What is Employee Self-Service and Manager Self-Service?
Employee self-service or ESS is a feature under the Human Resource Information System (HRIS) that allows the employees to take care of many different tasks on their own without having to bother the Human Resource department. The different tasks can be anything that is either work-related or HR-related. This way an Employee Self-Service Portal once installed can help the company save labor hours, increase work efficiency and productivity in an organization. ESS can help to increase employee experience in an organization.
While the Employee Self-Service platform aids the employees of the organization with their jobs, a Manager self-service or MSS platform comes under Human Resource Management. This platform allows supervisors to have immediate access to their employee information and therefore, enables them to initiate immediate actions related to their employees. The primary objective of the Manager Self-Service System is to give the manager access to the information related to their employees directly. These reports are related to time and attendance, leave, benefits, performance appraisals, etc. Having access to all these reports allows the managers to be self-reliant and they can keep a track of everything without bothering the HR department much with it. Managers use MSS to run ad-hoc reports and keep the records updated.
Features of Employee Self-Service and Manager Self-Service
Both ESS and MSS can be beneficial for an organization considering the features provided by each of them. if used together, they can change the work efficiency of a company. Features of Employee Self Service and Manager Self Service are discussed below:
Features of Employee Self-Service
Employee Self-Service systems are those that allow the employees to change or update their personal information like their residential address, contact information, bank information on their own as and when needed. This information sometimes needs approval. Also, the Employee Self-Service systems allow employees to view their payroll and other beneficial information. Everything they need is there with complete transparency and can be accessed easily. Also, the ESS systems allow employees to submit their requests related to time-offs or leave which is then approved by their managers. All these features can be accessed 24/7 and therefore, it saves time and provides a hassle-free solution for both the employee and human resource professionals.
Features of Manager Self-Service
A common practice that is followed while adding the Manager Self-Service module to an existing HRIS (Human resource information system) platform is to first add the Employee Self-Service system and then adding the Manager Self-Service module in a later stage at separate phases. Manager Self-Service systems provide managers with information regarding their employees.
A manager self-service facilitates greater collaboration between the management department and the HR department. Manager Self-Service ensures that the managers and HR personnel are accessing the same information.
The main features that MSS provides include direct or indirect access to data, making the hiring process in an organization paperless, reviewing performances of the employees, performing changes in the status, and managing their salaries. Also, through this, the managers are always kept informed and in constant contact with their team, no matter where they work be it an office or home.
Benefits of Employee Self-Service and Manager self-service
There are certain benefits that both of these self-service portals provide which are discussed below.
Benefits of ESS
Improves Efficiency:
Employee self-service or ESS provides the possibility to reduce the workload of the employees. With the help of an ESS portal, employees can record the working hours and request time-offs on a single platform without mailing different people for leaves and waiting for their approval. Employees can review their performances by themselves rather than reaching out to the HR managers for the same.
Updates Employee Information
Keeping the employee’s data up to date can be a tedious task. If the data of the employees are not updated timely then it can create inaccurate information. ESS system makes this task of data entry easier by giving access to the employees via ESS portals, allowing them to edit their personal information.
Provides Transparency
Employee self-service lets an employee review the information stored on an ESS portal and confirm its legitimacy. All the documents related to time and attendance, payroll and payslips, leave, and company policy can be accessed by the employees anytime.
Improves employee’s morale
Employee self-service portal is a great way of enhancing communication between co-workers on a single platform. Employees can communicate their ideas and work together to reach a specific goal. ESS portals provide an employee directory that keeps a record of birthdays, work anniversaries, or any other milestone reached by an employee. It improves social interaction within the company and provides a feeling of good fellowship.
Benefits of MSS
Compliance Reporting:
Manager Self Service offers various compliance benefits that can be easily accessed for reporting compliance-related issues.
Provides Access to Managers with Real-Time Data:
Managers can access data from any device and get information as soon as it gets updated by the employees in an organization.
Gives Autonomy and Control to the Manager:
With the Manager Self-Service Module, managers will not have to wait for any approval or support from the HR or Payroll department to carry on with their administrative functions. Now that the managers have the access to the employee’s information, they can themselves make the necessary changes that are required.
Reduces HR Workload:
Manager Self-Service reduces the time taken by the HR and Payroll department on queries and other repetitive tasks thereby, saving time for the HR and Payroll department and enabling them to focus on other most important works.
Conclusion
To conclude, both Employee Self-Service and Manager Self-Service are important to give the power of autonomy to both the employees and managers. Also, it reduces the burden on the HR and Payroll departments to a great extent. When you are deciding to adopt the employee self-service system it is always better to integrate the modules of Manager Self-service into it as well.
