New to Employee Self Service? Here’s What You Need to Know

Employee self-service (ESS) is integral to the transformation of the human resource function from a time consuming and the old system based on paper pushing the administration to a performance-oriented role. In the current ecosphere of business, brands and businesses are vying to garner customer loyalty and deliver high-quality products and services that set them apart from others, all while actively reimagining the traditional workplace as an office that fits the upcoming talent. The employee self-service has been important in simplifying the basic and time taking HR functions which are key in any business whether small or global.  In any business, it is essential to maintain records of an employee in an accurate and updated manner, and as the business grows, the process takes more time and gains more significance. There are various functions of the human resource process that can be replaced by the employee self-service portals. These include; attendance and backlog views, updating employees’ records, processing paid time-off and leave, and insurance and retirement account balance views. Employee self-service, a web application providing employees with access to their own personal records as well as payroll details. The features that this application boasts is allowing employees the access to change their contact information, family members, and benefits and banking information. The application allows for administrative functions for example review of timesheets, information seeking about available programs, applying for paid leaves, requesting reimbursement and accessing compensation history. This application helps the employees in their ability to transact with the human resource department without an actual physical interaction. The application can be accessed and operated either on the employer’s intranet or the web. The important thing to note about the employee self-service is the fact that it has the ability to empower the employees and that it allows them to take an increased amount of responsibility for their work and their career development. Popular aspects of the self-service application include skill profiles, appraisals, career planning, and different and more analytics. Given in areas, industries or organizations where employees or employees are very mobile and not in the vicinity of their anger, the employee self-service application allows for time-saving and cost-effectiveness. This system is, therefore, an ‘anyplace, at any time’ system that is real-time. The medium is efficient in the dissemination of the human resource information and policies by saving time on the things that the HR department or employees deal with many times in a week. Therefore workplace efficiency is an obvious benefit of the implementation of this system with effects being the provision of information on appraisals, policies, payroll etc. with just a click – saving time for both the employees, employers and HR department. The old school function is replaced with automation and centralization where viewing, access, inquiry, and print are all available on the portals. With controls being shared with this application, there is more compliance and accountability in the organization, errors are reduce and risks are contained.