Every now and again, in any one of the myriad recruiting and/or HR technology Facebook groups to which I belong, someone will post “OMG; I was just asked for my fax number! We haven’t used a fax machine in the office for 15 years!” Numerous people chime in with increasing incredulity: “WTF? That’s crazy! Who faxes things anymore? Luddites!.” Scorn and disdain are heaped upon anyone who still has and dares to use a fax machine.

Let me break this down; not every organization is fully tech-enabled. Not every organization is one that has launched within the last 5 years ready-to-roll with new equipment and of-the-moment functionalities. There are quite a few ginormous entities, especially of the governmental variety, that have not been able to transition due to the financial costs of such an undertaking; the NHS, according to a report from June, still has 11,620 fax machines in operation.

There are also numerous people – job seekers, consumers, citizens relying on the services of those vast governmental entities – who need to send documents without the benefit of a home PC and/or scanner. Yes, there IS a continuing digital divide. (As a point of note, I’ll be doing a Tech Talk on this topic at September’s HR Technology Conference).

In my human resources department, while we scan and email with massive, sometimes overwhelming, frequency, we still send/receive 15-20 faxes each week:

Verifications of employment

  • Banks, credit unions and mortgage companies continue to send the VOE (good old Form 1005!) via fax; the loan processor has filled it out by hand and our Payroll team fills it out by hand and faxes it back.
  • Rental companies and landlords send VOEs, usually just verifying that Sally Sue does, in fact, continue to draw a regular paycheck before they hand over the keys to the apartment or house.
  • Want to buy a car? Yup; faxed verification.

Pre-placement Drug Testing

  • The occupational medical clinic we use for pre-employment, post-accident and workers’ comp testing and care requires pre-authorization. Post-accident and W/C cases are managed in-person but new hires are given directions via phone of where to report for pre-placement cup-filling peeing. Naturally, as you might guess, an HR team member must send that authorization form over via fax.

Employee Benefits

  • Employees participating in the Flexible Spending Account (FSA) plan need to substantiate certain expenses with a receipt. As noted above not everyone has a PC, let alone a scanner, at home so the next fastest option (beating snail mail by a country mile) is to send via fax. We have such a steady stream of employees coming to HR, receipts in hand, that we have pre-filled FAX COVER SHEETS so they can use the stone-age facsimile machine.
  • Heading out on leave covered by the FMLA or the Louisiana Fair Employment Practices Act? Returning to work with a properly filled out “release to RTW with no restrictions” form from your health care provider? Need to get the forms and information into the hands of the 3rd party administrator that handles all leave administration for our company? Don’t have a scanner at home? Bring it the HR Department and use the fax machine.

Our recruiting team does not accept resumes via fax; not that we don’t get asked this question with some regularity. We do not publicize our fax number; I have never had it included on my business card and when asked to supply it on a form under “contact information” I leave that field blank. Somehow though that damn number gets out into the world. My current working theory is that our internal phone list (with fax numbers!) has been printed and distributed all over town.

So please, my dear fellow recruiters and HR technology champions, cease with the ridicule and derision. I would love nothing more than to once and for all relegate the fax machine to the trash bin of office equipment memories where it can reside in peace with mucilage, floppy disks and the mimeograph machine.

In the meantime you can fax those papers over to 225-555-8702.

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image: Wikimedia Commons: University of Wisconsin Archives

“English professor Helen C. White works at a mimeograph machine. In addition to teaching English, White served as president of the American Association of University Women.”

The Fax Machine is Alive and Well. Thank You Very Much.
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