It’s a poor use of the HR team’s expertise, but because of paper-based information-management processes, there’s been no way to avoid these tasks--until now. Many medium-sized and large companies are upgrading their HR management systems, adding self-service capabilities that will forever change the roles of the HR team. Self-service puts the responsibility for many information-management tasks, such as filing change-of-address forms and completing benefits enrollment, in the hands of employees, dramatically reducing the amount of time that HR staffers spend on administrative tasks. It frees them to focus their energy on achieving more strategic goals for the company, such as reducing turnover and developing skills inventories. It can also enable companies to deliver the same HR services using fewer people.

    If a company wants to take better advantage of the skills of HR professionals or reduce the size of the HR department, self-service is an increasingly popular decision, says DJ Chhabra, vice president of global HRMS development at Oracle Corporation, an enterprise software company in Redwood Shores, California. "It eliminates non-value-added tasks, shifting the HR team’s efforts to the business side of HR."

    But the payoff of self-service is more than just happier HR people or even a smaller HR staff. It can also affect the bottom line in several areas, says Don Chun, director of Global HRMS product strategy for PeopleSoft, Inc., an enterprise application software company in Pleasanton, California. "Cost reduction drives the investment in self-service for most companies, and they are able to anticipate a quick return on investment in the software."

    He estimates that most PeopleSoft clients see a return on investment in two years or less, as a result of improved accuracy in data collection, reduction in time to complete tasks, fewer calls to the HR department, and faster turnaround. For example, one of PeopleSoft’s clients documented spending roughly $10 to process a change-of-address form before moving to self-service. "With self-service, that cost dropped to 25 cents," Chun says.

    It’s an issue of efficiency. The $10 cost came primarily from the time it took an HR staff person to copy an employee’s handwritten form into all of the disparate databases. Using the self-service system, the employee enters the data once online and it’s automatically updated in all of the necessary databases. This level of savings is similar for every information-processing task formerly managed by the HR staff, Chun says.

    Paper and mailing costs can be dramatically reduced as well, Chhabra adds. Pay stubs no longer have to be printed and mailed out--which can be a huge monthly effort and cost--and all HR-related documents can be completed and sent online, eliminating the need to print and distribute them.

    Self-service HR tools also improve productivity and help attract and retain qualified employees, says Tom Tillman, director of product management and marketing for Best Software, Inc., a business management software company in St. Petersburg, Florida. Younger employees who have been raised with the Internet expect the freedom and rapid turnaround of self-service. They want access to company information and control of their own data.

    "Self-service is an inevitability for most mid- to large-sized companies," Chun says. That means in order to stay competitive, HR professionals must evaluate and update their skill sets. As data-entry tasks are eliminated, so too is the need for lower-level administrative employees, he says. "To move successfully into the future, HR professionals need to transform themselves into strategic business advisers."