HR documents can be sent to an employee via email or messengers, but only provided that such a communication method is properly defined and allows confirming the fact of sending, receipt, and, if necessary, signing of the document. Merely sending a file in a messenger does not automatically turn it into an electronic document and does not always confirm the employee’s proper familiarization.

The Labor Code (KzPP) of Ukraine allows familiarizing employees with orders, notifications, and other employer documents regarding their rights and obligations through electronic communication means specified in the employment contract. At the same time, the law provides for the application of an advanced electronic signature or a qualified electronic signature. Also, in the employment contract, by agreement of the parties, alternative methods of familiarizing the employee with documents can be determined, except for information about dangerous and harmful production factors.

During the period of martial law, the possibilities of electronic communication are broader. Law No. 2136-IX allows the parties to the employment contract to agree on alternative ways of creating, forwarding, and storing orders, notifications, and other documents on labor relations issues, as well as on any other accessible method of electronic communication chosen by agreement of the employer and the employee.

It is important to distinguish between sending a document and creating a full-fledged electronic document. By law, the original of an electronic document is an electronic copy with mandatory details, including the electronic signature of the author or a signature equated to a handwritten one. Therefore, an order, application, notification, or other HR document that has legally significant consequences must not be just a file in a chat, but a properly created and signed document.

Via email or messenger, it is possible to send the employee copies of orders, notifications, requests for explanations, information letters, instructions, notifications about the need to sign documents, documents for familiarization or approval. However, if a document requires the employee’s declaration of will, for example, an application for unpaid leave, consent to transfer, resignation letter, or other action that has legal consequences, the employer must have proper confirmation of exactly such a declaration of will.

An ordinary message in a messenger without a signature can be evidence in a dispute, but it is riskier than a document with an electronic signature. It is advisable for the HR specialist to keep evidence of sending and receiving: emails with the sender’s and recipient’s addresses, date and time of sending, delivery confirmations, message screenshots, employee replies, system receipts of the EDM service.