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A Practical Guide to HR Intranets Cascade Human Resources Limited

http://www.cascadehr.co.uk

Cascade Human Resources Limited

A Practical Guide to HR Intranets

Cascade Human Resources Limited

Version 2.0

Date: 20 October 2006

© Cascade Human Resources Limited Page 1 of 16 Author: Cascade Human Resources Limited Last Saved: 20/10/2006 17:23



TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................................3 1.1 WHAT IS AN INTRANET?.........................................................................................................3 1.2 WHAT IS A HR INTRANET?.....................................................................................................3 1.3 WHY DO COMPANIES IMPLEMENT HR INTRANETS? ...............................................................4

2. WHAT HR INTRANET SYSTEMS ARE AVAILABLE? .......................................................5 2.1 1ST GENERATION ...................................................................................................................6 2.2 2ND GENERATION ..................................................................................................................6 2.3 3RD GENERATION...................................................................................................................8 2.4 4TH GENERATION...................................................................................................................9 2.5 WHICH ONE IS BEST? ............................................................................................................10

3. WHAT BENEFITS WILL A HR INTRANET SYSTEM PROVIDE TO YOU? .................10 3.1 WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS TO HR?........................................................................................11 3.2 WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS TO YOUR EMPLOYEES? .................................................................11 3.3 WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS TO YOUR MANAGEMENT?.............................................................11 3.4 WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS TO THE IT DEPARTMENT?............................................................12

4. WHAT ISSUES CAN A HR INTRANET SYSTEM CAUSE?...............................................12 4.1 COMMUNICATION.................................................................................................................12 4.2 EASE OF USE ........................................................................................................................12 4.3 NO COMMERCIAL BACKEND HR SYSTEM..............................................................................12 4.4 SECURITY.............................................................................................................................12

5. WHERE TO START ..................................................................................................................13 5.1 PLAN ....................................................................................................................................13 5.2 PILOT ...................................................................................................................................13 5.3 ROLLOUT..............................................................................................................................14 5.4 REFINE .................................................................................................................................14

6. SUMMARY .................................................................................................................................14

7. ABOUT CASCADE HUMAN RESOURCES LIMITED .......................................................15 7.1 PRODUCTS............................................................................................................................15 7.2 CUSTOMER FOCUS ................................................................................................................16 7.3 BUSINESS SECTORS...............................................................................................................16 7.4 CONTACT DETAILS...............................................................................................................16




1. INTRODUCTION

1.1 What is an Intranet? For the computer whiz kids amongst you here is the technical explanation:

“A network designed to organise and share information and

carry out digital business transactions within a company. An

intranet employs applications associated with the Internet

such as web pages, browsers, e-mails, newsgroups and

mailing lists but is accessible only to those within the

organisation.”

For the rest of us:

Most of the western world is now aware of the phenomenal growth and presence of the

Internet. E-mails, web surfing and e-commerce are now an every day part of life. Using your

‘browser’ shopping, looking for information, booking cinema tickets is quick and easy,

because most businesses are now connected to the Internet and offer on-line facilities to look

and buy.

Businesses all over the world realised that the Internet was a marvellous tool for sharing

information and knowledge, improving communication and gaining competitive advantage,

and that cut-down versions of the internet, implemented within their own company, would

provide these benefits too – the Intranet was born!

An Intranet can be put to many uses within a company, from providing simple information

such as phone lists to combining data from many different systems into one, and providing

the right staff with access to it. Intranets have proved popular because of the relatively

inexpensive implementation costs. They can provide immediate benefits and improve the

company’s competitive advantage through better communication.

1.2 What is a HR Intranet? So now you know what an Intranet system is, you maybe wondering what a HR Intranet

system is, read on!

HR Intranets are known by many different names, employee self-service, employee desktop,

employee portal, and so on! So don’t get confused when you shift through the marketing hype

and see all the strange and wonderful names, they all basically mean the same thing.



http://www.cascadehr.co.uk HR Intranets can allow employees to access and update personal data in a secure easy to

use way. By allowing employees to view and maintain their own data, HR Intranets can

eliminate errors, increase employee satisfaction, and provide you with more time to focus on

important tasks.

You may remember the term “paperless” office, it goes back to the early 70’s. A great vision,

just imagine no more stacks of papers, no more lost forms or chasing people for absence

reports!

With the emergence of intranets the promise of a paper less office is now one-step closer.

Imagine you have a new starter Paul Bishop. After Paul accepts his job you push the new

employee button on your HR system, this in turn sparks a sequence of events, which is

unique to your company:

a) Payroll receives Paul’s details via email.

b) The computer department are informed that a new desk and PC will be required.

c) On arriving Paul is directed to the HR web page where he is provided with the latest

company handbooks and policies.

d) He then checks his personal details and corrects his phone number and next of kin

details. These are automatically corrected in the HR system and e-mails are sent to the

pensions company notifying them of an address change.

e) Paul’s business cards are ready and on his desk a week later.

f) Paul submits his expenses, which get automatically routed to his manager for approval

and then are paid promptly.

g) And finally Paul remembers he needs to take a holiday, so he checks his holiday

entitlement, fills out a request, which is sent to his manager for authorisation – all this

without one piece of paper or involvement from HR.

Just imagine!

1.3 Why do Companies Implement HR Intranets? Most software companies trying to sell you HR Intranets systems will tell you that HR

Intranets reduce the amount of time HR departments spend on administrative tasks, which

then leaves them free to concentrate on more strategic tasks. Yes it is true that many HR

departments are looking at HR Intranets as a way to reduce a tremendous amount of time

spent on updating and maintaining employee information, in fact some companies change so

rapidly that it can become nearly impossible to keep employee data current. However recent

research conducted by impartial research companies and not software companies provides a

more accurate answer:



http://www.cascadehr.co.uk Of the top three reasons given by companies why companies have or are thinking about

implementing a HR intranet system, number one was the need to improve employee

communications and information sharing. This was closely followed by the need to streamline

processes and thirdly to reduce the amount of paper flying about. In fact over 90% of

respondents to one particular survey cited improved communications, streamlined processes

and reduced paper transactions as the top three reasons for implementing a HR Intranet

system.

According to other recent research nearly half of UK companies will be switching to HR

Intranet self-service applications within the next 12 months, while a quarter say they already

allow employees to access their own staff information.

2. WHAT HR INTRANET SYSTEMS ARE AVAILABLE? It is important that you understand the different type of HR Intranet systems that are

available, because when you come to chose and implement a system you will need to decide

which is best for you and your company. You also need to be confident that your IT

department will deliver the underlying infrastructure, and your supplier will deliver the system

that can grow with your requirements.



http://www.cascadehr.co.uk Before we decide which system is best for you, let’s take a look at what’s on offer. By the

way, if you find the information below a bit technical don’t worry! It may take a little bit of time

for you to absorb the ‘lingo’, give it time, but don’t give up.

To help us understand the current HR Intranet systems available, we can divide them into 4

categories: 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th generation.

2.1 First Generation 1st generation HR Intranet sites display information for viewing purposes only. Their audience

is any employee of the company. They are usually built by IT people with very little input from

the HR department and in many cases HR will not even know that they are there.

Fig1. Example of a 1st generation website.

These types of sites are generally let down by limited and out of date information, because no

one is tasked with posting new details and keeping the site up-to-date. These sites do not get

many visits (hits) from staff. The only real advantage these sites provide is that they are easy

to set-up and can be used as a good starting point for a wider project.

You can see above, somebody has made a start with good intentions to put a site with useful

information together, but has either not had the resources or knowledge to take it further.

2.2 Second Generation Like the 1st generation sites, 2nd generation HR Intranet sites display information for viewing

purposes only, their audience is any employee of the company. They are usually built by IT



http://www.cascadehr.co.uk people with quality input from the HR. In some cases a ‘net savvy’ HR person may have

designed the site and got assistance from the IT department to publish it.

There are many tools that HR people can use to construct and publish these types of sites,

Microsoft FrontPage and Macromedia Dreamweaver to name just two. They can be mastered

in a short period of time and contain “wizards” which build basic sites automatically for you.

Fig2. Example of a 2nd generation website.

The sites will generally be visited by employees looking for procedures and policies, for

example, the correct method of filling out expense claims, or printing blank holiday request

forms, or copies of the company handbooks for new starters.

2nd generation sites do not reduce paper. HR may not now actually need to send the paper

document to an employee, however in the end the forms still need to be printed, completed

and posted back to HR.

These sites suffer from regular updates, because HR underestimates the amount of time and

resource needed to keep information up to date.

Figure 2 is an example of a passive, but useful website. The site contains a section for

company handbooks, which in turn has sections for the administration department, the IT

department, forms and a general area. An employee can very simply select a procedure, for

example a holiday request form and print it out.




2.3 Third Generation Generally most 3rd generation sites are purchased from external software suppliers, unlike 1st

and 2nd generation sites which are usually produced by the company’s IT department or HR

department. All 3rd generation sites contain active content, which means that the information

shown is linked to a ‘back-end’ database. These ‘back-end’ databases are usually part of

industrial strength HR systems, which contain comprehensive data and functionality.

These sites can significantly reduce HR administration, improve communication within the

company and reduce the amount of paper flying about. They can become very popular with

employees and will register many hits.

The employees’ role determines the type of information that can be accessed and updated;

this allows sensitive information to be restricted and particular functions made available only

to certain employees. For example, employees can apply for leave, book courses, review and

apply for internal vacancies. Managers can authorise leave, record absences and conduct

performance and pay reviews.

With power comes a price! Security is a key issue that must be addressed, even though the

site may be certified as secure by the supplier, you need to make sure it is! These sites are

often very difficult to extend over the Internet, for home and tele-workers. Employees who do

not have access to a PC get no benefit from a HR Intranet, so you will still need the paper

forms and HR administration support for these people. Because these sites are supplied by

external suppliers and they are often very difficult to tailor and will not integrate with any of

your other back-office systems.

Below are some pages from a 3rd generation site. Employees can look at their own details,

and if allowed, change them. They can request leave, and view non-confidential information

about other employees, like their internal phone extensions. Managers can have access to

their staff details, limited to whatever you want. Managers can authorise holidays, enter

absences, and see conflicts where two or more employees have booked holidays for the

same dates.




Fig3. Employees must sign-on to gain access.

Fig4. Employees can check and update information.

2.4 Fourth Generation 4th generation sites focus on the individual, as opposed to 3rd generation sites that focus on a

role like employees or managers. These sites integrate many different back-office systems so

that people can access and update information from one integrated environment. 4th



http://www.cascadehr.co.uk generation sites emphasise knowledge management – the ability to get the right information

to the correct person so that they can act upon it quickly.

4th generation sites are sometimes known by the name “Employee Portals”.

Most 4th generation sites are built by using software systems from many different suppliers;

the only pre-requisite is that the supplier of the system has built their software to conform to

standards, e.g. the Microsoft Component Object Model standard, better known as COM, or

the Microsoft .NET technologies.

4th generation sites are costly to build, but can deliver exceptional results, both to the

employee, the company and the companies customers.

Although 4th generation sites are not common, and to build one you will be looking at an

overall investment of at least 5 to 6 figures, they will be more common within companies as

their simple systems evolve.

2.5 Which one is best? This question should be which one is best for you? Depending upon your current

requirements your needs for an intranet system will be different.

To find an answer to this question you need to define your requirements, goals and

objectives; for the short, medium and long term.

The next section will describe some of the benefits and pitfalls that a HR Intranet system may

provide and cause; this is then followed by some guidelines that may help you define your

requirements.

3. WHAT BENEFITS WILL A HR INTRANET SYSTEM PROVIDE

TO YOU? In a recent survey many respondents stated that the primary benefit of Internet/intranet

systems for communicating with employees was the immediacy of information.

Internet/intranet information can be easily updated by HR and easily accessed by employees

24 hours a day. In the same survey people indicated that company communications overall

have been improved by HR Intranet systems.

By enabling your employees to directly control such processes as entering address changes

and making and changing retirement investments, you can put the responsibility directly into

the hands of the people most motivated to act. Self-service administration of benefits enables



http://www.cascadehr.co.uk HR staff to spend more of their energy on strategic personnel issues such as recruitment and

training.

3.1 What are the benefits to HR? Some of the benefits to you in HR include:

1. Instigating employee empowerment, by allowing staff to update their own information you

send out a clear message of we trust you.

2. Information entered by people who can verify its accuracy.

3. Information no longer entered by someone who adds no value.

4. Just in time availability of current information, handbooks and manuals.

5. Greatly reduced administrative burden for HR, fewer calls, less paper, less mailing, less

data entry. Frees HR to do thinking work not manual work.

6. Increased availability of HR to perform value-added strategic tasks.

7. Improved employee communication and feedback.

8. HR responds rapidly to enquiries, employee satisfaction will improve.

3.2 What are the benefits to your employees? Some of the benefits to employees include:

1. HR is always available. Information is available on the net 24 hours a day; the HR

department is always open.

2. Staff can self-administer standard personnel functions like holiday requests, training and

job opportunities and therefore ensure their personal data is always accurate and needs

are handled quickly.

3. Employees can use the system to request forms, apply for internal job openings, and

check on assignments.

4. Employees use the system to make suggestions.

5. By integrating various backend systems together and presenting the information on an

integrated employee desktop, employees have access to information that is specific to

them.

6. Performance reviews and performance evaluations, can be automated, each employee

writes their own evaluations, performance evaluations can be added to this document by

the employee line managers, performance reviews are discussed face to face.

3.3 What are the benefits to your management? Some of the benefits to management:

1. Better information available online.

2. Manager can gain a true picture of the business realities through real-time information

shown using key performance indicators.



http://www.cascadehr.co.uk 3. They can manage compensation benefits, appraisals, training and development, salary

models as well as absence and holiday details.

4. Management will be shown information issues and trends that would not normally come

apparent if they just used their eyes and ears.

3.4 What are the benefits to the IT Department? 5. 1. Easy to implement no need to distribute software.

6. 2. No or little infrastructure changes.

4. WHAT ISSUES CAN A HR INTRANET SYSTEM CAUSE? As with all IT systems, if they are not planned correctly then they have a high risk of failing.

HR Intranet systems are no exception, regardless of the type of system you are

implementing. Lack of planning will present sizeable obstacles to building a successful HR

intranet.

4.1 Communication One thing frequently not done is to include employees in the process of selecting and

installing a HR Intranet. Your staff will be the people who will make most use of the system. It

is important that they are onboard. You will need to set up consultation meetings, pilot

schemes and perform some internal marketing.

4.2 Ease of Use Your HR Intranet system should be easy to use, make sure it adheres to the “soft-boiled egg”

rule. The soft-boiled egg rule states that if a user cannot master the system within the time it

takes to boil an egg then it is too complicated.

The last thing you want to do is to automate a long-winded process with a clumsy tool and

cause more work overall.

4.3 No commercial backend HR system Many companies start with 1st and 2nd generation HR Intranets, these over time are extended

to try and provide 3rd generation functionality.

In order to provide the level of functionality needed from a 3rd generation system you will need

to have a robust commercial HR system.

4.4 Security No conversation about the intranet would be complete without mentioning security.



http://www.cascadehr.co.uk Security is a big issue when it comes to HR systems, a security model must be adopted that

ensures that HR data is kept secure. There are many stories that describe how poor security

models allowed sensitive HR information to come into the hands of the wrong people.

In a recent survey the majority of respondents indicated that security was and continues to be

a prevalent concern for Internet/intranet employee services. Firewalls are the most commonly

used security protection, followed closely by the use of passwords or codes.

Choose a supplier that has got a successful track record of implementing and supporting HR

Intranet systems.

5. WHERE TO START The guidelines below will help you get started, however you may need help from your IT

department or your suppliers.

Don’t rush it: most installations of HR Intranets will take between 3 to 6 months.

5.1 Plan The first thing you need to do is to set some goals and objectives, you need a strategy and a

plan. If you are not sure how to produce an adequate strategy and plan, then involve

someone who does.

When defining a strategy include the following: define the benefits to be generated and the

services offered before, determine how your HR self-service strategy will support your

company’s overall strategic goals.

Be realistic in your plan. Include the following:

7. 1. How you will aim for change and interaction,

8. 2. The technology infrastructure you will need,

9. 3. How you will manage the cultural change,

10. 4. How you will deliver back-end integration,

11. 5. How you will measure and improve,

12. 6. How you will add value.

5.2 Pilot Pilot the intranet site with a few selected employees. Hold regular meetings with them to

establish a steering group for the full rollout. Depending upon the comments you get back you

may want to refine the site or proceed with the rollout.




5.3 Rollout Consider a phased approach to the rollout of services. This encourages employees to get

started, and provides a platform for delivering a range of additional services.

In many cases, communicating the benefits of the new HR intranet system to the organisation

will be a top success factor.

Manage the process of change. All projects encounter employee resistance at some stage.

Not all employees will be that keen on serving themselves. Some managers may see the

project as an attempt to delegate the administration from HR to the line managers.

5.4 Refine After you have rolled the site out, continue to improve content and functionality. Below are

some ideas:

Deliver back end integration. This will help get the cost down; there is little point in collecting

information if you are not going to use it effectively.

Measure the take-up and use of the web site service; you can apply many of the traditional

traffic measurement techniques to see how successful your web site is.

Eliminate paper within your company, or at least within HR! List all your paper-based forms,

start with the area that is form intensive, these are best for conversion to intranet applications.

Start by looking at the number of paper forms you have, you probably have forms for new

employees, forms for employees requesting holidays, forms for absences, etc.

6. SUMMARY HR Intranet systems can free workers from slow and rigid processes, provide management

with more up to date detailed information and provide you with more time to focus on

strategic issues.

In essence HR Intranets put the responsibility into the hands of those people affected.

HR Intranets provide you with benefits beyond reducing transaction costs. They can improve

the level of employee satisfaction, which has a direct result on the level of service you deliver

to your customers. HR Intranets can be a key to your company’s continued success and

growth.




7. ABOUT CASCADE HUMAN RESOURCES LIMITED Established in 1992, Cascade Human Resources Limited (formerly Propath Ltd.) is a privately

owned company with a simple philosophy: to provide the highest quality and most effective

software systems and solutions whilst delivering exceptional customer service.

The company now has products and services in place at over 2,000 sites, has enjoyed

sustained growth and built a reputation for delivering quality systems and solutions, on time,

and within budget.

7.1 Products Cascade HR’s products that provide Intranet capabilities include Cascade HR v1.17. It

consists of a range of key modules, including personnel, training, recruitment, reporting,

query builder, and document management. Uniquely Cascade HR also provides a

comprehensive and integrated payroll solution, Cascade Payroll.

The Cascade HR system is Intranet based as standard – not a separate add-on module. It

provides a fully-configurable range of self-service employee and manager functions, from

personal details through to holiday and absence tracking and management. The Intranet

functionality is provided through the use of three-tier component technologies, which are

secure and scaleable and can be deployed in a flexible fashion to meet the unique

requirements of each HR organisation.

The development strategy for the product is committed to using the latest advances in

technology to meet the changing and challenging needs of HR. In particular we will continue

the development of the product to adhere to the Microsoft .NET technologies, which will

increase the accessibility and deployment of the HR function throughout the organisation.

Personnel Manager is at the heart of the Cascade HR system. As with all of the Cascade HR

modules, Personnel Manager is available as stand-alone or can be integrated with other

modules in the range. Features include: a comprehensive user configuration system to

ensure data security; absence and holiday booking and management; appraisal, disciplinary

and grievance management; qualification, competencies and skills matching; global updates;

employment and salary history; and comprehensive document management. It lets you

decide which tasks you delegate to managers and staff, while maintaining total control over

which information can be viewed and updated.

Document Management – included in the Personnel Manager – is a comprehensive suite of

document management tools. Documents may be created externally in other windows

packages or scanned and stored against HR records. Features include: mail merge, email or



http://www.cascadehr.co.uk fax documents, storing scanned images and documents and automated document

production.

Training Manager seamlessly integrates a high-powered training management solution that

retains the ease of use and flexibility seen throughout Cascade HR. Features include: budget

and cost control, course bookings, training needs analysis, course management, training

document management, and training assistant.

Recruitment Manager provides a unique solution to the management of the recruitment

process by automatically processing applicants at each step. Features include: interview

scheduling, automated document production, vacancy details and costs and budgets.

Query Builder provides dynamic report functionality. Designed to provide a simple yet

effective tool for day-to-day report requirements, Query Builder is ideal for rapid data retrieval

and analysis. Features include: rapid query building, saving queries so they can be run again

in future and publishing your standard queries so they are available to other users.

Report Manager enhances the power provided by Query Builder by providing a large number

of standard reports. Features include: presentation quality reports, standard reports, export

reports into .PDF, MS Word, MS Excel and many other formats, email reports and drill-down

analysis.

7.2 Customer focus Cascade has strong experience of working with management consultants and IT departments

throughout the entire project life cycle. Our experienced sales consultants, product

consultants and project managers ensure that all aspects from selection, project planning

through to implementation and support are handled in accordance to our quality procedures.

7.3 Business sectors Cascade HR has been installed in a wide variety of business sectors. These include media,

manufacturing, retail, housing association, financial, IT, government, education, health, legal

and the service industry.

7.4 Contact Details Cascade Human Resources Limited Telephone: 0113 255 4115 Manor House Fax: 0113 255 4690 23 Robin Lane E-mail address: [email protected] Pudsey Leeds LS28 7BR Contact name: Alan Jones


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