The Employee Self Service (ESS) System comes as an extension of HRMS (Human Resource Management System/Software). These days more and more businesses in Dubai and all across the UAE are adopting Employee Self Service Kiosks due to their great employee experience, convenience, and advantages for the HR departments. The Self Service Kiosk is very capable of reducing HR Staff’s workload, increasing the overall efficiency of the HR department, and also automating various HR processes and services. By placing HR Kiosks or Employee Self Service Kiosks in the proximity of where your employees are working or living can save a lot of time and resources. The employee can avail of various HR services immediately, and they can avail of the service at any time, all the services are available on kiosks 24/7. But before you consider purchasing an Employee Self Service (ESS) Kiosk, you should be aware of the major pros and cons of the system.
Pros of Employee Self Service Kiosk
There are too many benefits and advantages of installing an Employee Self Service Kiosk. Here are some benefits of having an employee self-service kiosk:
Increase Employee Happiness and Profitability
Usually in Dubai and UAE, we see that most of the time employees are posted off-campus or at project sites. Usually, the employees are also living in different locations. Or it could be a local or regional branch where employees are working. The problem here is that the HR is always located inside or closer to the head office. In case if the employees are living and working in a separate emirate and the HR is located in separate emirates, it could cause a lot many issues for both the employees and also for the HR department. The employees will have to take half leave or even a full day off in order to arrange the visit to the HR. That is not all, the company will have to arrange the transport too. This increases the expense in terms of both the cost and the human resource as well as the supervisor will have to arrange an alternate for that employee as well.
It is a common sight that at the HR department we always see a lot of visitors, most of the time the HR have to hire more staff to accommodate the incoming flow of the employees on regular basis. After applying for leave, getting approval to visit HR once the employee reaches HR they will have to wait again in long queues. That is a very difficult customer/employee journey and this could be very frustrating, the employees will end up unhappy and unsatisfied.
But once the HR department integrates the HRMS (Human Resource Management System) with Interactive Self Service Kiosks, and place those Interactive Employee Self Service Kiosks on easy to access places or near to the employees where they can easily access them. And they can avail themselves of the HR services from the HR kiosk without worrying about taking off or waiting in long queues or traveling. This can completely transform the employee experience and employee journey. The employees feel more empowered, more satisfied, and comfortable. They don’t have to make plans and do arrangements for their visit, in fact, they can instantly avail themselves of the HR services from the Employee Self Service Kiosk.
Happy employees are a great asset for businesses. Happy employees result in good quality work and better efficiency which is great for customer happiness and customer loyalty and ultimately it results in greater profitability and productivity. Happy and satisfied employees are mostly more loyal to the employer, this improves the employee retention rates as well. Which is very helpful in long-term success and stability.
Employees can avail themselves a variety of HR Service Instantly using Employee Self Service Kiosk
Your employees can easily avail a variety of HR services instantly using Employee Self Service Kiosk. All of the services will be available 24/7. The employees don’t have to wait in long queues. The Kiosk can be placed at the closest locations to the employees either at their worksite or either at their accommodations. The HR department can significantly improve the employee experience, employee journey, and employee satisfaction by offering HR services using the Employee Self Service Kiosk.
Here are some of the services that are usually being offered via Employee Self Service kiosk in Dubai, UAE:
- Time Clock, Overtime Calculator
- Attendance and Schedules
- Benefits and Incentive Calculator
- Loan Status and Details
- Online Applications and Forms
- Leave Request
- Travel Requests
- Salary Certificates
- Document Printing and Scanning
- Announcements and Noticeboard
- EID Scanning, Passport Scanner
- Document Scanning and Uploading
Above all are the most commonly used services and features in Dubai and all across the UAE. However, there are tons of others features that can be offered through the ESS Kiosk.
Integration with other Software, Hardware, and Enterprise Solutions
The Employee Self Service Kiosk can easily be integrated with other hardware tools and software tools in order to offer more services or for certain operations. The ESS Kiosk itself is built with a very widely available technology so finding hardware accessories, such as RFID Scanner, Barcode or QR Code readers, Intercom, and such things can easily be integrated within the system.
On top of that, the Employee Self Service Kiosk is also very flexible towards customization and software integration. For example, the software and interface can be customized as per the business processes and policies of the business, hence there is no need to modify your business practices in order to integrate the ESS Kiosk. Another great feature is that the kiosk can easily be integrated with other organizational tools and databases to synchronize the data automatically. This saves a lot of time and lets businesses digitalize any kind of HR service. Data safety and security are ensured by allowing secure access and signing-in process.
Improve HR Efficiency and Reduce Cost
The HR department is always the busiest department. Especially in Dubai and UAE, the businesses are struggling with their HR departments, continuously pouring resources to improve their efficiency. The HR department is a very vital part of any business or enterprise, it makes sure that:
- The skilled staff and employees are always available
- The employees are happy and satisfied
- The employees are performing at their best
- The resources are utilized effectively
- The maximum level of productivity and efficiency is achieved
These responsibilities ensure that the business will be able to achieve its goals. Those are not so easy tasks. The HR department is always overloaded with lots of work.
Most of the time the major HR resources are consumed in handling the daily footfall. As there are too many daily queries by the employees and the HR should have to assist them as well along with maintaining the documentations. The HR department has to maintain and everything, the traditional method in Dubai, UAE is to maintain everything manually and then upload the data to the digital system.
The HR staff has to go through tons of manual work including manual files, printing, and scanning, maintaining records, and then uploading each and everything in the digital version. Another tedious task is mailing and processing letters and applications. Altogether these all tasks require a lot of HR resources in terms of both the human resource and the cost as well. When measuring the cost over return ratio for HR under such circumstances, it is not satisfactory at all.
Businesses are always willing to go the extra mile in order to improve HR efficiency and expenses. The Employee Self Service Kiosk is a great tool to achieve both. The HR department can digitalize its services along with almost all of the service delivery processes. Digitalization enables automation, the automation reduces or completely eliminates human intervention. This helps the HR department to reduce its operating expenses and cost. Above all the reduced workload on the HR department means the HR department can perform better with fewer resources, which further reduces the cost and improve efficiency. The HR staff can now focus on more productive tasks than just taking prints, sending letters, and assisting the daily visitors.
The HR efficiency and increased productivity reflect on all other departments as well. HR is not more focused on productive tasks, such as resource allocation, employee performance monitoring, employee development programs, and training, etc. This can have a huge long-term impact on the growth of the business. And all that can be achieved by simply adding Employee Self Service Kiosks to the equation. The great thing about the ESS Kiosks is that they are also not very expensive, and they can easily be integrated into the system.
Easy Communication with the Employees
The ESS or Employee Self Service Kiosk opens up a direct communication channel between the employees and the HR Department. The HR department can easily make announcements, or push news and info on the screen of the HR kiosk. Such communication is simpler and robust. All the employees can instantly be notified and all the news or announcements or messages can be conveyed to a large sum of employees without any extra effort or cost.
The Employee Self Service Kiosk also enables direct or personalized communications for each employee. For example, whenever an employee will have to avail of any HR service they must have to sign in to the system to identify themselves. The system can then push the personalized message or notice to that particular employee. This made communication easier, quicker, and cheaper.
In case if there is a problem or issue or if an employee wants to visit the HR department they can also be provided with an online appointment booking service to book an appointment with the HR department, this can also save a lot of time as well.
Cons of Employee Self Service Kiosk
As there are so many advantages of Employee Self Service Kiosk there are some disadvantages too. Automation and digitalization make the entire system autonomous. There is no limit of time to avail of the service, in fact, the services are all available 24/7. However, eliminating the human factor from the services is not always good, it has its own pros as well as some cones. Here are the cons of using Employee Self Service Kiosk:
Less Direct Interaction and Discussion
As the Employee Self Service Kiosks open up easy communication channels between the employee and the HR department, but easy doesn’t always mean ‘effective’ too. In some cases, human interaction and direct discussion are also necessary. While utilizing the ESS or Employee Self Service Kiosk the employees can get distanced from the HR department. The HR department can also lose sight of the intellectual of an employee. Which could be counter-productive in managing disputes or taking instructions, the lack of face-to-face discussion or communication leads to distrust and unfriendliness. Which is neither good for the employees nor for the HR department.
The HR department must be able to understand the true potential of employees, in order to improve their performance and efficiency, the HR staff must have to understand their concerns and their problems. There is no better method than a one-to-one discussion. That is why human interaction is also necessary when it comes to employee development and employee performance. In some cases when the HR is communicating a certain matter or let say a certain decision that they have made for the employee or just a simple leave or rejection, the employees at that stage want to argue and discuss rather than reading a few sentences on a digital screen.
The HR department is responsible for better resource utilization, employee development, training, etc. They must have to understand the employees in order to encourage them to improve their work efficiencies. That is a big hurdle in the way of ESS or Employee Self Service Kiosk. This also leaves a very bad impression of HR on the employees.
Errors and System Training
In Dubai and UAE, the workers are welcomed from all around the world, most of them comprise of Asian nationals. The businesses are thriving and growing, which is even attracting more ex-pats and workers from all across the world. Not everyone who is working here is familiar with English and Arabic, the most dominating languages. This also causes trouble when people are utilizing the Employee Self Service Kiosk. Employees are not always much familiar with the language, in fact, most of the time, people can understand enough to perform basic functionalities such as availing of HR services, but not everyone is familiar with the interactive touch screens and they might make mistakes while operating the interactive touch screen interfaces.
Such problems require the HR staff to update the system as well as doing the process manually. Usually when users are asked to fill in online forms through the Employee Self Service Kiosk, or update their documents and information, for example, update the new Passport Number, or input the Emirates ID expiry date, etc people tend to make mistakes. In order to prevent that, sufficient training is required for all of the employees to enable them to use the Employee Self Service Kiosk.
Conclusion
The Employee Self Service Kiosk is a great tool for the HR department. Obviously like any other solution or system, there are some pros or upsides and some cons or downsides of implementing the Employee Self Service Kiosk system. One of the greatest advantages of the ESS Kiosk is to provide HR services right at the doorsteps to your employees, whether it is their project site, accommodation, or remote location, they can avail the HR services from the Employee Self Service Kiosk. This significantly improves the employee experience. When the employee feels good about the company they are working for, employee retention is easier, the employees tend to be more loyal and their work efficiency also increased.
The cost cut at the HR department is the most difficult task for any business. The HR has to have a lot of staff to accommodate and handle the daily inquiries and visitors. The next big thing that consumes a lot of HR resources is the manual filing, printing, and mailing of the documents. This also costs a lot to businesses. With the help of Employee Self Service Kiosk, these all expenses can be reduced and completely cut too, as the HR services can be digitalized and service delivery processes can be automated using ESS or Employee Self Service Kiosk. However there is a downside too, mainly the employees are not always familiar with utilizing technological solutions. As per our experience, the employees tend to make mistakes when updating information or filling in forms or doing data input using ESS Interactive kiosk. Businesses can include more supported languages, arrange training and make the user interface simpler to minimize such mistakes.
If we look at a macro level the pros of the Employee Self Service Kiosk are far greater than the cons. If you think your business can benefit from ESS or Employee Self Service Kiosk or if you are still confused about making a decision, feel free to reach us out through our Contact Us page. RSI Concepts is one of the leading brands in the customized kiosk industry. We can help you out with our experience and customized solutions. You can also leave a comment in the comment box below and someone from our sales side will get in touch with you soon.
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