Employee Self Service (ESS) is the big hitter when it comes to freeing HR from the burdens of transactional tasks. Teresa Russell talks to the University of Queensland about the efficiencies it has realised by rolling out a new ESS function
According to UK HR software sup
plier Computers in Personnel (CIP),
about 50 per cent of big organisa
tions are yet to introduce ESS in any form.
Equality of access concerns, implementa
tion costs and data security issues head the
list of reasons for delays. However, in 2009,
when efficiencies and cost savings are being
sought across all organisations, ESS is a
great place to start.
According to global research conducted
by Towers Perrin, many organisations
completed upgrading HR systems by 2006.
“ESS activity is growing most today in its
ability to help employees manage their own
job performance, growth and develop
ment. By the end of 2009, employees in
more than 75per cent of respondent com
panies will be able to use ESS to view job
postings, apply for posted jobs, enrol in
training courses, view training history and
update performance goals and results,”
the 2008 report states. Onboarding
employees and online career planning tools
will be the biggest areas of ESS focus over
the next two years, it predicts.
Some ESS doubters think that ESS just
pushes work out of HR and on to man
agers and employees. But two thirds of
respondents in Towers Perrin’s 2007
research reported less work or no change
in workload for employees. Workload
increases are usually the result of poor web
design or sluggish systems, according to
Towers Perrin.
“I just can’t imagine why organisations
don’t have an ESS,” says Jennie Webb, man
ager of the University of Queensland’s HR
business improvement program. “If you
make it user-friendly, people use it,” she says.
The University of Queensland (UQ)
upgraded its HRIS in 1999 in response to
Y2K compliance issues. “We needed a safe,
modern system that could keep pace with
developments in new technology,” says
Webb, adding that they chose a commercial
product and stopped in-house systems
development at the same time.
UQ employs about 6700 people across
three university campuses, in all Brisbane’s
teaching hospitals and on a research base
on Heron Island. Webb says that the first
ESS function they introduced in 2001 was
updating of contact details, viewing pay
details and accessing job information. She
says that, on reflection, it was wise to give
employees this initial access to the system,
before introducing transactional functions,
because it got them used to using it.
Later in 2001, all leave processing
(annual, conference, sick, personal etc)
moved from a manual system on to the
ESS. Last year, UQ’s ESS processed 57,000
leave transactions. In 2002, the university
introduced a training module and used the
ESS for in-house training applications, with
training record storage on the HRIS.
In 2007, employees became responsible
for updating their own banking details,
then, in 2008, electronic timesheets were
introduced, removing the need for manual
processing of 2500 casual salary claims
each fortnight.
Savings
“The cost of processing all these trans
actions has been removed from the
business. It was a burden on HR that
didn’t add value,” says Webb, who
notes they have realised time savings
and improved client service as well.
“People are now in charge of the time
liness and accuracy of the transactions
that impact on themselves.”
There have also been large savings in
the cost of paper and, Webb’s favourite out
come, removal of the need to file and store
paper records, with an audit trail and audit
reports available through the HRIS.
Ongoing costs after the initial pur
chase of some hardware includes the
annual license fee based on headcount
and the employment of a “small systems
administration team”.
Webb recalls the decision-making that
went with the initial vendor selection. “We
considered the balance between function
ality and cost and chose a mid-range system
that was able to work across a wide range
of technological environments.” Scalability
was another imperative, which has since
stood the test of time.
Webb says that UQ reviewed its system
in 2005, but decided it was well placed for
the medium term. “We’ll probably review
it again next year, to make sure the system
functionality is still matching our busi
ness needs and that our vendor is moving
with the times,” she says.
Implementation
With such a wide geographic distribu
tion of employees and an extensive
range of computer skills, teaching peo
ple how to use the system was initially
a challenge. “People are used to using
the web now, compared to when we first
introduced our ESS,” says Webb. “If
you make sure your ESS has a user-
friendly and intuitive feel, it does not
need much training,” she says, empha
sising the importance that an evaluat
ing team is representative of the types
of future users.
A progressive rollout allowed UQ’s
help desk to deal with call volumes and
gave Webb’s team time to fix problems
before the next cohort came on board.
Webb says that take-up was good
across the whole organisation. Change
was communicated in the system via the
university’s e-newsletter and some
brochures and web pages were designed
when new functionality was introduced.
Since 2001, the organisation has
grown much faster than its HR depart
ment, making it now one of the leanest
HR departments in the “group of eight”
universities. “We have also changed the
focus of who we are hiring into HR
roles. Most are tertiary-qualified now,”
adds Webb.
