Having the opportunity to self-serve important daily tasks may be a key component for social care providers looking to enhance their current people management practices.
According to The King’s Fund’s latest Social Care 360 report, the adult social care vacancy rate currently stands at 9.9%, being the second highest rate since Skills for Care began collecting data in 2012/13.
Giving your teams more autonomy over their day-to-day responsibilities - such as clocking in or out, amending shift schedules or requesting leave – can both help to streamline these vital processes and empower your employees too, which could play a role as part of your plans for retaining a satisfied workforce.
In this article, we’re going to explore what Employee Self Service really is and five reasons why it could play a key part in your services’ time and attendance management.
What is Employee Self Service?
Employee Self Service (ESS) is a functionality within people management software that means your employees can access information and manage tasks without relying on a manager or HR for support.
5 ways Employee Self Service can benefit social care organisations
1. Improved autonomy
Employee Self Service gives your teams more autonomy and control over daily responsibilities; something that could be a real asset for social care organisations looking to boost employee satisfaction.
This is because having more freedom over things like checking planned leave or being able to request shift changes without the need for HR or manager intervention helps promote a sense of trust and decision making, contributing to a more proactive and empowered social care workforce.
2. Time & cost saving
ESS isn’t supposed to replace your HR team. Instead, it supports them by allowing employees to take ownership of key responsibilities quickly and easily, helping to free up time so HR can instead focus on other important tasks.
In other words, instead of your HR teams constantly having to play catch up, ESS reduces the impact of this repetitive administration, leading to potentially significant savings in time and associated costs.
3. Enhanced accuracy & real-time visibility
ESS can provide real-time visibility into things like employee schedules, absences, and attendance patterns so your managers can make more informed decisions when optimising resources.
Plus, having ESS within your time and attendance solution means that any updates your employees make can seamlessly integrate into your existing payroll or HR software. That way, you can better ensure accuracy for things like pay or annual leave. This ‘right first time’ approach helps to streamline processes and reduce any disputes or discrepancies.
4. Less paperwork
As your HR team is only too aware, changes to staff records can be requested by employees at any time during the course of their employment with you. And although important, can take some significant time and paperwork to complete. So instead of HR manually managing annual leave requests, checking records or updating personal details, employees can quickly access an ESS portal to amend details themselves.
5. Anytime, anywhere access
Flexible working is increasingly present in modern workplaces and the social care sector is no exception. Offering various shift patterns for care teams or even office staff working remotely are just a couple of ways care organisations can offer flexibility for their employees. But in these circumstances, your teams may need to access to their records outside the typical 9 to 5.
A cloud-based ESS platform means managing time-related tasks is more convenient, as the software can be accessed at any time, whether through a desktop or a mobile device.
Our workforce management software, Time & Attendance, offers a user-friendly Employee Self Service platform so your teams can seamlessly manage their own time-related tasks, such as clocking on and off, requesting leave and updating records whenever they need to.
And don’t forget, you can check out our on-demand webinar all about time and attendance in social care here: Simplify Time & Attendance with expert tips