Various photo acquisition methods

Collecting employee photos for a large company has many pitfalls. There are various ways to obtain photos:

• Upload directly into HR software: Many HR programs have a feature that allows employees to upload their photos to their profiles. Advantage: often an existing solution. Disadvantage: Old photos are used, or the photos are not suitable (e.g., face too close/too far away, vacation pictures with beach in the background, pictures of grandchildren, old wedding photos, etc.).
• Send an email request: You can send an email to all employees and ask them to submit a photo of themselves. You can specify guidelines for the type of photo desired (e.g., headshot, business attire, solid background) and a deadline for submission. Advantage: The solution is set up quickly. Disadvantage: With images of poor quality (expect about 60% unusable photos via this channel), an enormously large manual effort, format chaos (images are sent in as GIF, PNG, PDF, or Word), difficult in terms of data protection (deletion times, photos via email).
• Set up a photo booth: You can set up a photo booth at a company event or in the office and ask employees to have their picture taken. Advantage: decent quality and current photos. Disadvantage: Employees must be on-site at the given time (which means not all employees are reached), expensive, especially in the long term, identification / naming of photos by employee number is often prone to errors and manually complex.
• Order a photographer: There are photographers who specialize in taking employee photos. Advantage: good quality. Disadvantage: only on-site for a short time, expensive, and complex coordination. Correct naming of the photos (e.g., by employee number) is manual and therefore prone to errors, not a long-term or scalable solution.
• Use specially designed software such as Photo Collect to collect photos of your employees(e.g. in accordance with ICAO standards). This allows you to reach employees both on site and at home or on business trips. You get consistent quality and the photos are automatically named correctly. If photos have to be rejected, a defined process is available and the time-consuming individual communication is no longer necessary. However, the solution must be procured at least a few days before the launch.

No matter which method you choose, make sure you clearly communicate to your employees what you are looking for and why a current photo is important. You should also ensure that you have permission to collect and use employee photos and that you comply with all relevant data protection regulations.

We are happy to assist you with the procurement of your employee photos, from the definition of processes to the import of the collected photos into your system. Contact us for an initial consultation and a personal demonstration of Photo Collect.