Payroll Self Service? Offer To Your Team Members? Part 1
Introduction
HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGERS are constantly faced with  the challenges to increase efficiency and to look at providing better employee services. One dramatic way HR managers have responded to this challenge is by deploying Web-based solutions that offer employee self service giving the entire workforce immediate access to critical information, helping to attract and retain the highest quality employees, and enabling more effective communication across the organization.
What is Employee Self Service?
Employee Self Service (ESS) is a combination of technology and organizational change that enables users to interact directly with their human resource data to inquire, review and act upon transactions in the workplace. This human resource technology is known as employee self service, manager self service, or employee direct-access systems. ESS promises a “paperless” office, streamlined business processes, and the elimination of “administrivia” for human resource staff because employees and managers conduct basic transactions via computer that were formerly completed on paper forms and then processed by HR staff.
There are several types of self-service applications: Interactive Voice Response, Internet and intranet. In this paper, we focus on web-based self-service via a company intranet or the Internet.
ESS creates a single, secure repository for confidential HR information and processes. It provides an easy-to-navigate environment that is accessible by all employees, regardless of where they are located 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Access rights for each employee are established by HR and are typically determined by the employee’s position in the company organizational hierarchy, department, and key job functions.
What Features are Usually Used?
You can break down all human resource functions into four basic categories: organizational administration, human resource, benefits and payroll. Within each category, various functions can be performed “on demand” by employees using ESS.
Self service includes a range of administrative services (employee communications, benefit services, and personal data updates for employees), management productivity services (employee change actions, salary actions and approvals) and recruitment-oriented applications (job postings and job requisitions for managers).
When a company implements ESS, HR may choose to give employees the ability to view and update information. The ability to update information is dependent upon two factors: a) if the information is the employee’s own personal information and/or b) if the employee is given management rights. Otherwise, the employee will have the ability to view the data only. Additionally, managers can be granted the right to view and update information about their employees and to perform manager-specific tasks.
Join me tomorrow and I will list some of the features to consider as your investigate the right online Employee Self Service options and more.
