Managing payroll, benefits administration, onboarding, and time & attendance through a paper-based process can lead to inaccurate data, redundant manual tasks, and frustration for managers, HR staff, and employees alike. With employee satisfaction in mind, an employee self-service portal offers numerous benefits, including 24/7 mobile access, reduced HR workload, cost savings, improved employee satisfaction, and personalization features that increase transparency and agency in a wide range of HR tasks.
In this article, we’ll explore the major benefits of implementing an employee self-service portal (ESS) and how it can improve employee engagement and retention by streamlining onboarding, benefits, scheduling and more.
24/7 Mobile Accessibility
A cloud-based employee self-service portal allows employees across an organization to access HR services and tools from any device with access to Wi-Fi. An ESS portal can support your staff through the entire employee lifecycle – from the preboarding phase of electronic onboarding to managing benefits or requesting PTO as life circumstances evolve. On a day-to-day basis, it makes HR tasks like timekeeping infinitely more streamlined for employees who travel, work at multiple job sites, or work remotely, eliminating the need to check in at designated locations or use a company device.
An ESS portal also creates a greater degree of transparency and trust between employer and employees, granting easy and real-time access to shared information in the event of a dispute, payroll inaccuracy, overtime submission, or another HR concern. With 24/7 access, employees also retain access to company resources even after work hours, whether they’d like to review the employee handbook, complete a necessary training, or update their personal information.
Reduced Workload for HR Support
Since employees can enjoy easy access to HR tasks and resources at any time of day with an ESS portal, this invariably lessens redundant and manual tasks for HR staff. Rather than email exchanges or phone calls to update contact information or process requests for PTO, your employees can independently complete a wide range of tasks in the ESS portal. Any tasks that require participation from HR staff and managers are automatically organized for review, approval, or reporting. This reduction of administrative tasks frees up time for HR staff to focus on recruitment, onboarding, and other high-priority tasks.
Along the way, the accuracy of company and employee data is improved and consolidated, making it easier to create and review request logs, make scheduling changes, check training status, monitor timekeeping information, and much more.
Cost and Time Savings
HR departments that use manual, paper-based, or digital (but multi-platform) methods to manage HR processes spend unnecessary time updating employee information, delivering pay stubs, sharing tax forms, or answering questions that digital resources within an ESS portal could often address. Although organizing and automating many of these tasks through an ESS portal obviously reduces time spent on manual tasks for HR staff, it also majorly improves productivity for employees, who can easily submit timekeeping information and complete a wide number of HR tasks outside of work hours and without the involvement of multiple employees or platforms.
Improved productivity for employees, HR staff, and managers improves the financial bottom line, but it also creates greater space for HR staff to research and seek out potential business partnerships that can further benefit the organization financially. Meanwhile, since an ESS portal can dramatically mitigate the risk of noncompliance due to inaccurate or missing data, potential financial penalties resulting from a disorganized manual or multi-platform approach are significantly reduced.
Improved Employee Satisfaction
With convenient mobile access on an intuitive platform that provides greater transparency and agency for your employees, an employee self-service portal is all but guaranteed to boost employee satisfaction and engagement. Again, on a day-to-day basis, it makes updating personal information, submitting time cards, enrolling in benefits, and many other HR tasks much easier (and much less tedious) to complete. On a broader level, an ESS portal can also support employee well-being during the electronic onboarding phase, enabling better communication between new hires and existing staff while streamlining the performance review process, training, and the submission of important HR documents and e-signatures.
An ESS portal that supports electronic onboarding can improve employee productivity, acclimation to company culture, and employee retention. Given what a critical and lasting impression onboarding can make on a new hire (fostering a sense of excitement and inclusion, or disconnection and disorganization), using an ESS portal can be a powerful investment in employee well-being early in their tenure with your organization. Beyond the onboarding phase, it can also be used to distribute wellness surveys, complete scheduled performance reviews, and encourage dialogue (and the sharing of resources) that supports career training or job advancement.
Personalization
Whether it’s managing benefits enrollment, retirement contributions, scheduling, or PTO, the distinct needs and preferences of employees can vary dramatically. Utilizing an intuitive and organized ESS platform helps you accommodate each employee’s desire for personalization, easy access to HR resources, and independent decision-making about benefits and perks. An ESS portal consolidates all of the company resources and information an employee needs to make informed decisions about their health insurance, contributions, payroll information, and much more. When manager or HR approval is required, requests are immediately logged for the personnel who need to review and approve them, simplifying the process for your entire workforce.
Optimize Employee Self-Service with Payday
When HR tasks aren’t processed through a single, streamlined digital platform, it can lead to employee dissatisfaction, overburdened HR personnel, data inaccuracies, and a lackluster onboarding process that affects employee retention.
Ready to experience the comprehensive benefits of an employee self-service portal for your business? Contact Payday Payroll today to learn more about our HR automation solutions, including how we can help streamline your employee management processes to boost productivity, employee retention, and employee satisfaction.