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5 Benefits of Employee Self-Service Portals for your Business

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The HR department has diverse and many functions that can sometimes become overwhelming. From managing employee administration, recruitment, compensation, and ensuring labor law compliance, the challenges are endless.

The good news is that with an employee self-service portal (ESS) your HR department can become efficient by automating manual tasks.

An ESS portal empowers employees to manage, access, and request their HR-related tasks such as updating their personal information, requesting PTO, managing their benefits, onboarding, and much more. Moreover, research shows that 73% of workers expect their organization to offer an employee self-service portal platform.

In this article, we’ll share:

  • What is an employee self-service portal?
  • The importance of an ESS
  • The benefits it offers your company

What are employee self-service portals?

An employee self-service portal is an available feature in many Human Resource Information Systems (HRIS). The portal enables employees to access a variety of HR-related services and information.

The portal enables employees to manage their recurring HR job-related tasks such as:

  • Completing mandatory employee training
  • Updating their personal contact information
  • Managing their payroll, and benefits
  • Requesting PTO
  • Communicating directly with HR

This frees up the HR department which would have otherwise handled those tasks. But, keep in mind, that the ESS portal features vary from software to software. Keep reading the article to see the steps you need to know to purchase the best employee self-service portal.

What are the benefits of the employee self-service portal?

HR departments spend 40% of their time on administrative tasks. While administrative tasks are essential for running the company workflow, an ESS portal can reduce and streamline most of the tasks.

This helps HR concentrate more on the employees and less on documentation, thus increasing employee morale.

Here are more benefits your business will experience with an employee self-service portal:

1. Improved HR Functions

With the employee self-service portal, most HR processes are automated, thus speeding up tasks. The ESS portal helps automate administrative tasks such as:

This gives the HR department an opportunity to concentrate on important company functions such as employee recognition, employee retention, employee happiness, and work-life balance.

We talked to Maciek Kubiak the head of people at PhotoAiD and this is what he had to say,” The most significant benefit of a self-service portal is taking the pressure off HR and allowing employees to manage their own schedules or access important information. The system allows both parties to reap the benefits. Employees become more self-sufficient and less reliant on HR, while HR’s work gets much easier, and their workload becomes more manageable.”

2. Streamlines Employee Onboarding Process

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Onboarding a new employee is often a tedious task for both the HR department and the new employee. And you have to get it right because a good onboarding process can help improve talent retention.

But, research shows that only 12% of employees believe their company does a good onboarding process. An employee self-service portal can help in onboarding by connecting managers with new hires to make them feel welcome.

An ESS onboarding process will help your company to:

  • Monitor and track a new employee’s first day. If it’s remote, you can easily check their progress in the portal.
  • Go digital and eliminate employee data entry information manually.
  • Give your new employees an online tour of the company using personalized onboarding documents, videos, and more.
  • Help new employees evaluate their benefits plan online.
  • Guarantee that the new employee has learned about the company policies and rules.
  • Teach and train your new employees

3. Increased Workforce Performance and Productivity

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Employee self-service portals make it easy for workers to be productive. And this is because the HR team isn’t involved in doing repetitive administrative tasks or delivering work using traditional means.

Due to the automated workflows of the ESS, the workload on the HR department teams reduces significantly. This means they take less time and fewer resources to do their work. This leads to an increase in output per worker and hence high productivity.

And productivity doesn’t increase only for the HR department, but for the entire organization’s employees.

4. Performance Management

An employee self-service portal enables workers to manage their self-evaluations, set work goals, review, and respond to their annual performance evaluations. This allows managers to easily track, monitor, and evaluate employees’ performance.

As employee experience and retention is vital for companies, employee self-service portals also help with open communication to define expectations for both the employee and the employer.

Instead of suddenly realizing an employee wants to quit because of being burned out, the ESS portal can help you identify the areas a particular employee is struggling with.

And this will help you provide the employees with the resources they need to perform their tasks well. This will show them that you’re dedicated to their career progress and hence help you reduce company turnover.

5. Boosts Employee Engagement

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An ESS portal provides your employees 24/7 access to their important employment information and hence enables them to finish their tasks without the burden of connecting with HR teams, making multiple phone calls, or filling out lots of paperwork.

Moreover, the portal gives your employees access to company announcements, resources, organizational charts, and so much more. Also, the portal allows your teams to communicate easily with each other. Thus enhancing coworker connection and fostering an optimal working environment.

This increases workplace morale because it makes employees feel integrated into the company culture.

What to consider when choosing an ESS portal

Choosing the ESS portal you want depends on the size and requirements of your business. And to ensure you choose the right portal, do this:

  • Select an ESS portal that’s easy to use
  • Choose a portal that has features that can solve your HR problems
  • Buy from a vendor that offers training support on how their system is used

At ClayHR, we check all those boxes. If you’d love to see how our employee self-service portal can help your business, schedule a demo today.

Conclusion

There is a need for every organization to have an employee self-service portal. This is especially important in the current business landscape of remote working. When implemented well, the ESS portal can help your HR team focus on the well-being of your people instead of numerous documentation.

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