If you build it, will they come?

In the movie Field of Dreams, “If you build it, they will come,” summed up the message of the movie in one line. Many proponents of employee self service (ESS) feel the same way. If self-service applications are built, employees will line up to access them and the administrative components of the HR function can be eliminated.

Managers and consultants make reference to automated teller machines (ATMs) and their central place in everyday life. The banks have been able to improve service and lower costs. It seems logical, then, that HR should be able do the same in a simple, painless way.

Nonsense. Think back to when Toronto Dominion Bank put in the first “Green Machines.” It wasn’t easy. For three months, bank employees concentrated on inviting customers to try the machine. In many cases, they were almost pleading with customers to try the card. They didn’t have much success. It took at least three to five years for the machines to make any progress in the banking industry.

Banks convinced a skeptical public to use the machines and today many customers rarely set foot in a branch. When it comes to implementing ESS, HR can take a page from the banking industry in learning what it did to win over skeptical customers.

What the banks did

They sold the benefits. The staff at the front line focused on the positive things banking self service could provide. Things like 24-hour, seven-days-a-week access, no or small lineups and access to emergency cash when needed. Nervous customers were re-assured that no one could get at their money as long as they protected their personal identification number.

HR needs to make sure it sells the benefits of ESS to its workforce. They need to sell that it makes sense to get information, forms and transactions when the employee needs them — not when HR is available.

•They branded the product. TD called their ATMs “The Green Machine.” It had a brand. It was reinforced in all of the messages. The bank used multiple channels to get the message across: print media, radio, brochures, posters, mascots and free outdoor barbecues. Marketing and communication, sustained over a long period of time, completely changed the way people bank.

HR needs to brand and market self-service applications. It needs to communicate to employees and help them to perceive an image of the person who uses ESS — and want to be like that person.

The banks made it simple. The screen the customer saw when using an ATM was not the same screen the bank teller looked at. The keyboard was simple, the options were limited and extra options were added as people gained confidence in the system. ESS screens should be simple and clear as well. They should shield the user from the complexity of the underlying application. They should be visually pleasing and provide notification of the completion of a transaction. Remember how the bank machines do it.

They made money accessible. Banks put ATMs into many branches. They made them well lit and provided card access or even drive up access to make it easier to use the machine.

HR needs to allow employees access to their information all the time from work and at home and ensure the security on ESS transactions is tight enough to allow employees to do so. Anything less than home access reduces the chance of success.

They made it harder to use alternatives. At first the banks charged customers a transaction fee to use the “Green Machine.” Then someone wised up and realized that a withdrawal costs two dollars at the teller and only five cents at the ATM. So they took the charge off the machine and put it on the tellers.

HR should stop making itself accessible to people who are looking for a form or want to ask a few simple questions, but need to do it in a manner that allows staff to be weaned without the side effect of disgruntled employees. HR should refer employees to the call centre or to the Net and not reward people for taking the most expensive service option available.

They measured their success (and adjusted accordingly). The banks monitored operational statistics from the bank machines and used the data to adjust marketing efforts. Branches that were successful in moving people to ATMs were praised. Other branches received additional assistance to market their ATMs.

HR needs to measure success and be prepared to adjust plans according to the data from the measurements.

The banks were successful through careful design, strong marketing and effective change management. The same will be true of HR departments that roll out successful employee self-service applications. If you just build it — they won’t come.

10 ways to measure success

Measure the activity on your Web site. Measure the number of times your ESS page is accessed by an employee.

Measure the number of times employees go on to perform a transaction. This measure separates the browsers from the people who want to do a transaction. Similar to the concept of call abandonment in call centres, this measure looks to see how many people went to the ESS page but were too intimidated to try it out.

Measure the number of transactions abandoned. Measure the number of times an employee tried to perform a transaction and could not complete it. If they abandoned the transactions, find out if the system is too hard to use.

Measure the number of unique hits to the ESS site. Most Web servers can track the number of unique hits to the ESS home page. For example, an employee may hit a page five times in one day and is recorded each time. It looks like the site is getting more traffic than it actually is. Measuring unique hits tells how many employees are using the system.

Measure the number of hits to each ESS function. Measure the number of transactions for each ESS application (such as job posting applications, address changes and bank detail changes). This will tell you both the value of the application and its simplicity.

Measure employee satisfaction. Ask employees how they like the site using a brief survey on the page that pops up each time a transaction is finished.

Measure transactions each month and assign them a cost. Measure each transaction and then assign an activity-based cost to track real cost savings.

Measure how long a person stays on the site. Also measure how long people stay on the site and what pages they found interesting. Measuring the duration a person stays on each page can do this.

Measure the number of return visits. There is nothing like a satisfied customer. Measure how many repeat customers return to the site.

Measure the number of IDs issued who never visit the site. This allows an organization to market to these people and provide gentle encouragement to use ESS in a targeted way.

John Johnston is a principal in Human Resource Management Solutions, a consulting firm specializing in HRMS strategy, systems selection and change management. He can be reached at (905) 825-4127.

To read the full story, login below.

Not a subscriber?

Start your subscription today!