How can Employee Self Service help reduce your HR Admin when processing holiday requests?

Whilst visiting a client recently to discuss upgrading their HR system, the newly recruited HR Manager was overwhelmed with the manual tasks of managing holiday booking forms and absence sheets when all she really wanted to do was move forward with some exciting new initiatives. This situation was not a reflection on the abilities of the HR Manager but a reflection on the system which was in place. It’s not unusual to work with clients who are still using paper forms for processing holiday and absence requests rather than Employee Self Service.

The existing paper method

To book a holiday employees have to complete a paper holiday booking form which is then usually sent to their manager for signing off before waiting to find out if this has been authorised or declined.

Managers then have to authorise requests from direct reports every time one of them requests time off, making decisions based on who else is off at the same time to ensure adequate cover whilst keep track of the number of days taken.

HR then have to process all of the requests by sifting through each paper form and recording it in some way (usually in a spreadsheet) to track how many days have been taken to make sure this all adds up correctly.

It’s enough to give anyone a headache and we haven’t even mentioned producing useful reports and analysis for those monthly management meetings!

So how does employee self service make this quicker and easier?

Just imagine if you could replace much of this time-consuming process with something that is quick and easy to use, that:

• Allows employees to quickly check their allowance and view their holiday calendar from their web browser.
• Let’s employees book holidays by simply clicking on a date on their online calendar.
• Automatically sends an email to the employee’s manager notifying them when someone in their team books a holiday
• Gives the manager the ability to check the team’s availability on a calendar before being able to authorise or decline the request with a couple of clicks.
• Notifies the employee via email if the request has been authorised or declined.
• Automatically calculates their holiday entitlements

This is just one of the time saving benefits that using employee self-service can provide.

What else can Employee Self Service do for me?

People Inc. Employee Self Service also has the following functionality:

• Managers can log sickness absence for the employees in their team
• Track the process of all holiday requests in order to resolve any disputes.
• Employees can update their personal contact details online and payroll are notified automatically
• Managers can quickly see any employee related actions such as End of probations, Expiry of training courses etc.
• Access an active Telephone Directory to see who is currently available along with their contact details.
• Submit expenses online*
• Carryout the appraisal process online. *
• HR can produce useful management reports such as Bradford Factor analysis reports.

Too good to be true?

Yes, this sounds great but it also sounds expensive right. What if you could get this functionality for less than 5 pence per employee per year**?

Is it time you looked at People Inc. Employee Self Service?