Among all corporate departments, arguably none has experienced the modern expansion and increased complexity of duties such as those faced by the good folks down in human resources. While most employees can guess a few of their roles or recall them from experience, the array of modern HR responsibilities is much broader than payroll, insurance and sounding board for staff grievances. They also must handle these functions and more:
- Employee profiles, including competencies, certifications and licenses
- Ensuring compensation is competitive within the industry, and that employees are paid fairly and equally inside their companies
- Healthcare benefits and ensuring the company has the right plan in place, which was made meaningfully more difficult after the implementation of the Affordable Care Act
- Overseeing career development, such as action plans, training
- Job-satisfaction surveys
Despite the number of critical job roles, however, HR departments are not immune to the same pressures that restrict resources across the company. In fact, in many boardrooms, fortifying a strained HR team may take second place to ensuring the right number of product-producing crew are on board, or that sales and marketing have enough bandwidth to keep the numbers moving in the right direction.
As is true in so many other industries where there is a motive to do more and even do it better without adding staff, kiosks can provide key support.
Following are just three ways self-service can help.
Cut costs—dramatically
In 2008, Cedar Crestone (now Sierra-Cedar) published “The Value of HR Technologies: Metrics and Stories Report.” In it, the research firm evaluated the costs of certain HR transactions when performed by an HR professional and when performed by a kiosk.
The chart below shows the dramatic savings that can be realized by moving some HR functions to employee-facing self-service technology.
| Task | Cost: Manual ($) | Cost: Kiosk ($) | % Savings |
|---|---|---|---|
| Enroll in benefits | 30.06 | 4.59 | 85% |
| Enroll in training | 9.58 | 2.31 | 76% |
| Change address | 1.58 | 0.36 | 78% |
| Apply for a job | 11.56 | 6.09 | 47% |
Looked at another way, it is almost four times more expensive for a human to process an address change than it is for a kiosk, and more than six times more expensive to enroll in a benefits program.
As employee costs tend to increase over time and technology costs tend to decrease, it is likely the disparity has become even greater in the favor of kiosks since the publication of the report.
In addition to saving personnel hours, there is one other hard cost can be dramatically decreased with the implementation of kiosks: printing.
Even today, for example, many companies greet new employees by handing them dozens of pages of paperwork. Some items, such as the employee handbook, can be read and stored online, with employees e-signing verification they have read it. When applying for benefits, the new hire can interact with only the package that relates to him or her, and choose whether to print the ultimate documentation or have it emailed to a personal address for safekeeping.
Even small companies can quickly realize savings in the thousands by turning to this type of print-on-demand in HR.
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Take human resources to the humans
Not only does the implementation of HR kiosks bring benefits to the deployer, they also bring convenience, speed and confidence to employees and job applicants.
Many large companies, for example, have manufacturing facilities located at great distances from company headquarters. Unless each facility has an onsite HR person, employees must conduct transactions via email—if they have daytime access to it—or by phone. HR kiosks located in break rooms, lobbies or other common areas can be quickly and easily accessed by employees before or after their shift or while at lunch.
In addition, the kiosk can let the employee know that the requested changes have been properly entered and accepted. What’s more, because the middle person has been cut from the transaction, the execution of the changes can occur immediately or at least within several hours, not several days.
Make recruiting a cinch
For companies that process thousands of applications a year, kiosks programmed to take job applications can greatly reduce the time and other costs associated with processing them. Grocery and retail chains, large industrial firms and big QSR brands place the kiosks either in each or many of their locations, and may even consider placing them offsite, such as on a busy college campus. Applicants can be filtered by all legal differentiators, with only potentially suitable candidates making it to HR for further consideration.
Contact Olea Today
Olea Kiosks offers several models to accommodate the needs of HR departments, large or small. Contact us today for a free consultation on how self-service kiosks could bring faster, more affordable service to your company.
