The reality in today's HR departments is that HR executives are rarely able to carve out enough time to adequately deal with strategic issues such as recruiting, employee satisfaction and retention, training and education, managing pay equity, and corporate diversity. The reason? The majority of an HR manager's time is spent responding to employee questions such as how much vacation time has been accrued, retirement plan inquiries, review and compensation questions. Time spent researching and reporting this information can take days or weeks since many departments rely on paper-based files to manage information. The result is an HR department buried in reactive support of an organization rather than implementing the core objectives they were hired to do. In turn, employees grow frustrated by not getting quick responses to the most basic questions.

The best solution to meet the needs of HR, employees, and the company at large is an employee self-service (ESS) system in which employees are able to essentially help themselves. With an ESS system in place, employees can look up vacation accruals, make benefit plan changes, update personal information - most of the tasks they are currently requesting of HR.

ESS systems are becoming more widely accepted and installed. In fact, they are widespread in Fortune 1000 companies. According to a recent MetLife Study of Employee Benefit Trends, 40 percent of employers with greater than 1,000 employees have ESS solutions, and only 18 percent of companies with less than 1,000 employees have ESS systems in place. The study also stated that an additional 22 percent of companies with less than 1,000 employees would provide ESS solutions for their employees over the next 18 months.

As ESS systems become more attainable for small to mid-sized organizations, decision makers in corporate HR and IT departments need to understand what to look for in order to make the implementation and distribution of these systems a success. To be sure you are selecting the right system, consider the following six points to determine whether an ESS will offer a satisfactory return on investment for your organization.

An ESS must offer tangible benefits to the HR department and end-users.
In order to alleviate the daily administrative burdens faced by HR departments, an ESS system has to have ease of use built in for both the HR department in set-up and maintenance and the end user in daily use.

When evaluating an ESS for your company, look for a system that will allow you to input data quickly and easily allow you to set-up the HR and benefits engines, and has the flexibility to allow employees to access much of the information they currently ask of you. Be sure the system has comprehensive support of all aspects of benefit plan management, such as plan choice, availability and comparison, eligibility, and rate structures.

As well as being easy to use, a good ESS should be able to offer other added values to
employees. An example would be the ability to compare benefit plan choices and see summaries of plan descriptions. A well-designed ESS should be able to make this a straightforward operation rather than the major chore it traditionally presents. Look for simplicity in layout and simple tab-based screens, which will result in far less or no training for your employees.

Technology should be self-supporting.
Support for the HR department is traditionally not a high priority for most IT departments. Because of this, an ESS has to be largely self-supporting if it is going to function successfully.

This is an important factor from both the HR department perspective, and the user perspective. If HR is going to need technical support from IT every time information needs to be updated or changed, things are quickly going to fall apart. Wizard-based set-up and maintenance is a vital component of enabling HR to manage the system alone.

From a user perspective, the less training and support employees require, the more likely they are to get the full benefit of the system. This is important for everything from finding information to replacing forgotten passwords.

Be sure the system is designed from the ground up.
To create a truly useful ESS, it is vital to start with an appropriate platform. It should be secure enough to maintain privacy in a Web-based environment, and robust enough to be the basis for an evolving system, handling large amounts of ever-changing data and being accessed from multiple access points.

HR, benefits and time and attendance engines are an essential part of every ESS. In their strength lies the ability to tailor an ESS precisely to meet an organization's particular needs. By driving specific answers to an employee's questions, HR, benefits and time and attendance engines are an aid in both efficiency and system security.

Make sure the system is secure.
By its very nature, an ESS contains private information. A balance must be struck between allowing easy access to information while maintaining the security of other parts of the system.

The newer "Identity-based" authentication systems require no administrator intervention once they are set up. In this option, if an employee forgets their password they are directed to fill in a set of identifying fields about themselves, such as name, address, date of birth, etc. The exact nature of the fields is set by the HR administrator. If employees enter these fields correctly, the system "authenticates" them and allows them into the system.

The platform that the system is built on is important in determining the level of security it can offer. Does it use 128-bit encryption algorithms? Is it designed so all files are accessed via Secure Socket Layers (SSL)? Is the system designed so pages time out after 30 seconds or so? This is especially important if you are offering access to the ESS in a public space such as a kiosk in a break room.

Ensure that the system is easily accessible.
All employees are not necessarily in a position to be able to sit down at a computer attached to the company's intranet, and using the ESS is not the most productive use of an employee's time during the working day. Accordingly, it is important to allow employees to access information from virtually anywhere such as from their home PCs via the Internet.

Look for a system that delivers fast payback
Successful implementation of ESS will provide many areas of payback for your organization. For HR, the significant reduction in time spent answering everyday questions leaves more time for other important HR tasks. Clearly, more time spent reconciling benefits with plan providers will allow you to spot errors in bills, and the quick reporting of census data will allow you to shop for better benefit options.

Implementing a successful ESS system brings significant benefits to the HR department and to end users, as well as being a significant area for cost savings in the organization. A well-chosen ESS will provide payback in a matter of months. However, it does require some careful planning to ensure that the system chosen is one that meets all the criteria described above. Given these parameters, an ESS will rapidly prove to be an essential part of an organization's infrastructure and provide HR with the time to fundamentally change the effectiveness of employees within your organization.

About the Author:
Mike Hayes is vice president of sales and marketing at Ascentis Software. He is an experienced software sales and marketing executive, with extensive experience in the technology sector. Mike was the CEO of URreal a hi-tech start-up specializing in real-time collaboration solutions, was vice president of marketing at Sequel Technology and Uniplex Software Ltd. At Software Publishing Corporation Mike had worldwide responsibility for Superbase and architected the sale of the product line to Computer Concept Corporation. Prior to SPC, Mike worked as a product manager at Oracle