With recent data from Gallup indicating that more than half of employees are “not engaged” and detached from their relationship with work and the company that employs them, it’s more important than ever for employers to emphasize improving employee experience.
One of the most useful tools companies can leverage to create more engaged, motivated, and productive employees is an employee self-service (ESS) system. Using an intuitive digital platform to centralize HR and HCM-oriented tasks allows employers to provide training, improve onboarding, grant easy access to company resources, offer 24-7 mobile access to HR tasks, and enjoy a customizable portal for employees, supervisors, and managers to communicate and quickly make or approve HR requests.
In this article, we’ll explore the multiple benefits of using an ESS system and HR automation to boost productivity, employee retention, and employee satisfaction.
Providing Training & Education
Onboarding is significantly improved through the use of an ESS, particularly because it empowers employers to launch the preboarding process well before a new hire’s official Day One start. Rather than condensing HR paperwork, training, benefits administration, meeting fellow employees and more into a single day or week, an ESS facilitates an incremental approach that allows a new hire to review the employee handbook, have virtual meetings with departmental staff, complete training, and schedule performance reviews with their supervisor well before they arrive in the office or start their first day remotely.
Ensuring User-Friendliness, Transparency, and Productivity
HR technology, including an ESS system, is most useful when it is user-friendly, intuitive, and creates a greater sense of trust and autonomy throughout your workforce. Fortunately, one of the primary benefits of an ESS system is that it grants your employees 24-7 mobile access to HR resources and tasks from anywhere with a Wi-Fi connection. This can be especially useful for organizations with a growing number of remote employees or employees who work at multiple job sites. An ESS system inevitably boosts productivity and employee focus by eliminating the need to report hours on specific company devices at a designated physical location or by completing and submitting a physical timecard.
Most importantly, providing an ESS system to employees shows your investment in making HR processes as streamlined and convenient as possible. Although an ESS system frees up time for your HR staff to focus on higher-priority tasks, most employees appreciate the ability to use digital tools at their convenience to review company policies, update their employee information, monitor overtime or PTO requests, and more. An ESS also ensures that in the event of miscommunication or dispute, there is a transparent platform where employees, managers, supervisors, and other staff can refer to stored, objective data to resolve any issues.
Promoting Utilization and Employee Engagement
For an employer experiencing (or concerned about) issues with benefits utilization or overall employee engagement, an ESS system can address both of these concerns. As just one example, with an ESS system, existing employees can more readily review benefits options by enjoying easy access to company resources on a digital platform off hours and well before open enrollment.
They can also receive important announcements or updates within one consolidated platform. In the context of onboarding, with an ESS system, new hires are granted more time and breathing room to go through orientation, complete training, provide accurate employee information, and get acclimated with other employees in their department.
Improve Employee Experience and Engagement with Payday
Ready to improve your employee experience with an ESS system? Payday’s ESS portal provides secure, 24-7, mobile-friendly access for your employees, with adaptable data reporting, customizable permissions, and all the tools you need to support streamlined and intuitive HR processes throughout the entire employee lifecycle.
Contact Payday Payroll today to learn more about our HR automation solutions and how we can help you streamline your employee management processes.