A Smarter Way to Manage HR Tasks
Most digital natives of today won’t be able to relate the troubles experienced by the millennials and their previous generations in the HR scene. Two decades back, employees were hugely dependent on the HR manager or department to access or perform any job-related activity. It was like, “if no HR, no access”. And the employees had to wait till the HR showed up at the office.
Employee self-service technology transformed this scenario, which once was a time-consuming, employee-HR affair, and even bridged the gap between the employee and the HR department. The technology, through self-service kiosk machines, mobile apps and web portals transformed the employee experience (EX) in work environments.
In this blog, we’ll have a closer look into the ESS or HR kiosk machines, their functionality and benefits. In the latter part of the blog, we’ll also have a closer look at the latest technology trends in the ESS domain. Kindly read through…
What is Employee self-service?
Employee Self-Service (ESS) is a digital system that allows employees to access and manage their work/HR-related tasks without human assistance or guidance.
Employees can access ESS systems via dedicated mobile apps, online portals, and via ESS kiosk terminals. ESS streamlines HR tasks to a significant extent ensuring employees improved accessibility to HR-related services.
This improved accessibility prevents unwanted delays and inefficiencies during HR interactions and makes the process fast and flawless, which improves the overall employee experience (EX).
Due to its benefits like improved HR efficiency, and reduced expenses, businesses ranging from mid-level organizations to MNCs and governments incorporate this system as part of their employee management initiatives.
Payroll details management, attendance management, employee feedback facility, personal information update facility etc. are some of the key features that come under ESS.
What is Employee self-service kiosk?
Employee self-service kiosk machines are self-service kiosk terminals that allow employees independently manage their HR-related tasks and requirements.
These kiosk machines are usually deployed in a wide range of business environments to streamline HR-related tasks. And these kiosk terminals function as a “connecting link” between the management and the employees.
Self-service HR kiosks can be deployed at the most convenient spaces where employees have easy access to the machine. The most common HR kiosks are the standalone type that come with secure enclosures, user-friendly interfaces, and pre-installed software.
Features of ESS kiosks
HR kiosks are equipped with necessary hardware and software integrations to streamline HR tasks and services. Here are the features.
Hardware components
- Touchscreen display – facilitates smooth employee interaction with the kiosk machine.
- Document scanner – allows employees to scan various documents
- Biometric scanner device – facilitates employee authentication via fingerprint or facial recognition
- Card reader – facilitates card-based employee access
- Printer – performs printing tasks like salary slips, and various other HR documents.
- Camera & Microphone – performs video conferencing tasks
- Barcode/ QR code scanner – facilitates ID card scanning of employees.
- Passport scanner – Passport scanning device facilitates effortless scanning of employee passports.
Software components
- Employee self-service application – helps employees access HR services like attendance, payroll and leave application.
- Biometric authentication application – facilitates employee authentication via fingerprint or facial recognition.
- Video conferencing module – allows real-time video conferencing with a HR professional
- Reports and Analytics software – offer insightful data in connection with kiosk usage and employee engagement.
- Payroll and Benefits Management application – allows employees access information related to payroll, and other benefits.
- Employee card issuance module – offers instant issuance of employee cards.
- Azure Active directory for centralized authentication – handles information about network users and resources, including employee login with two-factor authentication.
Functions of Employee Self-service kiosks
ESS kiosks are equipped to handle a plethora of functions. And here are they.
Employee self-service
- Access payroll-related information – The employees can easily access their pay slips and even take print of the same.
- Employee attendance – the employees can access their attendance, shift timings, and other details upon authentication.
- Leave management – Anything related to leave request, checking leave balances, can be accomplished via staff self-help kiosk machines without having to interact with the HR department.
- Instant Issuance of salary certificate – the employees can instantly issue their salary certificates whenever needed, avoiding HR-related delays.
- Offer banking information – employees can easily provide and update their banking information like bank account details.
- Personal and Employment information – employees can easily access both personal and employment-related information via HR kiosk machines.
- Employee benefits – the kiosk offers easy access to Health insurance plans, submit and track reimbursement claims, etc.
Employee On-boarding
- New employee registration and on-boarding – Employee on-boarding can be carried out smoothly via ESS kiosks.
- Document management – Employees can scan and upload their documents such as ID proofs, certifications, proof of experience etc.
HR communication and guidance
- HR policy communication – the employees can access all HR policy-related matters, news and updates via the HR kiosk machine.
- Feedback submission – the kiosk machine facilitates easy submission of employee feedbacks.
- Employee Training and development – offers instant access to training materials and other skill development resources.
For more detailed information regarding Employee self-service kiosk functions, please visit our official page. Self Service HR Kiosk – HR kiosk ease employee access to HR platform
Benefits of Employee self-service kiosks
You may classify the benefits into two perspectives, one is that of the employees and the other management.
Employee perspective
- 24/7 access to HR services – employees enjoy 24/7 access to HR services which eliminates delays.
- Fast and efficient services – ESS kiosk terminals offer a fast and efficient way to accomplish tasks like leave sanctioning, requesting pay slips, document printing etc.
- Privacy and confidentiality – Employees can access job-related information with utmost privacy and confidentiality without having to interact with an HR staff.
- Multi-language facility – The kiosk terminal offers multi-language facility so that the employees may navigate the kiosk in their desired language. The feature is highly beneficial in large corporate, manufacturing or industrial environments.
- Employee feedback facility – Employees can easily register complaints or feedbacks via the kiosk terminal, ensuring privacy and confidentiality.
Management perspective
- Reduces HR workload – HR kiosks automate and simplifies some of the key functions of the HR like attendance tracking, sanctioning of leave application etc.
- Improved HR efficiency – The HR need not spend time on the unproductive, monotonous tasks. This improves HR productivity which improves overall HR efficiency.
- Improved EX – Fast and efficient transactions, and reduced interactions with HR professionals improve the overall Employee Experience.
- Remote monitoring – a backend agent can remotely track the performance of the HR kiosk terminal and even deploy software updates as part of system maintenance.
- Scalable option – Any number of kiosk terminals can be connected to an existing network which helps future expansion plans.
- Reduced expenses – the business can reduce expenses in multiple ways like, through HR automation, paperless transactions, automated on-boarding and training etc.
Where to install HR kiosk machines?
An HR kiosk can be installed at any settings that have a good number of employees. The kiosk machine serves as an “automated HR touch-point” that offers 24/7 easy access to job-related information and services. Here are the various settings in which you may install an HR kiosk terminal.
- Corporate settings – When deployed in the reception area, the employees can make use of the kiosk terminal to perform a plethora of tasks like apply leaves, check important dates and schedules, and access other HR-related services.
- Back office spaces of Retail and Hospitality environments – the retail and hospitality employees can check job-related aspects without affecting customer service or waiting for the store manager.
- Shift-change points in Industrial and manufacturing sites – These are places where employees in large numbers work in separate shifts. Installing ESS kiosk machines at the shift-change points helps employees to comfortably access their attendance, payroll-related information, without any human intervention or assistance from the superiors.
- Employee entry points at airports and transportation hubs – The airport employees can check their attendance, and other job-related information while they arrive and leave.
- Faculty rooms or administration department of educational institutions – faculties and non-teaching staff need not wait in the administration department to access HR-related information and services.
- Government departments – significantly reduces the use of paper in government departments through self-service HR kiosk automation. Employees can easily apply for leave, check attendance, and access information related to benefit enrollment via the kiosk machine.
- Nursing stations in hospitals – serves as a highly convenient platform to manage shifts of healthcare staffs, including doctors, nurses, cleaning staff etc.
- Warehouses – The warehouse staff, truck-drivers can access the Employee self-service kiosk machine in connection with checking attendance, payroll, shift timings, etc. preventing face-to-face interactions with warehouse managers.
Technology integration in Employee self-service
Artificial Intelligence, Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality are some of the latest technologies used in the ESS domain.
Let’s see how AI, VR and AR are used by HR teams. The adoption of these technologies significantly reduces the HR workload and improves the overall HR efficiency.
Artificial Intelligence in HR
- AI-driven chatbots – Businesses now rely on AI-driven chatbots to deal with frequently asked questions and queries in the HR environment. The greatest advantage is that these AI-assisted chatbots can function as a “24/7 automated HR” and respond to a plethora of queries in an instant. This saves time and workload of the human HR personnel, and at the same time, improves the overall employee experience too.
Just imagine employees drafting and sending emails to the HR staff for something basic like leave policy details, list of holidays, etc!
- AI for hiring – AI is widely used in the various stages of recruiting or hiring. AI is commonly used to find the right candidate for any specific job opening, perform the initial selection, generate interview questions, and even for shortlisting candidates.
In fact, Chatgpt has become every HR staff’s loyal friend. Chatgpt, nowadays is the perfect go-to platform to create engaging job description for interviews.
As per the AI adoption study conducted by Gallup, 93% of Fortune 500 Chief Human Resource Officers 9CHRO) have started using AI to improve their business operations. And yes, these HR professionals have realized the huge potential of AI technology, which resulted in its extensive adoption.
Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality
Both VR and AR present an excellent opportunity in connection with training and development of employees. The cost of the VR and AR technologies, as of now, are on the higher side, and hence, not many HR teams are able to afford them. But in the near future, we’ll be able to harvest the full benefits of these immersive technologies, hopefully.
- Virtual on-boarding and orientation – VR-assisted employee on-boarding can do wonders as it helps newly hired employees to familiarize with the work settings, overall work culture, safety-related norms etc. without having to be present at the physical work site. Isn’t it cool…!
For example: The world-renowned IT services and management company, Accenture, makes use of VR for employee onboarding. The technology adoption brings in a more immersive and collaborative on-boarding experience to the newly recruited employees.
To read more on Accenture’s immersive on-boarding experience, please visit the i4cp website.
- Technical training – VR and AR is highly beneficial for imparting training lessons in industrial settings or other high-stakes jobs.
Imagine a scenario where even a small mistake by an employee could become life-threatening or result in unpleasant outcomes. It’s in these scenarios, the benefits of VR and AR come into play. The employees remain immersed in the real-life work scenario, and are able to grasp all the practical aspects of the job with precise attention to detail.
Panashi Employee self-service kiosk Projects in the Middle-east
- Kuwait National Guards – Panashi implemented an ESS kiosk machine for an autonomous military organisation in Kuwait, named Kuwait National Guard.
Kuwait National Guards is a huge force and contains a large number of employees who belong to various designations. To address the needs and requirements of this high number of personnel were nearly impossible with a human HR staff.
However, it became possible with Panashi self-service HR kiosk automation.
The kiosk machine streamlined the HR operations and made the services accessible to all the employees. And the transformation significantly reduced the workload on the existing HR department. The results achieved are listed below. https://panashi.ae/kuwait-national-guard-hr-kiosk-project.html
- 24/7 HR services
- Improved operational efficiency of the HR department.
- Reduced the repetitive HR tasks and improved HR productivity.
- Reduced operational expenses of the HR department.
- Reduced human errors.
- Improved Employee Experience.
- Emirates Flight Catering – Our HR kiosk solution certainly helped Emirates Flight Catering – a subsidiary of Emirates Airlines, streamline their operations.
The flight catering employees were basically into deskless roles and the HR operations were initiated from a centralized location. The employees faced several issues connecting with the HR team. And the strict security norms held in the airport settings made things further difficult.
Panashi’s ESS kiosk served as a connecting link between the deskless employees and the HR department, serving their needs and concerns effectively.
The kiosk machine facilitates document printing which includes printing of salary certificates, NOCs, pay slips and other vital documents.
The kiosk implementation resulted in the following HR transformations.
- Reduced HR workload.
- Reduced operational cost by eliminating courier transactions.
- Improved operational efficiency by processing a greater number of employee requests per day.
- Sorted out HR delays through HR kiosk automation.
- Kuwait Airways – Panashi implemented a highly intuitive indoor HR kiosk machine for the Kuwait Airways. A large number of employees and work-shift related delays affected the overall HR productivity. The kiosk machine was equipped with all the necessary hardware and software components to improve the day-to-day HR functions of the airport.
And the results achieved are:
- The HR kiosk significantly reduced HR workload.
- 24/7 HR services
- With faster and efficient service delivery, employees could easily access HR-related services.
- Secure employee authentication.
- Reduced operational costs.
Conclusion
To wrap things up, employee self-service kiosks are really changing the game for how organizations handle HR operations. They give employees direct access to important services, making it easier for them to update personal info, apply for leave, check their payslips and dive into training modules. These kiosks help simplify everyday tasks, lighten the load on admin staff, and boost overall efficiency in the workplace.
By fostering transparency, convenience, and a sense of autonomy among employees, self-service kiosks not only enhance the HR experience but also lead to greater employee satisfaction and engagement. As companies keep moving toward digital transformation, putting money into ESS kiosks is a smart step toward creating a more agile, productive, and future-ready workforce.
