Forum 1

Why would it be important for a company to have an employee and managerial self-service portal?

Companies must be able to be competitive in the global economy in order to survive and thrive. In order to be competitive a company needs to be able to recruit, train, compensate and retain the best and brightest workforce.

For managers, using a self-service portal can be a secure and immediate way to check the status of their employees' career progress. They can check to see if they have completed training tasks, are achieving education goals and if they are being compensated and promoted appropriately.

For employees using a self-service portal can put them directly in charge of their career goals, make training more convenient by being available online, let employees update their information based on life events (i.e.: Adding a dependent to health benefits access in case of marriage or birth of a child.) and having immediate access to company policies and procedures. Portals can also integrate company email and messaging systems into their portal applications.

How do these portals benefit an organization?
Organizations can reduce costs, have improved communication between staff and management, experience a reduction of paperwork, and enjoy increased productivity.

What are the ROI and cost considerations when considering one of these platforms?

RoI is the return on investment in terms of the cost/benefit analysis in regards to the creation or purchase of HR portal software or applications for the organization. Organizations can benefit from the implementation of HR portals by reducing phone calls, having accurate and current information about employees available to managers, improving recruitment and retention of the best employees and increase overall employee and management satisfaction with HR transactions.

Objective cost savings include reduction of call center staff, lessening the expense of paperwork and the means to store it, and the rise in productivity for both employees and managers.

What are some of the best practices in implementing self-service applications and what are also some of the common errors?
HR portals should be user friendly and reliable, have features that will enhance communication and have accurate information. Hr portals should increase worker and managerial productivity by allowing users an efficient way to communicate and complete tasks without having to "wait in line" to have an HR administrative person input information into files that the manager or employee can do themselves.

Hr portals can also provide a way to enhance employee skill set by having training sites the employees can log into and learn new skills or complete career enhancing training when it is convenient for them.

Common problems with HR portals can include cumbersome systems that are hard to use or are not well supported thus making them less likely to be utilized by both management and the employees.

According to the text that while many employees use Hr portals to check on or enroll in benefit plans, update statuses (such as changing addresses, adding personal data) they underutilized the skill enhancement and training opportunities provided on HR portals.

Would you recommend one of these platforms at a current or previous employer?
Yes.

Why? Explain your answer by using material from our reading assignment this week.

I would recommend using an HR portal at one of the larger veterinary hospitals I worked at because according to the text HR portals can be utilized by employees to do CBTs (computer based training) to improve skill sets and can also be used for educational purposes. As a veterinary technician it is very important to be aware of new veterinary products and techniques, learn new ways to help with client education, be aware of current public health policies and participate in continuing education programs. Having this information available on a portal would save time and money for the practice and provide valuable training on demand to veterinary staff.

Forum 2

I can speak from personal experience and I think having a self service portal is a GREAT thing for many reasons. It gives the HR department and those who are higher up in the ranks to put out important information to employees that may not be easy to get out of there are many offices and employees scattered over town (like I was)! It makes it easy on an employee if they have one of these systems where they work to check their pay, their leave time and put in for time off and to clock in and out of work and make sure they are meeting however many hours are required of them a week. It also showed our w2s each year and made it easy for us to access that so we could file our taxes & again it was just great all around! If there were meetings or new doctors and such hired it would he posted on the PORTAL since everyone had to log on there daily to clock in and out no one would miss it! I feel like it's a great thing & every office should or place of emplacement should have this for their employees. "A HRIS, or Human Resource Information System, is a software solution for small to mid-sized businesses to help automate and manage their HR, payroll, management and accounting activities.

A HRIS generally should provide the capability to more effectively plan, control and manage HR costs; achieve improved efficiency and quality in HR decision making; and improve employee and managerial productivity and effectiveness!" (Dresserandassociates.com, 2016)