. 

Estrada said the accelerated pace of business was especially valuable when it comes to executing short term contracts with employees.

“Our clients and candidates genuinely enjoy the convenience of signing agreements electronically,” he said. “They’re digitally savvy, ready to embrace eSignature, and more satisfied.” 

The Adecco Group is continuing to roll-out DocuSign as both an electronic signature and contract management solution across Asia Pacific, Estrada stating there’s been strong support from both managers and employees. 

“As soon as employees realise the process is faster using DocuSign, they are quick to adopt it,” he said. “They don’t see it as another legal tool, more like something that supports them in enabling them do their job better.” 

“Our industry is experiencing a significant wave of digitisation, and we want to be at the forefront of that, using technologies like DocuSign to put people into the right roles faster,” says Estrada. “I can see this evolving to a point where our contracts are informed by AI and we know our client and candidate base to the point where every interaction is highly individualised.”