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People: staff, HR and payroll3 min read

Signing employment documents electronically

A contract a staff member never saw is a contract that will not hold. Every employment document goes to their phone, is read in full, and is signed or acknowledged with the same evidence page a lease gets.

By the end of this pageYou will know which documents are signed, which are merely acknowledged, how the signing works for staff who may not have email, and when to use paper.
On this pageSign vs acknowledgeHow staff signStaff without email or a smartphoneValidity
What staff signAnimated
Contractat hireJob descriptionat hireHandbook ack.at hire · each revisionPayslipseach period · receipt onlyReview outcomeI have read thisDisciplinary noticesreceipt, with a reply fieldPay changeagreementClearance / exitat separationSame signing door as leases: link to their phone → read the whole document → sign or acknowledge → evidence page sealed inStaff without a smartphone: print, sign in ink, scan to the record — filed the same way, marked signed on paper.

Sign vs acknowledge

Signed means agreed: the contract, a pay change, an exit clearance. Acknowledged means received and read: the handbook, a payslip, a review outcome, a disciplinary notice. The button says which, the document says which, and an acknowledgement never implies agreement — a disciplinary notice's acknowledgement carries a reply field precisely so the employee can disagree on the record.

How staff sign

A link to their phone by WhatsApp or SMS; they open it with their personal PIN or password. The document is shown in full — scrolling to the end is required before the button enables. They type their name or draw, tick the consent, done. The sealed PDF with the evidence page goes to their record and to their My account.

Staff without email or a smartphone

Print the filled document, sign in ink with a witness, scan or photograph it to the record. It is filed as signed on paper with the date. The platform does not treat this as lesser — it is the same record with a different evidence page.

Validity

The Electronic Commerce Act applies to employment documents as to leases. What matters for a dispute is the evidence: identity, the exact document, the time, the consent, and that the person could read it. The electronic signatures article explains what is kept. For documents DOLE may ask to see, a printed copy of the sealed PDF with its evidence page is what you show.

Revisions. A revised handbook is a new acknowledgement for everyone, tracked as a list of who has and has not. The old acknowledgement stays on file against the old version.

Related

People · 4 minEmployment recordsRead the article →Clients · 5 minElectronic signaturesRead the article →People · 4 minDisciplinariesRead the article →
←  DisciplinariesView as a staff member  →

Describes the platform as it is today. Something out of date? Tell us. · help 0.12.3