The supply situation on the paper market is currently tense. Prices are rising and there are supply bottlenecks. The shortage of paper has even been cited as an obstacle to the implementation of compulsory vaccination in Germany. The Association of Statutory Health Insurance Funds (GKV) expressed concerns that the current shortage would result in a lack of paper for the 120 million letters sent to members.
Currently, a conservative estimate is that about 30 million sheets of paper are used unnecessarily every month for the delivery of pay slips. Yet there are already digital alternatives. The software e-Gehalt, for example, enables large companies to digitise the postal delivery of payslips and other HR documents, regardless of the HCM system used (SAP, LOGA, ADP, etc.). According to § 126b of the German Civil Code, a paper document can be replaced by a digital document with a qualified electronic signature in accordance with the Signature Act. This means that the paper-based payslip can be replaced by an electronically delivered document.
With e-Gehalt, the employees of the affiliated companies get access to a web app that even works without the employees' email addresses if necessary. This way, employees can access their HR documents digitally at any time. This is just one example of how paper can be made redundant in corporate use. But it is precisely this approach that offers significant savings potential in terms of the amount of paper produced each month in Germany.
