The duties of an HR professional are pretty challenging. Their everyday tasks include inputting new employee information, dealing with leave requests, time offs, payroll, payslips, performance data, and whatnot. No doubt, managing HR-related tasks is one of the most challenging jobs. Luckily, self-service tools rescue the HR staff and employees, saving a lot of time, and employers save money.
Employee Self-Service systems or portals (ESS) are nothing new. Many companies are leveraging the technology to keep employees first and save time, resources and boost productivity. However, some organizations aren’t aware of the benefits of an ESS portal. This article delves into why businesses need an ESS portal and why it adds value to what’s most vital.
What is an Employee Self-Service System?
Employee Self-Service system is a portal that enables employees to access or update their information and handle HR and administrative needs independently. As ESS makes everyday tasks like applying leaves, updating personal information, accessing payslips, managing insurance plans and benefits easy, employees and HR staff save a lot of time. Most importantly, ESS reduces paper and manual work; that’s both employee and environmental friendly.
A McKinsey report says that employees spend 9.3 hours per week searching and gathering information they need. It means they spend 1.8 hours every day on repetitive manual tasks. Employee Self-Service system helps them save time and allows them to focus on what’s really important. For HR staff and employers managing HR tasks on their own, an ESS portal is a blessing.
A survey shows that more than 73% of US employees want self-service HR tools; employees desire to be empowered. However, ESS benefits not only employees but also organizations. Let’s look into why businesses need an Employee Self-Service Portal.
9 Important Benefits of Using ESS Portal
Saves Time
HR administration tasks consume colossal time and energy. An ESS portal lets employees access, update and learn required HR-related or administrative information without waiting for someone to provide them. An ESS system saves both employees’ and human resources team’s time. They can focus on what is truly necessary.
Reduces Costs
As said earlier, employees spend 1.8 hours every day searching and collecting information. Self-service portals reduce time spent on administrative tasks putting all needed information in one place. Thus it helps to focus on critical business operations such as payroll, employee benefits, attendance, training, etc. Moreover, it eliminates payroll errors and saves the company colossal money. It also reduces paperwork and saves trees.
Empowers Employees
When you have an ESS portal for your business, you give employees control over accessing or modifying personal information and administration needs. An ESS provides accuracy, transparency, and timely information at any time. They can track their leaves or HR request status, request or make changes, view their PTO’s, payslips just by signing in to the ESS. The best part is they can access everything they need from anywhere, not just from their office desk. All these help boost employee morale.
Improves Productivity and Efficiency
Both employees and the HR team can work effectively when they have an ESS portal by their side. It helps employees track their working hours, leaves and stay accountable for their work. They need not spend time emailing leave requests or time-offs for different people. Instead, they can simply apply it on the portal. At the same time, the HR team need not track attendance and leaves manually; they will have all the data in the portal.
Makes Employee Onboarding Easier
Employee onboarding is the final hurdle in the recruitment process. On average, it takes four hours to onboard an employee. Companies can use a self-service HR tool to help them access knowledge tools and resources. They can use it to introduce their organization’s culture and key people to the new staff. They can also ask the new starters to fill in their information in the portal after the onboarding process.
Accuracy
ESS helps eliminate duplicate data entries and errors in records. It doesn’t require much manual data inputting and calculations; it assures accurate information. Additionally, as employees can directly update their information such as working contact number, address, emergency contact number, there will be no miscommunication.
Simplifies Payroll
Payroll is one of the critical components in any organization. Poor payroll management, which often happens due to manual inputs, causes massive losses to the company. An ESS helps reduce such losses as it has accurate records. When you have accurate employee attendance and PTO data, you will pay the right amount to your employees. It also helps you pay at the right time avoiding delays due to payroll calculations. When employees are paid the right amount at the right time, they are likely to stay longer with the company. Additionally, employees can access their payslips from the ESS.
Read 8 reasons why your business needs a payroll management system.
Compliance Management
Often, errors in the operations, payroll or immigration, result in fines, penalties, and lawsuits. ESS helps reduce such damages by keeping accurate records and automating reports in proper formats.
Benefits Enrollment
Managing benefits such as health, life insurance, tax, and retirement plans for employees is time-consuming if the HR team has to do it all by themselves. An ESS cuts down this burden by allowing employees to update and manage their benefits on their own.
Wrapping Up
Some businesses still rely on paper and manual data entry for storing employee information. Using an Employee Self-Service portal, companies can save tremendous time for their HR teams to focus on essential tasks. ESS also eliminates paper wastage and helps businesses take part in environmental responsibility. If you need an Employee Self Service system that understands your business and helps you improve your performance, look no further. Go ahead and book a demo with our product specialists.
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