Importance of Employee Self Service in Outsourced Payroll Services

When a company outsources its payroll services, it can minimize the importance of self service. Management may assume that the payroll service provider or the HR department will be able to answer any query that employees may have or take care of matters such as leave applications. What can happen in such cases is that HR employees may not be that responsive to employees and are likely to come up with excuses like “we are too busy right now” or “I am sorry, I will have to talk with the department head or with the outsourced service provider handling payroll.” This leads to employee disgruntlement and it can have negative connotations for the business. When you do select a payroll service provider make sure it is one of the best payroll services in India that includes total employee self service module.

What is involved in employee self service                            

 Employees are not robots that work, take home their salary and that’s that. They need to follow procedures of the company in order to get leave sanctioned or to get some other info from the payroll service or the HR department. Outsourced payroll services of the best kind usually provide full scale employee self service module that allows employees to:

• Log in and view all their salary details including reimbursements, perks, deductions and leave that went into calculation of the pay.
• Print their salary slip if so desired
• Log in and view how many leave they have taken and how many are pending to their account.
• Put in a request for leave and track its progress until sanctioned or refused and, if refused, request clarification.
• Check details of reimbursements and deductions and raise a query through the self service portal put in place by the best payroll services in India like Alp consulting.

How does employee self service give benefits

 Including an employee self service module into the payroll services brings benefits for employees as well as for the employer.

From the employee perspective

• Employees need not hesitate to put in leave request through the self service portal. Employees usually hesitate to personally approach their superiors who may not view such requests favorably or put it off because they are busy. The request goes into the system and to the supervisor. Once he sanctions it, the employee receives a notification and this leave also links to payroll calculation.
• Employees may edit details such as change of address, change of phone number or bank account. They are not dependent on HR. Since one link is cutout, there are fewer chances or errors.
• Employees can view salary and deductions and, in case of income tax, enter details that would result in reduction of taxes.
• Employees can login and view company policies prior to initiating any request for leave or transfer and thus stay compliant.

From the employer perspective

• Due to high degree of automation in employee self service, the process frees up HR staff who can attend to more important tasks.
• Chances of errors reduce.
• A record is maintained and where applicable employee’s actions automatically affect payroll calculation to reduce errors or oversights and this leads to better accuracy as well as satisfaction.
• Since requests for leave and similar processes are digitized the company saves on paper and paperwork.

The best payroll services in India, when you engage them, put in place an employee self service portal that employees can access using the office computer system or mobile devices and all such transactions are linked to their payroll process. There are no errors of omission or commission. Employees feel more in control and employers get the benefit of better productivity.