DrugTestNetwork’s Signature Documents feature provides subscribers with a practical way to extend the system beyond drug and alcohol testing by helping manage documents that need to be completed, signed, and retained as part of the employee or driver onboarding process.
How the feature is used will depend largely upon the type of organization using DrugTestNetwork.
For an employer subscriber, Signature Documents can become part of an internal onboarding process managed by HR or administrative personnel.
For a TPA subscriber, the same feature can be offered to employer customers as an additional service that helps manage part of their onboarding process.
In either case, the objective is the same: keep important employment and compliance documents within the same system where the employee, driver, or applicant is already being managed.
What Are Signature Documents?
Signature Documents are electronic forms that can be issued to an applicant, employee, driver, customer contact, or other designated signer.
Depending upon the document, the recipient may be asked to:
- enter required information;
- review disclosures or instructions;
- provide an electronic signature;
- acknowledge or authorize an action; and
- complete the document for return to the subscriber or employer.
Once completed, the resulting document can be retained with the participant’s records in DrugTestNetwork.
The workflow is straightforward:
Issue the document → complete and sign the document → return the completed document to the participant’s records.
Because the process is integrated into DrugTestNetwork, the completed document does not have to be retrieved from an unrelated electronic-signature service and then manually associated with the employee.
Using Signature Documents During Onboarding
Employee and driver onboarding frequently involves much more than ordering a drug test.
A new employee or driver may need to complete an employment application, review required disclosures, provide authorizations, acknowledge company requirements, and submit other documents before beginning work.
Signature Documents allows these forms to become part of an organized electronic workflow.
A typical process might be:
- The applicant or employee is added to DrugTestNetwork.
- The appropriate Signature Documents are selected.
- The documents are issued electronically to the applicant or other required signer.
- The recipient completes and signs the documents.
- Completed documents are returned to the participant’s document records for later reference.
This reduces the need to print documents, obtain handwritten signatures, scan completed pages, and manually upload them back into the participant’s file.
The process can be particularly useful for employers with employees in multiple locations, remote applicants, field personnel, or decentralized HR operations.
When the Subscriber Is the Employer
DrugTestNetwork has always supported organizations that use the system directly as employers, in addition to TPAs that manage testing programs for their customers.
For an employer subscriber, the administrative users may be HR personnel, safety personnel, compliance staff, or other internal administrators responsible for employee records.
In that environment, Signature Documents represents a natural expansion of DrugTestNetwork into employee onboarding.
The accounts within the subscriber’s database may represent different ways employees are organized within the company. For example, accounts may correspond to:
- geographic locations;
- operating facilities;
- divisions;
- departments;
- business units; or
- other internal organizational groups.
Signature Documents can follow that same structure.
An HR administrator may therefore manage onboarding documents for employees across several facilities or departments while still retaining each employee’s completed documents with that individual’s records.
This allows DrugTestNetwork to gradually become more than a testing-management application. It can also serve as a practical employee-document and onboarding resource for organizations already using the system to manage their workforce.
When the Subscriber Is a TPA
For a TPA, the structure is somewhat different.
The accounts being managed generally represent separate employer customers rather than departments within the TPA’s own organization.
In this environment, Signature Documents gives the TPA an opportunity to provide an additional service to those customers.
The TPA may already help an employer:
- maintain employee or driver rosters;
- manage random testing programs;
- order or coordinate testing;
- monitor compliance requirements;
- maintain driver qualification information; and
- retain supporting documents.
Signature Documents allows the TPA to assist with another portion of the employer’s workflow.
Instead of telling the customer that a new applicant must complete several forms and leaving the employer to manage the process independently, the TPA can make those documents available through DrugTestNetwork and help establish a repeatable electronic process.
This does not require the TPA to become a complete HR or applicant-tracking provider. It simply allows the TPA to offer a useful onboarding function that complements services it already provides.
Creating Customer Stickiness
For TPAs, Signature Documents can also strengthen the relationship with employer customers.
Drug and alcohol testing is an important service, but much of the activity surrounding an employee takes place outside the actual testing event.
When the customer begins using DrugTestNetwork not only for testing, but also for onboarding documents, employee records, driver qualification information, and related administrative functions, the system becomes more integrated into the customer’s normal workflow.
That creates customer stickiness.
The value is not based upon making it difficult for a customer to leave. It comes from making the service genuinely more useful.
When an employer becomes accustomed to adding an applicant, issuing required documents, receiving completed forms, and maintaining those documents with the employee’s records, the TPA is providing more than a testing transaction. It is providing part of the customer’s operating infrastructure.
That expanded relationship can help distinguish the TPA from competitors that provide testing services alone.
Documents Can Be Issued Individually or as a Package
Not every employer requires the same onboarding documents.
DrugTestNetwork therefore allows Signature Documents to be selected from the available master documents and assigned according to the needs of the organization.
Documents may also be organized into packages.
A package is a group of documents that are commonly issued together. Instead of selecting several forms individually each time a new applicant is processed, the administrator can issue the appropriate package.
For example, an FMCSA driver onboarding package might contain:
- Driver Employment Application
- Fair Credit Reporting Act disclosure or authorization
- Pre-Employment Screening Program (PSP) authorization
- Certificate of Driver’s Road Test
The exact documents included will depend upon the employer’s hiring process, regulatory requirements, and the services being provided.
Packages make a repetitive onboarding process easier to administer while still allowing individual documents to be issued when necessary.
Keeping Documents Connected to the Participant
One of the most useful aspects of an integrated document process is what happens after the signature is obtained.
With a stand-alone electronic-signature service, the completed document may arrive by email or remain stored in a separate document account. Someone must then determine where the document belongs and transfer it into the company’s permanent records.
Signature Documents is designed around the participant already maintained in DrugTestNetwork.
When a completed document is returned to the participant’s document clipboard, it remains associated with the employee or driver for whom it was issued.
This gives the administrator a more complete record and reduces the possibility that an important document will remain in an email inbox, downloads folder, shared drive, or unrelated electronic-signature system.
A Practical Starting Point for Onboarding
Signature Documents should not necessarily be viewed as an attempt to replace a complete human-resources management system.
Its value is that it can address a focused and useful portion of onboarding within a system the subscriber already uses.
For an employer, that may mean allowing HR personnel to electronically issue and retain commonly required employment documents.
For a TPA, it may mean providing customers with a convenient onboarding service alongside testing and compliance management.
A smaller employer may need nothing more than a reliable way to send several important documents to a new employee, obtain the required information and signatures, and retain the completed forms.
A larger employer may gradually incorporate additional forms and workflows as DrugTestNetwork becomes more closely integrated with its HR processes.
The feature can therefore grow according to the needs of the subscriber.
Building a Repeatable Process
As Signature Documents are introduced, administrators should consider which documents are routinely required for different groups of employees or customers.
An employer may create different packages for drivers, office personnel, warehouse employees, or individual facilities.
A TPA may create packages based upon the types of employers it serves or the regulatory programs it manages.
Once those requirements have been identified, the process becomes repeatable:
Add the applicant → select the appropriate documents or package → issue the documents → receive the completed documents.
The more consistent the process becomes, the more naturally Signature Documents can become part of normal employee administration.
Extending the Value of DrugTestNetwork
Signature Documents represents part of a broader evolution of DrugTestNetwork.
The employee or driver record is already the central point for testing history, compliance information, qualification records, and related documents. Adding onboarding documents extends that same concept to the beginning of the employment relationship.
For employer subscribers, that means DrugTestNetwork can increasingly support the internal HR and administrative processes associated with managing employees.
For TPAs, it means the platform can support a broader range of services that help customers manage their workforce while strengthening the continuing relationship between the TPA and the employer.
In both cases, the principle is the same:
Use the information and organizational structure already maintained in DrugTestNetwork to make another part of employee administration easier.
Getting Started
The best approach is to begin with a small, clearly defined onboarding process.
Identify the Signature Documents that are most commonly required, assign them to the appropriate accounts, organize frequently used documents into packages where appropriate, and begin issuing them as new applicants or employees are added.
Once the workflow is established, additional documents and packages can be introduced as the organization’s needs become clear.
Signature Documents is designed to make that process incremental: start with the forms that provide immediate value, establish a consistent workflow, and expand the on-boarding process as the subscriber or customer becomes ready for additional capabilities.