How to make your HR more flexible: employee self-service

In an increasingly digital age that’s seen a huge surge in remote working due to COVID-19, the need for flexible processes that provide businesses’ freedom is now a necessity.

Your HR processes, in particular, require the most flexibility as they deal with your employees’ day-to-day, which over the last year have been significantly changed.

But how can you make your HR more adaptable to meet your current and future needs?

The answer is to empower employees with self-service.

What is employee self-service?

In essence, employee self-service is when HR software allows your workers to manage tasks themselves that would typically need to be completed by managers or human resources personnel.

The HR software used is also typically cloud-based, meaning that employees can handle these tasks either in the office, at home, or on the go – whatever works best for them.

What tasks can employees manage via HR self-service?

Self-service functionality within HR software can lend itself to a wide array of tasks, but predominantly, most businesses use it for:

HR-related requests

Employees can manage their own HR-related requests, such as submitting annual leave and sicknesses.

Through self-service, you’re able to easily keep track of time-off within the workplace, enabling you to make data-based decisions.

Updating personal details

Your workforce can update their own records through self-service to ensure details such as their address and banking is always correct.

Providing employees with the ability to update their details takes the time-consuming tasks away from managers and HR professionals, freeing them up to focus on more important jobs.

Onboarding

Gone are the days of giving new starters a mountain of paper documents as HR self-service operates digitally, houses key documents, and electronically collects signatures.

It’s been found that onboarding on average takes 4 hours and £400, so by enabling employees to self-serve a large part of this process, you can save both time and resources.

The benefits of employee self-service

“Nearly 90% of organisations say success depends on empowering frontline employees to make decisions in the moment.” – Harvard Business Review

HR self-service benefits your entire workforce, from freeing up time for managers to empowering workers in their day-to-day.

But most notably, it’s the flexibility you get that will enable your business to adapt alongside the changing times.

No longer will your workforce be bound to submitting informal requests in person or sending emails to an overcrowded inbox.

Instead, you put the power in the hands of your people, enabling HR professionals and managers to focus on the bigger picture.

Finding the right HR software

Part of successfully making your HR more flexible is finding the right software that has the self-service functionality you require.

To help you make the selection, below we’ve created a short demo video outlining how our cloud-based software, IRIS HR Pro, can empower you with self-service.

If you’d like more information on IRIS HR Pro, click here.