TECHNOLOGY INSIGHT
Self-service functionality
Laura Cottam and Stuart Price, of MHR’s legislation team, assert that a self-service portal should be used for off-boarding staff
Y ou have probably read about, or the importance of ensuring you have an engaged workforce. There are however times where employees will decide to leave for factors outside of your control and this is where it is critical that you have an effective offboarding process. An offboarding process is an important part of the employee lifecycle and should be used to ensure an employee leaves your company on good terms and under the best possible circumstances. Where a company’s offboarding policy ensures this, an ex-employee is more likely to recommend your company to friends and family and the possibility of re-joining the company in the future is maximised. The benefits associated with re-employment include lower costs and a reduction in the time taken for the person to become productive, compared to a person with no previous experience of your company. Employees want (and are beginning to expect) the power to access their self- service portal for other practical reasons as well, such as downloading their payslips and printing off their P60 certificates. This is an additional way of saving your payroll department time and your business money in allowing employees to deal with their own personal administration tasks, freeing up your payroll and human resources (HR) teams for other jobs that require their specialised skills. This tool gives employees the opportunity to look after themselves which suits the more independent work forces of today while saving your business time and money elsewhere. The self-service portal also has the even experienced, the shortage in the talent market and so understand
potential to bring about the re-joining of employees who have left the business through allowing them access to selected forms in their self-service. Offboarding is not a process that should end once a person leaves; the employment cycle of a member of staff can be extended and their overall experience improved upon. Giving ex- employees access to their self-service has multiple benefits, such as the opportunity to re-advertise the business and notifying them of any changes that have occurred in their absence. In addition to this, there is the opportunity to link back into your business’s careers page to advertise what jobs are available. This opens them up to the possibility of re-employment by way of their need to access their self-service, saving additional costs to your business in hiring new staff and adding the benefit of an employee with prior knowledge of your company’s practices and processes as well as prior insight into the sector. ...exponential uses and benefits to fully utilising your self-service as an off boarding tool A returning staff member would then be given access to the same self-service portal that they used throughout their previous period of employment as well as in their absence from the company, bringing their employment life cycle a full circle. It would retain information on their employment history as well as qualifications and personal details saved within it. Not only does this allow them to become productive
faster, it increases that member of staff’s employee engagement and overall experience with the company, welcoming them back to the business and making the re-employment process much quicker and easier. The uses of self-service can be further extended to include allowing it to be used as a more efficient and effective tool for resignations. Resigning through self-service is beneficial for remote workers and all staff would have a cooling-off period, giving ample opportunity for them to amend their decision. It allows you to streamline the process for all involved so that the letter that would previously have gone from the employee to their manager and onto HR is already available in the system and accessible to all necessary parties from the beginning of the resignation process. This should be used in conjunction with check-ins and managers should already be aware of how their staff are feeling about their job prior to a resignation. The use of self-service as a resignation tool would be to begin the process, eliminating the possibility for human error while triggering relevant background processes such as exit check-ins and all within the same portal. There are exponential uses and benefits to fully utilising your self-service as an offboarding tool. Our employees are coming to expect a level of autonomy to their interactions with HR and it is not without reason for this to continue to grow past simply their payslips and P60s and onto performing actions such as resigning through the system. As an employer, there is much to gain from embracing this change and saving our HR departments and the wider business time and money in the long-run. Q
| Professional in Payroll, Pensions and Reward | October 2017 | Issue 34 50
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