Many HR departments struggle with disconnected systems and processes that require employees to reach out multiple times for help. In addition, many of these requests originate in emails or phone calls with no way to effectively track them. Efficiently managing all of this while minimizing transaction turn around times is an important challenge. In this post, we discuss the benefits of creating an HR portal.

The Challenge for HR Departments

These problems areas aggravated by the reality of multiple representatives trying to help their employees, but not armed with good historical information on the case or history.

On the employee service side, lack of transparency and feedback is a common frustration. Employees make requests and are often “left hanging” by waiting for an email or phone call, causing them frequently reaching back out. This creates more touches that do not add value, creating a negative feedback loop and growing dissatisfaction.

A good request and tracking system must form the foundation, and a solution such as ServiceNow can provide this foundation.

How an HR Portal Can Help

To encourage adoption of a system like an HR Portal to make their requests, employees have to feel confident that the system is the best and fastest way to solve their problems and get their questions answered. Transparency is key, and a portal for employees to not only make requests but to see the status of open and historical requests is critical.

Ideally this employee portal is able to put cross-departmental functions in one place and integrate into other functions such as:

• Payroll
• Expense tracking
• PTO [paid time off] requests
• Travel requests
• Benefits

The Flexibility of ServiceNow

A system such as ServiceNow can transform your HR Service delivery and is capable of handling many of these functions, while being very customizable. This customization can be extended further to integrate with other systems across the enterprise. For example, there are options to integreate with third party payroll and benefits providers like PayChex and ADP, training portals and timesheet systems, to name just a few.

In the end, the key is to offer a single portal with a singular login for employees and to provide a friendly experience that facilitates efficient self-service.

Our employees love the fact that all of their benefits and company information are right at their fingertips.”
- HR Manager, Midwestern Technology Company

The Benefits of Having a Solid HR Portal

Some of the more obvious benefits of an HR portal are quick self-service for employees and operational efficiency for the supporting HR team. This alone justifies implementation of a solid HR portal, but the benefits don’t stop there. Once engagement with employees is increased, the transparency is bidirectional and benefits not just employees but the support team as well.

Portal administrators and full-fillers can monitor their performance and that of their departments, track and escalate issues before they become critical, and measure important KPIs [Key Performance Indicators], such as ticket volume, resolution time, etc. These metrics are also critical in communicating to the broader organization the value being delivered by the HR function through these activity reports.

It is often easy to overlook the volume and breadth of requests being fielded by most HR organizations. A good system can amplify these accomplishments and provide a foundation for future initiatives.