{"id":901,"date":"2020-05-07T09:19:00","date_gmt":"2020-05-07T06:19:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.useresponse.com\/blog\/?p=901"},"modified":"2021-05-27T12:46:11","modified_gmt":"2021-05-27T09:46:11","slug":"employee-self-service-portal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/useresponse.com\/blog\/employee-self-service-portal\/","title":{"rendered":"Popular Questions on How to Create an Employee Self-Service Portal"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Recent Gartner finding reveals that 74% of companies plan to shift some of their employees to remote work permanently: <\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/useresponse.com\/blog\/goto\/https:\/\/www.gartner.com\/en\/newsroom\/press-releases\/2020-04-03-gartner-cfo-surey-reveals-74-percent-of-organizations-to-shift-some-employees-to-remote-work-permanently2\"  ><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"927\" height=\"417\" src=\"https:\/\/www.useresponse.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/gartner.png\" alt=\"Chart of percentage of workforce to remain to work permanently\" class=\"wp-image-918\" srcset=\"https:\/\/useresponse.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/gartner.png 927w, https:\/\/useresponse.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/gartner-300x135.png 300w, https:\/\/useresponse.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/gartner-768x345.png 768w, https:\/\/useresponse.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/gartner-600x270.png 600w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 927px) 100vw, 927px\" \/><\/a><figcaption>Source: <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/useresponse.com\/blog\/goto\/https:\/\/www.gartner.com\/en\/newsroom\/press-releases\/2020-04-03-gartner-cfo-surey-reveals-74-percent-of-organizations-to-shift-some-employees-to-remote-work-permanently2#:~:text=April%203%2C%202020-,Gartner%20CFO%20Survey%20Reveals%2074%25%20Intend%20to%20Shift,Employees%20to%20Remote%20Work%20Permanently\"  >Gartner <\/a>(April 2020)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Such a shift requires companies to adapt to the new models of managing the internal cases and communications of the remote employees. Implementing an <strong><em>internal online employee portal<\/em><\/strong> increases employee service experience and team engagement by providing access to useful content, case tracking, and self-service helping to easily find answers to their questions. It also gives the employees an effective tool of communication making it easy for them to share their ideas and knowledge. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2>1. <strong>What is Employee Self-Service Portal?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Employee Online Self-Service Portal <\/strong>(also referred as <em><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.useresponse.com\/internal-help-desk-ticketing-system\">Internal Help Desk<\/a><\/strong><\/em>, <strong><em>Employee Platform<\/em><\/strong>, or <strong><em>Employee Self-Support System<\/em><\/strong>) is a secure web platform for internal company communications, collaboration, interaction and issue management. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1024\" height=\"427\" src=\"https:\/\/www.useresponse.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/featured-1024x427.png\" alt=\"employee self-service portal\" class=\"wp-image-904\" srcset=\"https:\/\/useresponse.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/featured-1024x427.png 1024w, https:\/\/useresponse.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/featured-300x125.png 300w, https:\/\/useresponse.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/featured-768x320.png 768w, https:\/\/useresponse.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/featured-600x250.png 600w, https:\/\/useresponse.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/featured.png 1480w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Providing employees with access to a helpful employee portal and self-service functionality, live chat,\u00a0and\u00a0case management, you can enhance the employees&#8217; satisfaction and loyalty. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2>2.<strong> Why Should a Company Use an Online Employee Self-Service Portal?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Among the most common goals of implementing customer self-service portal can be the following:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>Creating an extensive <strong>internal knowledge base<\/strong> <\/li><li>Smoother <strong>onboarding <\/strong>and training of new employees <\/li><li>Easier <strong>knowledge management<\/strong> and <strong>collaboration<\/strong><\/li><li>Streamlining corporate <strong>communications<\/strong><\/li><li>Keeping all employees up to date to the recent <strong>company news<\/strong><\/li><li>Organizing <strong>internal discussions<\/strong> on various topics, including the product development process<\/li><li>Introducing <strong>self-service<\/strong> and reducing the load on the HR department<\/li><li> Organizing <strong>internal case management<\/strong>  <\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2>3. <strong>What Steps Should a Company Take to Build an Effective Online Employee Portal?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Before building an effective employee self-service portal the company should define its <strong>goals<\/strong> and challenges it is planning to overcome due to the use of the internal employee portal. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A company should think of its current processes and get a clear idea of what can be moved online and optimized. If organized the right way, an employee portal can be a great tool to drive more engagement and innovation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Employee portal should be a secure place to store all the internal information and in many cases, according to the company policy, it should be placed on the company&#8217;s servers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When picking up <a href=\"https:\/\/www.useresponse.com\/internal-help-desk-ticketing-system\">employee portal software<\/a> a company should take into consideration the instruments it already uses and think if there is a need to integrate them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol><li>Define the company&#8217;s <strong>goals <\/strong>in terms of improving internal interactions;<\/li><li>Pick up a <strong>tool <\/strong>based on the requirements;<\/li><li>Configure portal <strong>settings<\/strong>;<\/li><li>Fill out the <strong>Knowledge Base<\/strong>;<\/li><li>Create several portals for separate <strong>departments<\/strong>;<\/li><li>Bring <strong>Managers <\/strong>of employees portal onboard (these can be HR department, Team Leads, etc.);<\/li><li>Configure <strong>SSO <\/strong>for login with corporate emails;<\/li><li><strong>Train <\/strong>employees. Build a unified document with rules on using the portal.<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p>When introducing the new employee portal, remember that people do not like changes. In order to keep the portal organized you will have to introduce the rules of using the portal and watch people follow these rules in order to keep the portal relevant and useful. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2>4. <strong>How Internal Online Employee Portal Should Be Organized?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>There is no\nuniversal solution for all. The organization of the employee portal should be\nbased on the company\u2019s internal flows and the goals it is planning to achieve\nwith the help of an employee portal. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Here are\nsome of the structural elements that an employee portal can include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>Company policies;<\/li><li>Announcements and news;<\/li><li>Document templates repository;<\/li><li>Team wiki;<\/li><li>Communication platform (e.g. Live Chat or a forum community platform);<\/li><li>Internal ticketing system for case management;<\/li><li>Extensive search for self-service;<\/li><li>Platform for internal <a href=\"https:\/\/www.useresponse.com\/feedback-forum\">ideation<\/a>.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Lots of CEO&#8217;s and CTO&#8217;s still prefer to host all the internal company software &#8220;<strong>on-premise<\/strong>&#8220;. Sometimes it is dictated by internal regulations and policies, and sometimes by security requirements. So, when picking up the vendor, make sure they offer a self-hosted version. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2>5. <strong>What Are the Most Important Employee Self Service Portal Features?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The employee portal should be a secure place to organize closed discussions and manage the internal flows. It should be easy-to-use, relevant and up to date, so that your employees will admire using it. &nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ideally, the employees should have the incentive to contribute to the portal to keep the information relevant and communications live. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Below are the <strong>core parts <\/strong>of a typical employee portal:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol><li><strong><em>Self-service Knowledgebase<\/em><\/strong><\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p>Knowledge Base is used to publish common &#8220;how-to&#8221; questions and public FAQs for employees, or even private articles for internal staff. It should help employees to easily find the answers to their questions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img src=\"https:\/\/www.useresponse.com\/assets\/images\/custom-pages\/hr-helpdesk\/self-service.png\" alt=\"HR self-service\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>2. <em><strong>Collaborative Ideation Platform<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This should be a creative space for your teammates to brainstorm and communicate new ideas either on product development, or company operation. Let your teams create ideas, discuss them, and vote the most popular ideas for further implementation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1024\" height=\"667\" src=\"https:\/\/www.useresponse.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/community-1024x667.png\" alt=\"Employee Online Self-Service Portal Interface\" class=\"wp-image-927\" srcset=\"https:\/\/useresponse.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/community-1024x667.png 1024w, https:\/\/useresponse.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/community-300x195.png 300w, https:\/\/useresponse.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/community-768x500.png 768w, https:\/\/useresponse.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/community-600x391.png 600w, https:\/\/useresponse.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/community.png 1397w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>3.<strong> <em>Help Desk\/ Ticketing System<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Internal help desk ticketing system improves handling of employees&#8217; internal cases and queries, it helps to keep the things organized, automate some flows, and speed up the processes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img src=\"https:\/\/www.useresponse.com\/assets\/images\/custom-pages\/hr-helpdesk\/case-management.png\" alt=\"HR Case Management\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>And below is the <strong>list of important features<\/strong> that should be taken into consideration when picking up the right tool for the employee portal:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li><em>Documents management<\/em>;<\/li><li><em>Canned responses<\/em>;<\/li><li><em>Single sign-on<\/em> (<em>SSO<\/em>);<\/li><li><em>FAQ<\/em>;<\/li><li><em>CSAT measurement<\/em>;<\/li><li><em>Tools for internal communications<\/em>;<\/li><li><em>Help desk automation<\/em>;<\/li><li><em>Search tool<\/em>;<\/li><li><em>News and announcements<\/em>;<\/li><li><em>Analytics<\/em>;<\/li><li><em>3<sup>rd<\/sup> party integrations<\/em>.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Ultimately, the employee portal software should be customizable and flexible to be configured according to your company\u2019s flows. It should also provide a certain level of automation to take less resources to manage it. The right balance depends on the goals of the company, but in many cases, a healthy employee portal should be a place where employees find answers to their questions with minimum effort, communicate and collaborate effectively, and provide company feedback and suggestions for improvement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In our company, we have organized the employee portal using <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.useresponse.com\/internal-help-desk-ticketing-system\">UseResponse software<\/a><\/strong>, which combines all the features listed above and is very flexible in setting up and customization. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It may require some preparation and set up work at the beginning, but if configured properly, its benefits will definitely pay back within a short time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In the fast-changing world, where remote work has become the new normal, it is incredibly important to optimize and bring most of the business processes online.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":939,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[14,88],"tags":[65,70,69,67],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/useresponse.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/901"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/useresponse.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/useresponse.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/useresponse.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/useresponse.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=901"}],"version-history":[{"count":38,"href":"https:\/\/useresponse.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/901\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1577,"href":"https:\/\/useresponse.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/901\/revisions\/1577"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/useresponse.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/939"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/useresponse.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=901"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/useresponse.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=901"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/useresponse.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=901"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}