CHAPTER
Web-Based Employee
Self-Service
A
Win-Win Proposition for
Organizations and Employees
Robert Zampetti and Lynn
Adamson*
CONCEPT OF HR self-service has become the goal of most Web-enabled HR systems. HR self-service involves the use of interactive technology by employees and managers to obtain information, conduct transactions, and essentially "shortcut" pro-cesses that previously required multiple steps, paperwork, the involvement of HR staffers, and all the delays such processes are heir to. Using secure corporate intranets that limit users' ability to change or initiate data—while providing unprecedented
self-"Lynn Adamson and Robert Zampetti are consultants in the Towers Perrin San Francisco office where they specialize in the design and implementation of employee and manager self-service applications, and HR service centers. Robert also has a strong Health & Welfare benefits background and led the development of Towers Perrin's vendor management system.
San Francisco office address: 525 Market Street, Suite 2900, San Francisco, Cal-ifornia 94105.
1 6 WEB-BASED HR: WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE Web-Based Employee Self-Service 1 7
sufficiency, immediacy, and information access—HR self-service provides the "customers" for HRs products and services with the ideal delivery system to meet their changing, individually variable needs. And the benefits to the organization—from efficiencies realized when employees change their own HRIS data and "serve themselves," to more informed, effective decision making by managers—support a transformation of HRs role within the organization. The role will change from an essentially adminis-trative function to a strategic business partnering function where HR personnel contribute to bottom-line results.
Sound revolutionary? It is. Consider what HR departments have been doing for the last 20 or 30 years as their "products and services" have proliferated and expanded: They have been keep-ing up with change by addkeep-ing new data, programs, and special-ized software. The idea that this functionally rich, data-intensive, continually changing part of business operations can now divest itself of almost purely
administrative
work is in itself a radical proposition.Web-based systems take the revolution a quantum leap further, however, by "adding value" to the organization's bottom line, in effect increasing what employees get in the employment exchange and improving managers' effectiveness as managers. When de-signed and implemented around the concept of self-service, such systems not only move work out of the HR department to employ-ees and managers, but they also improve the quality of the entire process. Furthermore, self-service HR eliminates the nonvalue-adding administrative tasks that can be handled automatically by the system.
As discussed in the sections that follow, these value-adding benefits of Web-based self-service are somewhat different for employees than for their managers. In all cases, however, the time, cost, and quality improvements enabled by a self-service HR web-site add value to the organization. Not only are HR department and HRIS administrative expenses sharply reduced, but employ-ees and managers using a well-designed self-service system spend "less time doing more" for themselves, their colleagues, and the business.
Most Commonly Planned or Implemented HR Self-Service Applications
For Employees For Managers
HR communications Personnel changes Benefits services Salary actions Personnel data updates Job requisitions Job postings
Employee Self-Service: Benefits beyond Efficiency
Web-enabled employee self-service, in which all employees have access via a Web browser to information residing on HR systems, means employees can update the personal information they "own" as individuals. Using self-service, employees can also apply for or enroll in the full range of HR products and services available to them as HR "customers." HR self-service provides benefits to the organization and its employees that go well beyond the elimina-tion of both HR paperwork and much of the purely administra-tive HR work. Moreover, as the costs go down, and the delivery mechanisms of providing Internet and intranet access to all em-ployees continue to evolve from kiosks, IVRs, and desktop com-puters to Web TVs, handheld devices, and phone attachments, employees' use of Web-based HR systems is likely to become as commonplace and widespread as the morning coffee break, and much more productive for the company.
Already, some of the world's largest employers (including Ford, Delta, and Cisco) have invested huge amounts to ensure total access among employees, by providing them with hardware, software, and Internet access in their homes as well as at work. In these organi-zations, the benefits of Web-based employee self-service have been recognized as outweighing even today's PC costs—costs that will diminish drastically with the coming of new Web technologies that provide Internet access without a personal computer.
The benefits of employee self-service include, but are not li mited to, the elimination of middlemen between the employee
1 8 WEB-BASED HR: WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE
and the HRIS. Studies have shown that as much as 50 percent of HR staff time has been spent on making changes to personal data, forwarding forms, and other "administrivia" that can be eliminated by self-service. This is reason enough for the popularity of the concept; but other critical goals of effective HR management are also addressed by employee self-service; including
Personal data quality,
vastly improved when employees themselves, the "best source" of personal information, enter and validate this dataEmployee empowerment,
including new levels of control over their own careers, development opportunities, conditions of employment, options in the rewards system, and other HR programs and services, and access to unprecedented amounts of information that supports informed choicesProcess improvements
that not only eliminate work in the HR function, but speed delivery of HR products and services to customers, whose wants and needs can be highly time-dependent and varied (for example, the need for medical leave time, cash from a savings plan, or the answer to a question about sexual harassment policies)HR integration at the employee level, where in some respects it matters most, through the one-system integration of related HR programs such as training, development, suc-cession planning, staffing, and other competency-based pro-grams with common definitions and unified strategic busi-ness goals
Personal Data
As the most volatile and individually variable subject matter ever put in a computerized database, information on people, including their attributes has always presented challenges in the data col-lection area of HRIS design and use. The fundamental principle of collecting data from the "best source"—the person or function in the best position to know and the first to know of any change to the data—requires that vast amounts of I I RIS information
Web-Based Employee Self-Service 1 9
come directly from employees. This information not only includes addresses, new dependents, outside educational achievements, and other factual data, but in the modern database also includes pref-erences and other changes of mind caused by as many factors as there are people in the organization. A decision to move from a technical career track to a management track, a switch in medical coverage, a decision to put retirement savings in a different mutual fund, a new willingness to relocate, and other changes affecting personal data "owned" by the employee can be caused by anything from a whim to a spouse's new job. Employee self-service on a Web-based HRIS permitsany employee with access to the system
to instantly change all data that is personal to the employee, and change it again at another time, ensuring the quality of this infor-mation in a Web-based HRIS.
Empowerment
Employee or "customer" self-service for HR products and services via the Web transforms the word empowerment from a slogan to a reality, permitting employees to literally help themselves from the full panoply of offerings available on the HR website. Business rules and policies differ among organizations, but some of the offerings employees/customers can at least ask for via self-service are shown in Figure 2-1.
Conducting self-service on the Web generally begins with accessing an HR home page (see example in Figure 2-2).
Many examples of employee self-service exist, since organiza-tions' plans and programs differ, and their delivery philosophy also varies. Self-service programs vary depending on the scope of an organization's HR program and how many of the employee-oriented programs would be pushed to an "employee empower-ment" model made possible by an interactive, integrated HR web-site. For example, when selecting from and enrolling in a flexible benefits plan, an employee might be able to access large amounts of on-line information on the following:
• Costs and benefits of a range of different health care pro-viders, down to details such as the names, bios, and locations of physicians in different I I MOs
20 WEB-BASED HR: WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE
Select from Flexible Benefits Plan Menu
Schedule Vacation Time Apply for New Position
Change Address, Dependents, Other "Life Event" Data Enroll in Training or Development Activity
Model Impact of Change in Savings Plan Revise Retirement Planning Portfolio Participate in Computer-Based Training Respond to Employee Opinion Survey Assess Colleagues in 360-Degree Assessment
Order Discounted Products/Services Get Answers to Questions on
—All HR products/services available
—The employee's own coverage, eligibility, etc. —The company
Figure 2-1
Examples of employee self-service on the Web.
• Descriptions of dozens of different savings and retrement ni
plan ng programs, with the ability to probe deeper into his-torical data such as the performance of different mutual funds • Models of the cost impact of employee-built benefit plansthat include scores of different variables, from paid time off
to long-term disability insurance
Figure 2-2
From this HR home page, an employee would click on het word employee, and he directed to the employee home page. See example in Figure
2-3.
Figure 2-3 As the application is role-based, the other options would not be
permitted.
using the virtually limitless capacity of the Internet and navi-gational tools that guide users, such systems empower informed choices rather than mere choices.
Similarly, the example noting that the employee can "Apply for a New Position" on the interactive website only hints at the level of empowerment this can provide to employees, especially in an integrated system that incorporates process improvements in staffing procedures.
Process Improvements
As a revolutionary platform for eliminating paperwork, linking previously separate databases and processing, and enabling instant concurrent information flows and transactions, the HR website can deliver products and services to employee customers at un-precedented levels of timeliness and cost-effectiveness. Not only is there no waiting for information, forms, or an HR staffer's re-sponse, but an integrated HR website permits the employee to complete a full continuum of related tasks that lead to an objec-tive at the employee's own pace.
22 WEB-BASED HR: WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE
the site to update a dozen or more systems and HR programs all at once and with essentially the same entry. Payroll, benefits, the family leave program, a new insurance beneficiary, a college tuition fund, even a birth announcement in the company newsletter—all use essentially the same information, eliminating previously iso-lated data collection issues.
Even more important than process improvements that make HR processes more efficient simply by eliminating tasks, the inte-gration of HR functions on an HR website used by employees provides the modus operandi for the full integration of HR ser-vices and products at the employee level, where it may matter most.
HR integration
Self-service systems used by individual employees can provide a single, unified view of naturally related HR programs, policies, and processes. The value of this functional and technical integra-tion at the employee level cannot be overestimated, because it not only saves time for both the company and the employee, but it helps to achieve strategic and operational business goals that often require employee participation.
For example, no amount of "top-down" direction will ensure that employees are developing to their full potential, with full commitment to gaining or improving the competencies needed by the company. Individual motivation to learn and grow varies not only among employees, but also for the same employee at differ-ent times.
An integrated, browser-based staffing and development sys-tem provides the means to make all employees capable of taking control of their own development, whenever and as aggressively as they wish. On the same site and in the same session, the em-ployee can do the following:
• Learn about current and future job openings in the com-pany, the job's skill or competency requirements, other qual-ifications, location, reporting relationships, and pay ranges. • If the open position seems to match the employee's wants and qualifications, the employee can submit an on-line
resume resident in the system, which has been prepared and updated by the employee.
• I f the employee doesn't understand or is missing a position requirement, it is possible to click on the item for further explanation and for training or development options. The employee can then do the following:
♦ Enroll in a training/development activity ♦ Transfer to another position
♦ Take an on-line test or schedule a test ♦ Apply for tuition aid for education
♦ Apply for any of a range of mentoring, project team
assignments, or other developmental activities linked to the staffing requirement in the integrated system
Obviously, the employee using a Web-based system to make a choice about benefits, development, vacation time, or other
mat-ters within his or her discretion does not need to make a decision in "real time," in the same session on the intranet. As much or as little information as needed can be printed or sent to the em-ployee's home, or e-mail can be used to set up a counseling ses-sion with a "live" expert. But the mere fact that employees can
"serve themselves" to HR products and services at any time they wish, from anyplace in the world with a Web browser, changes forever the delivery paradigm for serving HR's customers.
