Choosing the right employee self-service software – for your business

Employee self-service software is a core part of any company’s HR strategy.

It helps employees address their own queries and gives HR staff more time to focus on their core and strategic tasks. This includes business intelligence and insights into employee demographics, performance, motivation, and training needs so your business can make better decisions about staffing and resource allocation.

Employee self-service software also makes it easier for your employees to access information on benefits such as vacation days or sick days – something that can save both the company and employees time and money.

Why employee self-service (ESS) software?

ESS software empowers employees to manage their own tasks, which leads to several benefits for your business:

• Empowerment. Your employees are more empowered when they can take care of their issues themselves. This builds trust with employees, who feel as though there is less chance of being ignored or forgotten about by the company.

• Engagement. Employees who can take care of their own issues without having to wait on someone else will be more engaged in their work and have higher morale overall.

• Reduced costs. Employee self-service software can reduce costs for your business in many ways—for example, by reducing training time for new hires, making it easier for managers or other employees to help out where needed even if they aren’t necessarily an expert at something (like handling customer service),or ensuring that no one wastes time by repeatedly asking others questions they already know the answers too (such as “How do I get access?”, “Can you remind me how this works again?”).

• Focus. HR staff can focus on value-adding activities rather than responding to ad hoc queries.

• And lastly: Increased productivity; decreased turnover rate leading to improved customer service.

Employee experience is king

Your employees are the best resource you have because they know the ins and outs of your business. To make it easier for them to support their customers, empowerment is key. Employee self-service software can do this in several ways.

1. Empowers employees by giving them easy access to the tools needed to do their jobs. This means providing an easy way for them to submit requests, track updates, and get updates on how long each request is taking. It also means making sure that any training or onboarding is done through an employee portal so that new hires don’t feel like they have no idea what’s going on when they start work at your company.
2. ESS software should provide a consistent experience across all platforms: desktop computers (PCs), mobile phones (iOS and Android devices), tablets (iPads), as well as other emerging technologies such as wearables.

It may sound like it’s only useful if your company employs large numbers of digital natives who are comfortable with technology, but the truth is that ESS can help any business make better use of its existing staff.

When choosing an ESS, what should you consider?

Customisable

The employee self-service software you choose should be customisable.

Customisation means that you can adjust the features of your employee self-service software to meet your needs, whether those needs are for a specific department or your entire organisation. Your employee self-service software should enable users to personalise their accounts and workflows according to their role and responsibilities within an organisation.

For example, you might want all employees in one department to have access to only certain features of an application; or perhaps you need different versions of a tool for specific teams within your organisation – such as HR versus Finance – so they can access only the necessary information when they log in.

Mobile accessibility

Mobile accessibility is a major factor when choosing employee self-service software.

Employees need to be able to access information from anywhere and on any device, at any time. This means your business’s mobile app must be easy to use, fast, reliable and secure. It also needs to be able to integrate with other applications so that employees can seamlessly access their HR data from across the organisation. This also drives higher productivity.

Personalised experience

If your company has many employees, or if your employees work across multiple locations, it’s important to ensure that their experience with the employee self-service software is personalised.

A good ESS will be customisable so that it can be tailored to suit the needs of your business. For example, if you have a specific training programme which everyone must complete before they can access certain parts of the system, then this should be included as part of their user journey to ensure that everyone is on an even playing field.

A good ESS will also allow employees to utilise different modes of communication for different tasks – you might choose voice-over video technology for customer service enquiries but email for dealing with general queries and issues. This ensures that no one feels left out when trying to navigate through the system or get in touch with customer services staff via whichever method they prefer most (such as SMS).

Robust security

As an employer, it’s your responsibility to ensure that your ESS is compliant with your organisation’s data protection and privacy policies. It’s also important that the ESS is secure and protects against threats such as cyber-attacks, data loss, hacking and phishing.

User-friendly and intuitive

When choosing employee self-service software, look for a user interface that’s easy to use and intuitive. It should also be easy for employees to complete tasks without needing help from IT or other staff members.

For example, the software should have a simple navigation scheme so users can easily find what they need. Additionally, the system should be available on multiple platforms (including mobile devices), which makes it easier for employees to access the information they need. This also reduces the resistance to change of a new solution and training time for ESS users.

Conclusion

ESS is a great way to give your employees more control over their work. It’s also a more convenient way to stay in touch with them, so they can manage their tasks without having to constantly contact you.

With the right employee self-service software, it will be easier for your team members to do their jobs and feel valued as part of your company.

**Should you need help or have questions, get in touch with our team: info@awcape.co.za