World Environment Day: From filing reimbursements online to income tax payment - how an employee can help Mother Earth

World Environment Day is celebrated globally every year on June 5th. This creates awareness and encourages action to protect Mother Earth. Every year, a new theme is picked and celebrated. For 2019, China has been announced as the host country and the theme is 'Best Air Pollution'. To safeguard the environment, every little step can help. And yes, it even applies too the business world. Notably, both employer and employees can take steps to protect the environment. And how can the business world participate? These days, digitization is seen as the best alternative to paper usage. 

Talking about this day, Ramki Gaddipati,co-founder & CTO, Zeta says, “It is imperative that every employee of an organization does their bit, a conscious attempt to go paperless can be an excellent starter to save paper. While there are some processes that still require paper, there are a lot of platforms that an employee can adopt to reduce their carbon footprint.”

Here are 4 steps that an employee/organization can take towards saving their environment, as per the Zeta CTO. 

1.File reimbursements online: 

Employees have been filing their reimbursements manually for as long as we can remember. Now, imagine the amount of time and effort that is wasted and not to forget the amount of paper that is thereby used! Now, things can be changed provided there is a strong inclination to do so. There are multiple platforms that help digitize the entire process—from the distribution of grants at an HR manager’s end, to completely digitizing the way claims are uploaded, tracked and finally claimed by employees. Zero use of paper translates into a big step towards improving the environment!

2. Storing documents virtually: 

Employees often print documents that have to be shared across offices or they just carry the same to a meeting. With a platform like Google Drive, an employee has the liberty of not only storing documents but preparing them on the go too. This means employees can use these tools for writing reports, creating slideshow presentations all on the same platform. So next time you’re about to hit “Ctrl+P” or thinking of starting a new journal, consider adopting a paperless method through Google Drive!

3. Virtual team messaging: 

Team messengers in general offer a platform that helps people connect anytime, anywhere and aids the virtual workforce. Lesser meetings, lesser paperwork, lesser huddling for catch up on calls. The rich and intuitive messenger, as well as the customizable modules help people to manage their teams and processes better with automated workflow. These powerful platforms also enable users to integrate frequently used external apps (like Google Drive, Instagram, Facebook and more) and even build custom app, bots, and integrations. The most handy team messengers available today are Flock, Yahoo Messengers, Hangouts etc

4. Digital HR processes: 

Every employee must be familiar with using paper for processes like leave application, income tax declaration etc. If they adopt a platform like Pocket HCM – an employee self-service portal that will give you the freedom to view, manage and update your personal details on the go. This not only means faster processes but less wastage of paper as everything is digitized!