One of the common reasons why municipalities switch to HR technology is to allow employees to view, validate and update their own information on a web portal. Many municipalities provide self-service to employees for benefit selection, viewing policies, and accessing training programs and information.

Streamlining HR with Employee Self Service

Vacation time requests, access to online pay statements and tax forms, schedule information and shift trades, employee reimbursement requests, and updates to dependent information are some of the other reasons that municipal governments are providing online access to their employees.

The relationship employees have with their managers, the organization (peers and policies), and the systems they work with, can provide a basis for gauging how satisfied or happy an employee will be in the workplace.

Whether you have a system in place or are considering implementing one, here are 6 ways that employee self service can help streamline HR in municipal governments:

1. Time Management: One of the most important features of employee and manager self-service is the ability to capture time at the source of the work when it occurs. This provides accurate information for planning and costing purposes. It also eliminates the double entry that may occur in payroll.

2. Better Planning: Measuring time for tasks has another advantage – accurate measures of what it takes to perform certain kinds of work. This enables employees to give accurate estimates for project budgets and timelines. Delivering on accurate estimates creates accountability and helps in better planning overall for the organization.

3. Process Improvements: Understanding how people work can assist in improving processes to get the best results. For example, some times of day are better for collaborative work than others, having meetings early in the morning may be better than late in the afternoon, or certain resources may be better suited for peak hours of customer support than others. Such insights help managers to better plan their days and which resources should be used at different times to maintain performance standards and continuously improve business processes.

4. Organizational Efficiency: Getting paper based time cards signed and approved or maintaining Excel sheets for time and task management is not ideal. Being able to request online approvals for time cards, vacation requests, and training requests through a central system allows employees to reduce the time they put towards administrative tasks. Organizations can gain insights from the data collected and analyze the impact training and vacation time can have on productivity without the hassle of manual data verification.

5. Performance and Feedback: Using systems to record feedback and track goals allows both employees and managers to change the way they work. Employees can record how they are putting efforts towards achieving organizational goals and if needed, get advice and input from their manager by initiating an online request. Such transparency not only reduces the fear of the annual performance review but also allows employees to feel engaged and have a better relationship with their managers and the organization throughout the year.

6. HR Becomes More Strategic: When HR is able to get away from everyday administrative tasks and service requests from employees, they can spend time in more strategic ways and bring insights that can help the organization reach its goals.

Employee self-service can be a great tool to help with employee management and engagement while providing productivity improvements in fundamental HR processes.

StarGarden's client base includes municipalities and public service organizations throughout Canada and the US, and we can advise you on unique solutions for your organization. If you're seeking ways to create a more engaged workforce, download our Employee Engagement eBook.