Cascade Human Resources Limited. A Practical Guide to HR Intranets

Transcription

1 A Practical Guide to HR Intranets Version 2.0 Date: 20 October 2006 Page 1 of 16 Author: Last Saved: 20/10/ :23

2 TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. INTRODUCTION WHAT IS AN INTRANET? WHAT IS A HR INTRANET? WHY DO COMPANIES IMPLEMENT HR INTRANETS? WHAT HR INTRANET SYSTEMS ARE AVAILABLE? ST GENERATION ND GENERATION RD GENERATION TH GENERATION WHICH ONE IS BEST? WHAT BENEFITS WILL A HR INTRANET SYSTEM PROVIDE TO YOU? WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS TO HR? WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS TO YOUR EMPLOYEES? WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS TO YOUR MANAGEMENT? WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS TO THE IT DEPARTMENT? WHAT ISSUES CAN A HR INTRANET SYSTEM CAUSE? COMMUNICATION EASE OF USE NO COMMERCIAL BACKEND HR SYSTEM SECURITY WHERE TO START PLAN PILOT ROLLOUT REFINE SUMMARY ABOUT CASCADE HUMAN RESOURCES LIMITED PRODUCTS CUSTOMER FOCUS BUSINESS SECTORS CONTACT DETAILS...16 Page 2 of 16 Author: Last Saved: 20/10/ :23

3 1. INTRODUCTION 1.1 What is an Intranet? For the computer whiz kids amongst you here is the technical explanation: A network designed to organise and share information and carry out digital business transactions within a company. An intranet employs applications associated with the Internet such as web pages, browsers, s, newsgroups and mailing lists but is accessible only to those within the organisation. For the rest of us: Most of the western world is now aware of the phenomenal growth and presence of the Internet. s, web surfing and e-commerce are now an every day part of life. Using your browser shopping, looking for information, booking cinema tickets is quick and easy, because most businesses are now connected to the Internet and offer on-line facilities to look and buy. Businesses all over the world realised that the Internet was a marvellous tool for sharing information and knowledge, improving communication and gaining competitive advantage, and that cut-down versions of the internet, implemented within their own company, would provide these benefits too the Intranet was born! An Intranet can be put to many uses within a company, from providing simple information such as phone lists to combining data from many different systems into one, and providing the right staff with access to it. Intranets have proved popular because of the relatively inexpensive implementation costs. They can provide immediate benefits and improve the company s competitive advantage through better communication. 1.2 What is a HR Intranet? So now you know what an Intranet system is, you maybe wondering what a HR Intranet system is, read on! HR Intranets are known by many different names, employee self-service, employee desktop, employee portal, and so on! So don t get confused when you shift through the marketing hype and see all the strange and wonderful names, they all basically mean the same thing. Page 3 of 16 Author: Last Saved: 20/10/ :23

4 HR Intranets can allow employees to access and update personal data in a secure easy to use way. By allowing employees to view and maintain their own data, HR Intranets can eliminate errors, increase employee satisfaction, and provide you with more time to focus on important tasks. You may remember the term paperless office, it goes back to the early 70 s. A great vision, just imagine no more stacks of papers, no more lost forms or chasing people for absence reports! With the emergence of intranets the promise of a paper less office is now one-step closer. Imagine you have a new starter Paul Bishop. After Paul accepts his job you push the new employee button on your HR system, this in turn sparks a sequence of events, which is unique to your company: a) Payroll receives Paul s details via . b) The computer department are informed that a new desk and PC will be required. c) On arriving Paul is directed to the HR web page where he is provided with the latest company handbooks and policies. d) He then checks his personal details and corrects his phone number and next of kin details. These are automatically corrected in the HR system and s are sent to the pensions company notifying them of an address change. e) Paul s business cards are ready and on his desk a week later. f) Paul submits his expenses, which get automatically routed to his manager for approval and then are paid promptly. g) And finally Paul remembers he needs to take a holiday, so he checks his holiday entitlement, fills out a request, which is sent to his manager for authorisation all this without one piece of paper or involvement from HR. Just imagine! 1.3 Why do Companies Implement HR Intranets? Most software companies trying to sell you HR Intranets systems will tell you that HR Intranets reduce the amount of time HR departments spend on administrative tasks, which then leaves them free to concentrate on more strategic tasks. Yes it is true that many HR departments are looking at HR Intranets as a way to reduce a tremendous amount of time spent on updating and maintaining employee information, in fact some companies change so rapidly that it can become nearly impossible to keep employee data current. However recent research conducted by impartial research companies and not software companies provides a more accurate answer: Page 4 of 16 Author: Last Saved: 20/10/ :23

5 Of the top three reasons given by companies why companies have or are thinking about implementing a HR intranet system, number one was the need to improve employee communications and information sharing. This was closely followed by the need to streamline processes and thirdly to reduce the amount of paper flying about. In fact over 90% of respondents to one particular survey cited improved communications, streamlined processes and reduced paper transactions as the top three reasons for implementing a HR Intranet system. According to other recent research nearly half of UK companies will be switching to HR Intranet self-service applications within the next 12 months, while a quarter say they already allow employees to access their own staff information. 2. WHAT HR INTRANET SYSTEMS ARE AVAILABLE? It is important that you understand the different type of HR Intranet systems that are available, because when you come to chose and implement a system you will need to decide which is best for you and your company. You also need to be confident that your IT department will deliver the underlying infrastructure, and your supplier will deliver the system that can grow with your requirements. Page 5 of 16 Author: Last Saved: 20/10/ :23

6 Before we decide which system is best for you, let s take a look at what s on offer. By the way, if you find the information below a bit technical don t worry! It may take a little bit of time for you to absorb the lingo, give it time, but don t give up. To help us understand the current HR Intranet systems available, we can divide them into 4 categories: 1 st, 2 nd, 3 rd and 4 th generation. 2.1 First Generation 1 st generation HR Intranet sites display information for viewing purposes only. Their audience is any employee of the company. They are usually built by IT people with very little input from the HR department and in many cases HR will not even know that they are there. Fig1. Example of a 1 st generation website. These types of sites are generally let down by limited and out of date information, because no one is tasked with posting new details and keeping the site up-to-date. These sites do not get many visits (hits) from staff. The only real advantage these sites provide is that they are easy to set-up and can be used as a good starting point for a wider project. You can see above, somebody has made a start with good intentions to put a site with useful information together, but has either not had the resources or knowledge to take it further. 2.2 Second Generation Like the 1 st generation sites, 2 nd generation HR Intranet sites display information for viewing purposes only, their audience is any employee of the company. They are usually built by IT Page 6 of 16 Author: Last Saved: 20/10/ :23

7 people with quality input from the HR. In some cases a net savvy HR person may have designed the site and got assistance from the IT department to publish it. There are many tools that HR people can use to construct and publish these types of sites, Microsoft FrontPage and Macromedia Dreamweaver to name just two. They can be mastered in a short period of time and contain wizards which build basic sites automatically for you. Fig2. Example of a 2 nd generation website. The sites will generally be visited by employees looking for procedures and policies, for example, the correct method of filling out expense claims, or printing blank holiday request forms, or copies of the company handbooks for new starters. 2 nd generation sites do not reduce paper. HR may not now actually need to send the paper document to an employee, however in the end the forms still need to be printed, completed and posted back to HR. These sites suffer from regular updates, because HR underestimates the amount of time and resource needed to keep information up to date. Figure 2 is an example of a passive, but useful website. The site contains a section for company handbooks, which in turn has sections for the administration department, the IT department, forms and a general area. An employee can very simply select a procedure, for example a holiday request form and print it out. Page 7 of 16 Author: Last Saved: 20/10/ :23

8 2.3 Third Generation Generally most 3 rd generation sites are purchased from external software suppliers, unlike 1 st and 2 nd generation sites which are usually produced by the company s IT department or HR department. All 3 rd generation sites contain active content, which means that the information shown is linked to a back-end database. These back-end databases are usually part of industrial strength HR systems, which contain comprehensive data and functionality. These sites can significantly reduce HR administration, improve communication within the company and reduce the amount of paper flying about. They can become very popular with employees and will register many hits. The employees role determines the type of information that can be accessed and updated; this allows sensitive information to be restricted and particular functions made available only to certain employees. For example, employees can apply for leave, book courses, review and apply for internal vacancies. Managers can authorise leave, record absences and conduct performance and pay reviews. With power comes a price! Security is a key issue that must be addressed, even though the site may be certified as secure by the supplier, you need to make sure it is! These sites are often very difficult to extend over the Internet, for home and tele-workers. Employees who do not have access to a PC get no benefit from a HR Intranet, so you will still need the paper forms and HR administration support for these people. Because these sites are supplied by external suppliers and they are often very difficult to tailor and will not integrate with any of your other back-office systems. Below are some pages from a 3 rd generation site. Employees can look at their own details, and if allowed, change them. They can request leave, and view non-confidential information about other employees, like their internal phone extensions. Managers can have access to their staff details, limited to whatever you want. Managers can authorise holidays, enter absences, and see conflicts where two or more employees have booked holidays for the same dates. Page 8 of 16 Author: Last Saved: 20/10/ :23

9 Fig3. Employees must sign-on to gain access. Fig4. Employees can check and update information. 2.4 Fourth Generation 4 th generation sites focus on the individual, as opposed to 3 rd generation sites that focus on a role like employees or managers. These sites integrate many different back-office systems so that people can access and update information from one integrated environment. 4 th Page 9 of 16 Author: Last Saved: 20/10/ :23

10 generation sites emphasise knowledge management the ability to get the right information to the correct person so that they can act upon it quickly. 4 th generation sites are sometimes known by the name Employee Portals. Most 4 th generation sites are built by using software systems from many different suppliers; the only pre-requisite is that the supplier of the system has built their software to conform to standards, e.g. the Microsoft Component Object Model standard, better known as COM, or the Microsoft.NET technologies. 4 th generation sites are costly to build, but can deliver exceptional results, both to the employee, the company and the companies customers. Although 4 th generation sites are not common, and to build one you will be looking at an overall investment of at least 5 to 6 figures, they will be more common within companies as their simple systems evolve. 2.5 Which one is best? This question should be which one is best for you? Depending upon your current requirements your needs for an intranet system will be different. To find an answer to this question you need to define your requirements, goals and objectives; for the short, medium and long term. The next section will describe some of the benefits and pitfalls that a HR Intranet system may provide and cause; this is then followed by some guidelines that may help you define your requirements. 3. WHAT BENEFITS WILL A HR INTRANET SYSTEM PROVIDE TO YOU? In a recent survey many respondents stated that the primary benefit of Internet/intranet systems for communicating with employees was the immediacy of information. Internet/intranet information can be easily updated by HR and easily accessed by employees 24 hours a day. In the same survey people indicated that company communications overall have been improved by HR Intranet systems. By enabling your employees to directly control such processes as entering address changes and making and changing retirement investments, you can put the responsibility directly into the hands of the people most motivated to act. Self-service administration of benefits enables Page 10 of 16 Author: Last Saved: 20/10/ :23

11 HR staff to spend more of their energy on strategic personnel issues such as recruitment and training. 3.1 What are the benefits to HR? Some of the benefits to you in HR include: 1. Instigating employee empowerment, by allowing staff to update their own information you send out a clear message of we trust you. 2. Information entered by people who can verify its accuracy. 3. Information no longer entered by someone who adds no value. 4. Just in time availability of current information, handbooks and manuals. 5. Greatly reduced administrative burden for HR, fewer calls, less paper, less mailing, less data entry. Frees HR to do thinking work not manual work. 6. Increased availability of HR to perform value-added strategic tasks. 7. Improved employee communication and feedback. 8. HR responds rapidly to enquiries, employee satisfaction will improve. 3.2 What are the benefits to your employees? Some of the benefits to employees include: 1. HR is always available. Information is available on the net 24 hours a day; the HR department is always open. 2. Staff can self-administer standard personnel functions like holiday requests, training and job opportunities and therefore ensure their personal data is always accurate and needs are handled quickly. 3. Employees can use the system to request forms, apply for internal job openings, and check on assignments. 4. Employees use the system to make suggestions. 5. By integrating various backend systems together and presenting the information on an integrated employee desktop, employees have access to information that is specific to them. 6. Performance reviews and performance evaluations, can be automated, each employee writes their own evaluations, performance evaluations can be added to this document by the employee line managers, performance reviews are discussed face to face. 3.3 What are the benefits to your management? Some of the benefits to management: 1. Better information available online. 2. Manager can gain a true picture of the business realities through real-time information shown using key performance indicators. Page 11 of 16 Author: Last Saved: 20/10/ :23

12 3. They can manage compensation benefits, appraisals, training and development, salary models as well as absence and holiday details. 4. Management will be shown information issues and trends that would not normally come apparent if they just used their eyes and ears. 3.4 What are the benefits to the IT Department? Easy to implement no need to distribute software No or little infrastructure changes. 4. WHAT ISSUES CAN A HR INTRANET SYSTEM CAUSE? As with all IT systems, if they are not planned correctly then they have a high risk of failing. HR Intranet systems are no exception, regardless of the type of system you are implementing. Lack of planning will present sizeable obstacles to building a successful HR intranet. 4.1 Communication One thing frequently not done is to include employees in the process of selecting and installing a HR Intranet. Your staff will be the people who will make most use of the system. It is important that they are onboard. You will need to set up consultation meetings, pilot schemes and perform some internal marketing. 4.2 Ease of Use Your HR Intranet system should be easy to use, make sure it adheres to the soft-boiled egg rule. The soft-boiled egg rule states that if a user cannot master the system within the time it takes to boil an egg then it is too complicated. The last thing you want to do is to automate a long-winded process with a clumsy tool and cause more work overall. 4.3 No commercial backend HR system Many companies start with 1 st and 2 nd generation HR Intranets, these over time are extended to try and provide 3 rd generation functionality. In order to provide the level of functionality needed from a 3 rd generation system you will need to have a robust commercial HR system. 4.4 Security No conversation about the intranet would be complete without mentioning security. Page 12 of 16 Author: Last Saved: 20/10/ :23

13 Security is a big issue when it comes to HR systems, a security model must be adopted that ensures that HR data is kept secure. There are many stories that describe how poor security models allowed sensitive HR information to come into the hands of the wrong people. In a recent survey the majority of respondents indicated that security was and continues to be a prevalent concern for Internet/intranet employee services. Firewalls are the most commonly used security protection, followed closely by the use of passwords or codes. Choose a supplier that has got a successful track record of implementing and supporting HR Intranet systems. 5. WHERE TO START The guidelines below will help you get started, however you may need help from your IT department or your suppliers. Don t rush it: most installations of HR Intranets will take between 3 to 6 months. 5.1 Plan The first thing you need to do is to set some goals and objectives, you need a strategy and a plan. If you are not sure how to produce an adequate strategy and plan, then involve someone who does. When defining a strategy include the following: define the benefits to be generated and the services offered before, determine how your HR self-service strategy will support your company s overall strategic goals. Be realistic in your plan. Include the following: How you will aim for change and interaction, The technology infrastructure you will need, How you will manage the cultural change, How you will deliver back-end integration, How you will measure and improve, How you will add value. 5.2 Pilot Pilot the intranet site with a few selected employees. Hold regular meetings with them to establish a steering group for the full rollout. Depending upon the comments you get back you may want to refine the site or proceed with the rollout. Page 13 of 16 Author: Last Saved: 20/10/ :23

14 5.3 Rollout Consider a phased approach to the rollout of services. This encourages employees to get started, and provides a platform for delivering a range of additional services. In many cases, communicating the benefits of the new HR intranet system to the organisation will be a top success factor. Manage the process of change. All projects encounter employee resistance at some stage. Not all employees will be that keen on serving themselves. Some managers may see the project as an attempt to delegate the administration from HR to the line managers. 5.4 Refine After you have rolled the site out, continue to improve content and functionality. Below are some ideas: Deliver back end integration. This will help get the cost down; there is little point in collecting information if you are not going to use it effectively. Measure the take-up and use of the web site service; you can apply many of the traditional traffic measurement techniques to see how successful your web site is. Eliminate paper within your company, or at least within HR! List all your paper-based forms, start with the area that is form intensive, these are best for conversion to intranet applications. Start by looking at the number of paper forms you have, you probably have forms for new employees, forms for employees requesting holidays, forms for absences, etc. 6. SUMMARY HR Intranet systems can free workers from slow and rigid processes, provide management with more up to date detailed information and provide you with more time to focus on strategic issues. In essence HR Intranets put the responsibility into the hands of those people affected. HR Intranets provide you with benefits beyond reducing transaction costs. They can improve the level of employee satisfaction, which has a direct result on the level of service you deliver to your customers. HR Intranets can be a key to your company s continued success and growth. Page 14 of 16 Author: Last Saved: 20/10/ :23

15 7. ABOUT CASCADE HUMAN RESOURCES LIMITED Established in 1992, (formerly Propath Ltd.) is a privately owned company with a simple philosophy: to provide the highest quality and most effective software systems and solutions whilst delivering exceptional customer service. The company now has products and services in place at over 2,000 sites, has enjoyed sustained growth and built a reputation for delivering quality systems and solutions, on time, and within budget. 7.1 Products Cascade HR s products that provide Intranet capabilities include Cascade HR v1.17. It consists of a range of key modules, including personnel, training, recruitment, reporting, query builder, and document management. Uniquely Cascade HR also provides a comprehensive and integrated payroll solution, Cascade Payroll. The Cascade HR system is Intranet based as standard not a separate add-on module. It provides a fully-configurable range of self-service employee and manager functions, from personal details through to holiday and absence tracking and management. The Intranet functionality is provided through the use of three-tier component technologies, which are secure and scaleable and can be deployed in a flexible fashion to meet the unique requirements of each HR organisation. The development strategy for the product is committed to using the latest advances in technology to meet the changing and challenging needs of HR. In particular we will continue the development of the product to adhere to the Microsoft.NET technologies, which will increase the accessibility and deployment of the HR function throughout the organisation. Personnel Manager is at the heart of the Cascade HR system. As with all of the Cascade HR modules, Personnel Manager is available as stand-alone or can be integrated with other modules in the range. Features include: a comprehensive user configuration system to ensure data security; absence and holiday booking and management; appraisal, disciplinary and grievance management; qualification, competencies and skills matching; global updates; employment and salary history; and comprehensive document management. It lets you decide which tasks you delegate to managers and staff, while maintaining total control over which information can be viewed and updated. Document Management included in the Personnel Manager is a comprehensive suite of document management tools. Documents may be created externally in other windows packages or scanned and stored against HR records. Features include: mail merge, or Page 15 of 16 Author: Last Saved: 20/10/ :23

16 fax documents, storing scanned images and documents and automated document production. Training Manager seamlessly integrates a high-powered training management solution that retains the ease of use and flexibility seen throughout Cascade HR. Features include: budget and cost control, course bookings, training needs analysis, course management, training document management, and training assistant. Recruitment Manager provides a unique solution to the management of the recruitment process by automatically processing applicants at each step. Features include: interview scheduling, automated document production, vacancy details and costs and budgets. Query Builder provides dynamic report functionality. Designed to provide a simple yet effective tool for day-to-day report requirements, Query Builder is ideal for rapid data retrieval and analysis. Features include: rapid query building, saving queries so they can be run again in future and publishing your standard queries so they are available to other users. Report Manager enhances the power provided by Query Builder by providing a large number of standard reports. Features include: presentation quality reports, standard reports, export reports into.pdf, MS Word, MS Excel and many other formats, reports and drill-down analysis. 7.2 Customer focus Cascade has strong experience of working with management consultants and IT departments throughout the entire project life cycle. Our experienced sales consultants, product consultants and project managers ensure that all aspects from selection, project planning through to implementation and support are handled in accordance to our quality procedures. 7.3 Business sectors Cascade HR has been installed in a wide variety of business sectors. These include media, manufacturing, retail, housing association, financial, IT, government, education, health, legal and the service industry. 7.4 Contact Details Telephone: Manor House Fax: Robin Lane address: sales@propath.com Pudsey Leeds LS28 7BR Contact name: Alan Jones Page 16 of 16 Author: Last Saved: 20/10/ :23