HR professionals have a lot on their plates.
Recruitment, compensation, training and development, legal compliance—and the added pressure to boost organizational performance through effective people programs.
The challenge is especially steep for small to medium businesses (SMBs), where scaling up often means small HR teams with limited resources (i.e., one-person HR bands) carry the entire load.
That’s where HR tech with self-service can be revolutionary. It can transform everyday processes and allow HR teams (even of one!) to step into a more strategic role.
When people can easily access their employee profiles and update their details on their own, it takes a significant administrative load off of HR teams and managers. Free of the administrative burden, HR teams and managers can focus more on being strategic partners to the business while creating a positive employee experience (EX) and boosting engagement and productivity across the organization.
In this post, we’ll dive into how self-service boosts the employee experience and helps your HR team carry out the work they do best. We’ll also explore how an HCM with self-service capabilities can be a game-changer for organizations of any size.
What is self-service?
Self-service can mean different things depending on the needs of the business and the tools available.
“Sometimes it means the HCM is configured for you without you needing to touch the product. Sometimes it means the product gives you a place to start and allows you to adjust it yourself. And sometimes it means having a customer community to network with, share your concerns, and hear expert advice,” says Sivan More, VP of customer success at HiBob.
Self-service is about making people processes easier and allowing teams to access what they need, when they need it, without manual or repetitive intervention.
This can be a lifeline for HR professionals at SMBs: Many of them bear the responsibility of guiding their company’s growth from a small startup to a scaling business, often managing it alone or with minimal support.
And while scaling can be an exciting journey, it also comes with a unique set of demands.
The workload grows, bringing in new levels of task complexity, evolving legal and compliance responsibilities, diverse cultural needs, and a host of new tools to master. Add to that the expectation to be the go-to resource for people and management issues, and the balancing act can feel intense. Juggling these complexities can negatively impact EX—but an HCM can help.
What HR professionals expect from their HCM
For HR professionals, especially at SMBs, the stakes are high.
With limited resources and mounting responsibilities, the need for accuracy, efficiency, and support is greater than ever. “At SMBs, the number one fear is making wrong decisions,” says Sivan More.
And that’s where reliable self-service in HCM platforms can make all the difference. Through intuitive, automated processes, HCM platforms can reduce the risk of human error, which is the top expectation HR professionals have of their HCM.
By giving your people the ability to manage their own personal data—such as updating addresses, emergency contacts, and even preferences around birthday celebrations—you can enhance EX with self-service tools. Self-service tools can also help you minimize errors, create a better employee experience, and give your HR team a significant amount of time back to work on initiatives that improve EX.
Digital self-service channels allow HR to boost the speed and consistency of service and establish workflows that can handle routine tasks across different systems—from resolving payroll discrepancies to handling complaints. Clear digital self-service channels also give people the confidence to quickly resolve common issues without having to rely on HR teams.
Even more importantly, HCMs with self-service capabilities provide support for HR professionals themselves, connecting them with other users to gain insights, share experiences, and find solutions to common challenges.
Employee self-service solutions give your HR team the time, confidence, and support to focus on more strategic work, helping the company innovate and move toward new objectives.
How self-service can solve everyday challenges
Self-service solutions empower HR by enabling the design and implementation of workflows that streamline the completion of HR and work-related tasks.
These platforms help gather essential data, ensure timely communication, and give people direct access to information they need—all of which can lighten the administrative load on HR and contribute to improving the employee experience with self-service.
Here are a few ways self-service platforms solve everyday HR challenges:
- Simplifying HR workflows. Self-service platforms allow HR teams to design and automate workflows to complete routine tasks efficiently.
- Effortless data management. Self-service features in HCMs allow HR teams to automate data collection and minimize manual data entry, leading to significant time savings.
- Easy communication. Self-service portals make it easy for people and HR professionals to stay in touch with each other, contributing to a positive employee experience.
- Quick issue resolution. Team members can manage everyday issues like payroll discrepancies, benefits questions, and leave requests through self-service portals. By enabling people to submit and track requests themselves, self-service not only speeds up resolution times but also minimizes the back-and-forth that often bogs down HR. It comes at a lower cost, too, which is ideal for SMBs that lack the resources for extensive live support.
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Self-service can drive an EX revolution
In fast-growing SMBs, HR teams often find themselves navigating entirely new challenges, from setting up operations in different locations to managing complex regulatory requirements across regions.
Without a robust HCM, HR professionals would have to research each step from scratch. Self-service tools offer templates for tasks like onboarding, payroll readiness, and compliance requirements, giving HR leaders a strategic roadmap for setting up operations smoothly and correctly—and ultimately contributing to a smooth employee experience.
Beyond compliance, self-service has the power to transform EX by giving people instant, personalized access to the information they need.
Team members can gain control over their own data—from addresses and contact information to benefits preferences—making it easy to manage updates as they arise and triggering automated workflows that ensure data accuracy across all systems.
These automated workflows can make it easy to resolve issues like paycheck discrepancies or updating 401(k) contributions. Self-service workflows allow people to independently submit requests and track their progress, linking updates across systems where possible and routing any manual steps through automated processes.
A quick paycheck correction, for instance, can trigger necessary updates across payroll, benefits, and retirement systems, with little manual intervention from HR.
People can also receive automated emails confirming receipt of their request and providing an estimated time for resolution. This confirmation helps to allay concerns and nurture trust, showing people that HR is responsive and reliable.
At a fundamental level, self-service in HCM platforms reinforces HR’s mission-critical role in an organization’s smooth operation and in creating a positive EX. While HCMs will free up HR professionals’ time, they will still need to oversee key functions, like payroll, by using HCMs effectively and ensuring these systems are “payroll-ready”—that is, easy to connect with a payroll vendor to avoid costly delays and compliance issues.
Additionally, the time that self-service gives back to HR professionals will allow them to focus on implementing strategies that break new ground, giving them space to find new ways to keep their people satisfied, motivated, and engaged—and drive an EX revolution.
Transforming HR through self-service
Today, HR teams face more demands than ever before. But self-service offers an effective way to address these demands.
When your people have the tools to handle routine updates, it frees HR from time-consuming, manual tasks. Without self-service, each change requires coordination with HR, meetings, and system updates, running a greater risk of human error creeping in.
Ultimately, self-service is a foundation for a better employee experience and a stronger, more agile HR team. For organizations of any size—especially those scaling rapidly—a self-service HCM can drive the kind of transformation that benefits everyone.
