Paperless and Secure: How eSignatures Speed Up Your Hiring Process

A signed contract is one of the last steps before a new starter can formally begin work. In most care organisations, it is also one of the slowest. The contract is drafted, converted to a PDF, emailed to the candidate, and then the waiting begins.

The candidate needs to print it. Not everyone has a printer at home. They need to sign it. They need to scan it or photograph it. They need to email it back. The quality of the photograph is poor. The pages are out of order. The manager asks them to resend. This process takes between three days and two weeks, and it adds zero value to either party.

There is a better approach, and it is not new. eSignatures are legally binding, widely accepted in UK employment law, and have been standard practice in many sectors for years. For regulated services still relying on printed and posted contracts, switching to digital signing is one of the simplest operational improvements available.

The Problem With Printing, Scanning, and Posting

The print-sign-scan-return process seems functional until you examine it from the candidate’s perspective and count the points of friction.

Access inequality. Not all candidates have access to a printer. Those who do not have to find one, which may mean going to a library, a workplace, or asking a family member. This adds days to a process that should take minutes.

Scan quality. A contract photographed on a phone camera in variable lighting is a poor document. Pages can be out of sequence, parts of the text can be obscured, and the signature may not be clearly legible. The manager receives something that barely constitutes a valid signed record.

Return delays. Even when a candidate has access to a printer and scanner, the process competes with the rest of their life. It is easy to intend to do it today and find that a week has passed. Without a chaser, the contract sits unsigned in an inbox.

Filing. The returned contract arrives as an email attachment. It needs to be saved, named correctly, and filed in the right location. If the manager receiving it is not the person responsible for filing, there is another handoff. Documents saved in email folders are not controlled storage and do not constitute a proper compliance record.

Postal contracts. For providers still sending physical contracts by post, the delays are even more significant. A contract sent by post may take two to three days to arrive. The candidate signs it and posts it back. Another two to three days. A process that should take one day takes ten.

“We still see providers waiting two weeks for a signed contract to come back. In that fortnight, good candidates have been offered roles elsewhere. It is the most avoidable delay in the whole hiring process.” — Orta

Are eSignatures Legally Binding in the UK?

Yes. This question comes up frequently and the answer is straightforward.

Under the Electronic Communications Act 2000 and in line with eIDAS Regulation as retained in UK law following Brexit, electronic signatures are legally valid in the United Kingdom for the vast majority of contract types, including employment contracts.

A simple electronic signature, which is what a candidate produces when they type their name, draw a signature on a touchscreen, or click an acceptance button, is valid for standard employment contracts. More advanced qualified electronic signatures exist for specific legal contexts (property conveyancing, court documents) but are not required for employment purposes.

The practical requirements for an eSignature to be enforceable are that the person who signed can be identified, that they intended to sign, and that the document they signed is the document you received. A reputable eSignature platform captures all three: identity is confirmed through the signing process, intent is demonstrated by the act of signing, and the document is stored as a tamper-evident file with a certificate confirming its integrity.

What a valid eSignature record includes

• The signed document in its final form
• The date and time of signing
• The email address used to access the signing link, confirming the identity of the signer
• A certificate of completion confirming the document has not been altered since signing
• An audit trail showing when the document was sent, opened, and signed

 
This record is more robust than a scanned physical signature for most practical purposes. A scanned signature confirms that someone signed a piece of paper. An eSignature record confirms who signed it, when, and that the document has not been modified since.

The Security Case for Digital Contracts

Beyond legal validity, digital contracts have clear security advantages over physical ones in the context of employment data.

A signed physical contract contains a candidate’s personal information: name, address, National Insurance number, salary, and terms of employment. When that contract is returned by post or as an email attachment and filed in a physical folder or email inbox, the security protections around it are limited.

Digital contracts stored on a secure, GDPR-compliant platform are protected by encryption, access controls, and audit logging. Only authorised personnel can access them. Access is recorded. The document cannot be modified after signing. Retention policies can be applied automatically.

For regulated services handling large volumes of staff records, this is not a minor consideration. Data breaches in employment records carry significant regulatory and reputational consequences. A secure digital filing system for contracts is not an enhancement to best practice. In 2026, it is best practice.

Improving Candidate Experience With Mobile-Friendly Signing

The candidate experience of receiving a contract via a signing platform is qualitatively different from receiving a PDF by email.

The candidate receives a notification with a link. They open the link on their phone. The contract displays clearly, formatted for mobile reading. They read it. They sign it with a tap or a drawn signature. They receive an immediate confirmation that their signed copy has been sent to them and filed with the employer. The whole interaction takes between five and fifteen minutes.

This experience sends a message. It says that the organisation is modern, organised, and has thought about making the process straightforward for the person joining. That impression matters. Why your best candidates are dropping out before day one establishes that candidates form lasting impressions of an employer during the pre-employment phase. A clean, mobile-first contract signing process is a small thing that contributes to a positive overall impression.

For candidates who accept their offer in the evening, at a weekend, or while travelling, mobile signing means the contract can be returned the same day it is sent regardless of whether they are at a desk. The return rate and return speed for digitally signed contracts is significantly higher than for printed alternatives.

How eSignatures Fit Into an Integrated Onboarding Process

When eSignatures are part of an integrated onboarding platform rather than a standalone tool bolted onto an email process, the benefits compound.

The contract is triggered automatically when the relevant onboarding stage is reached. It is pre-populated with the candidate’s details from their profile, removing the risk of manual errors in the document. When signed, the completed contract is filed directly in the candidate’s compliance record. No saving. No renaming. No filing by a person who may file it incorrectly.

The compliance dashboard updates to reflect the signed contract as a completed step. If the contract has not been signed within a defined window, a reminder is sent automatically. The manager does not need to track this manually.

When the contract is one of the final pre-employment steps, its completion can trigger the next stage: confirmation to the scheduling team that the candidate is ready for their first shift, or an automated update to the candidate’s status in the rota system.

This is the difference between eSignature as a feature and eSignature as part of a process. The time saving is not just the ten minutes the candidate spends signing. It is the elimination of every manual step around the contract in a process where those manual steps currently add days.

Moving Away From Paper: Practical Steps

For providers currently running a fully paper-based or email-based contract process, moving to digital signing does not require a significant transition.

Step 1: Template your contracts digitally. If your contracts are already word-processed documents, converting them to a digital signing format is straightforward. The templates are uploaded to the platform once and used for every subsequent hire.

Step 2: Confirm your signing workflow. Decide which roles require which contract templates. Confirm the order of signing if multiple parties need to sign (for example, the candidate and a manager countersigning). Set up the automated trigger for when contracts are sent.

Step 3: Communicate the change to candidates. Most candidates are familiar with eSignature platforms from other contexts (tenancy agreements, insurance documents, bank accounts). A brief note explaining how the process works and what to expect is usually all that is needed.

Step 4: Archive historic paper contracts appropriately. Existing signed paper contracts should be retained for the required period under your data retention policy. You do not need to digitise them unless you choose to. New hires from the point of switching will have digital records.

For the broader picture of how digital contracts fit into the full pre-employment journey from offer to first shift, see From Offer Accepted to First Shift. For a full comparison of what a digitally-supported onboarding process looks like against a manual one across every stage, read Manual vs. Automated Onboarding: A Side-by-Side Comparison.

Book a demo with Orta to see how digital contracts and eSignatures work within the full onboarding and compliance platform.