One of the fastest rising trends in HR software is the usage of self service software to bridge the divide between employees and the HR department of the company. Self service software allows employees to make decisions about their HR needs and provides them with a way to communicate those needs to the HR department. Studies have shown that employees that are allowed to directly communicate their needs to their HR department are more content with their positions than individuals that must always go through multiple layers of management to get their issues resolved.

There are a number of different HR functions that can be improved with the use of self service HR software. Virtually any HR process can be adapted for use in a self service environment and can be programmed so that the correct people receive the correct requests for approval. Some programs are capable of handling a wide variety of different HR processes while others are created to focus on a specific HR function.

Using HR software to allow the employees to submit their own information has been found to greatly reduce the time needed by HR personnel and management to obtain, compile, and submit this information for all employees. By passing the responsibility for submitting their information onto the employee, the employee is more aware of what they have accomplished and is less prone to make mistakes in their information because they know exactly what they have done during the week. Allowing the employees to submit their own information to the HR department gives management more time to focus on other pressing issues and reduces the amount of time the HR department needs to spend on each employee’s record.

One of the most common uses for self service HR software is submitting time card information to the HR department for payment and time off calculations. Many companies have moved away from the punch card system of time keeping and now allow their employees to type their time information into an online form and submit the information to the HR department. If an electronic time card needs the approval of management before being submitted to the HR department, the program can be set up to forward the time card to management for approval before being sent to the HR department for entry into the software program.

Some of the HR software programs that provide self service applications for employees will also allow them to view the information that has been entered into the system under their name. Although this information is generally read-only to prevent too many individuals from having access to change information in the system, this does allow the employees to examine the information in the program for errors and see how much vacation and sick time they have accumulated. Allowing the employees to view this information at their convenience reduces the amount of time that HR personnel will spend finding the information for individuals that would like to know their balance.

Once the employee has checked their accumulated vacation time with the software program, some programs allow the person to submit a vacation request form to the HR department or to the person that would have to approve the request for the employee. The direction that the request takes, whether to management, to a department head, or directly to the individual handing the HR needs of that employee, can be programmed into the software program so that each request is automatically directed to the person that it needs to go to and provides an electronic record of the request so that anyone that would like to review the information will be able to. There are many different versions of self service HR software available and the features on each can differ depending on the focus of the software product.