As web-based employee self-service systems (ESS) become more commonplace, HR professionals are getting ready to cross the next technological frontier: management self-service (MSS). But how exactly does that differ from what’s already on offer? How can you make a case for management self-service? And does it represent a threat to the future of HR professionals? Angus Kidman reports.
As web-based employee self-service systems (ESS) become more commonplace, HR professionals are getting ready to cross the next technological frontier: management self-service (MSS). But how exactly does that differ from what’s already on offer? How can you make a case for management self-service? And does it represent a threat to the future of HR professionals? Angus Kidman reports
The benefits of employee self-service systems are obvious: they cut down on the time that HR staff have to spend on routine tasks such as changing addresses, they give staff a greater sense of control, they ensure that data entered is more accurate, and the use of a web browser interface generally means that training requirements are fairly minimal. Most vendors of HR software have also added modules for ESS to their packages, so rolling out an employee self-service system is not a particularly onerous task.
Management self-service essentially takes the ESS model and extends it to the management level. Just as ESS was designed to reduce the number of routine queries and tasks from the whole workforce, MSS is designed to allow management staff to take control of well-documented processes such as salary reviews, training allocations and tracking leave requirements across a large department.
Software vendors believe that management self-service will become a key technology issue for HR professionals over the next 18 months. “We’re seeing a big push to management self-service,” says Carl Hubbard, solution architect at SAP.
However, the market is still relatively immature. “We see a huge interest in management self-service, but it’s probably lagging employee self-service a little bit,” agrees Marc Dalmulder, manager global HRMS product strategy at PeopleSoft.
“I think it’s probably less used than employee self-service,” adds Len Augustine, director of marketing and alliances at SAP. “You can get the HR department to do a lot before you need it.”
One reason companies are holding back on MSS is because their existing IT systems aren’t actually equipped to handle it. Somewhat surprisingly, this can be the case even in companies which have recently upgraded their overall enterprise software systems.
A recent benchmarking study by the Hackett Group found that the average ministrative cost per employee was $US535 in companies which didn’t have any enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems implemented, but only dropped to $US509 in companies that had put such a system in place.
“Our findings indicate no statistical difference in HR costs at companies that have implemented ERP applications versus those that have not,” Hackett commented. “This lack of impact on HR administrative processes indicates real-time access to information is still cumbersome at best. Consequently, many companies still have far to go before they can derive the maximum business benefit from proven self-service techniques (which require the fundamental data warehousing capabilities successful ERP and decision-support applications provide).”
Implementing MSS is not always as easy as ESS. In large part, this is because of the complexity of the data and workflows involved. “You need a lot more information in a system to make the self-service system interesting to a manager,” says Augustine. “Management is going to ask you for a combination of easier questions and harder data.”
So why do companies plan to introduce MSS? “The typical motivation is that it helps improve process efficiency,” says Dalmulder. “It usually improves the quality of data as well because there’s no misunderstandings. There’s also a reduction in costs due to no re-entry of information and standardisation of business processes.”
Automating common tasks is a major incentive. “Greater opportunities abound for providers of comprehensive hiring process automation, especially as the scope of these offerings expands to include internal hires as well as external applicants,” says IDC senior analyst Marc Pramuk.
In most cases, MSS will follow ESS in an enterprise plan. “Employee self-service is a pre-requisite for management self-service, and ESS is a big deal for the HR department,” says Augustine.
That’s more a cultural restriction than a technological one. “From a technical perspective, it’s not strictly a pre-requisite, but most companies are doing it that way,” says Dalmulder.
MSS may not need to make use of the Web interface which is now standard for ESS. “There’s less need for a simplified approach with management,” argues Augustine, especially if executives are already familiar with basic enterprise resource planning modules from other divisions such as finance. This won’t always be the case, however. Managers who have had limited exposure to information technology will be more productive with a web-based system, even though this may require more initial work to implement.
The importance of promoting the usefulness of an MSS system shouldn’t be underestimated either. “Organisations that have begun to leverage the power of internet-based applications by adopting web self-service, for example, have found that take-up is influenced as much by end-user perception as by ease-of- use or tangible process improvement,” Webster Buchanan analysts Keith Rodgers and Dennis Howlett point out in a recent report.
And whatever format the software uses, it’s unlikely that management will be given unfettered access to the full power of an HR management system. “It’s a tool for managers to do the same thing as HR has done in the past, but you don’t typically have as many options,” says Dalmulder. Typically, for instance, access will be restricted to data on employees within a manager’s direct control, and forms may be supplied with some fields locked or with suggested input already in place.
As a result, while management self-service may make it simpler for basic line-of-business decisions to be conducted without involving HR departments, that doesn’t mean that implementing it is going to result in a reduction of the status of HR. “You are still going to talk to the HR department if you want to do anything major,” says Augustine.
One key motivation for introducing management self-service is to ensure that relevant HR information is reaching key executives. A recent study of senior executives by Accenture found that 47 per cent of senior executives were either dissatisfied or neutral about the effectiveness of their HR departments. Most significantly, the most common reason for dissatisfaction was a lack of access to information; 64 per cent of companies that had outsourced HR functions also said that one of the motivations for doing so was that they actually gained access to more data by doing so.
Vodafone
On the other side of the coin, many HR departments are looking to implement management self-service in order to ensure that the information they collect from business divisions is as accurate as possible. That was one of the main motivations behind the August rollout of an MSS system at mobile phone network provider Vodafone, which shifted much of the responsibility for promotions, salary adjustments and staff movements from HR to department managers. Like Vodafone’s existing ESS system, the MSS platform is Web-based.
“Everything’s done properly the first time around this way,” says Natasha Bakker, HR services manager for Vodafone. “It enables us to get more accurate data. You’re sometimes very reactive in this kind of role, because you don’t know what’s going on in all the divisions.”
“The decision to use MSS was made about two years ago,” explains Bakker. “Vodafone was moving very much towards the decentralisation of all processes.”
As well as bringing standard HR functions closer to the company’s 1,800 employees, the move has helped to save money. “It’s more cost efficient; you don’t need to have a whole army of ants to process data, and it decreases the burden of processing for the whole HR team,” says Bakker.
Staff satisfaction within HR is also much improved, since the projects staff are involved in are less repetitive and more creative. “We’ve still got a very important support and training role though, “ says Bakker.
During rollout, HR also faced a temporarily increased workload. “It’s pretty complex to implement,” Bakker says, especially if numerous customisations to the base platform (PeopleSoft in Vodafone’s case) are required.
With the system only just having gone live, Bakker says it’s too early to say in detail what enhancements Vodafone will be looking for in the next update. However, a broad long-term goal is to achieve complete integration between HR software and the company’s general financial and payroll systems.
Future trends in MSS solutions are likely to fulfil Bakker’s wish for tighter integration with other business data. “It’s definitely an area where we’ll see a lot of changes,” says Dalmulder. “We’ll see further integration with analytical information.”
Such an approach will be critical to the ongoing success not just of MSS, but of HR within the organisation as a whole. “Focus on strategic analytics, providing senior management with both historical data analysis and human capital management planning and modelling capability,” Rodgers and Howlett advise. “This strategic level of performance management will ultimately make or break a human capital management strategy.”
