University Business - July 2007 - (Page 36)

HUMAN RESOURCES generation of tech-savvy employees has already entered the workforce. Technology is as much a part of young workers’ lives as radio and TV were to the generations before them. In the future, self-service technologies will reap even more beneﬁts for higher ed institutions, Brooks predicts. In ﬁve years, employees will be able to use automated self-service tools that evaluate their lifestyle so they can make more informed beneﬁts decisions. The applications will prompt WALK BEFORE YOU RUN Some institutions are using self-service as a strategic planning tool. An example is the California Institute of Technology, where administrators are building a self-service, online utility that will provide Caltech’s approximately 10,500 employees with valuable information about managing people resources. The institute already supports self-service beneﬁts enrollment and performance appraisal systems, which require supervisors and employees to interact with each other on an ongoing basis, says Thomas Schmitt, associate vice president of HR. Managers can access this information to evaluate or review utilization and expenditure patterns over time, project planning processes, and necessary funding sources that keep research going and talent strong at the school. As Schmitt explains, there’s often a gap between the end of one research grant and the initiation of another, which can cause a strain on the institute to ﬂoat employee salaries. In the past, he says, that ﬂoat was pretty costly—between one and two percent of the school’s overall payroll. But since this process has been automated, it’s dropped to two-tenths of one percent of payroll. He says managers are using the information to anticipate where their sources of income will be coming from, adjust planning and recruiting patterns, and become a bit more forward thinking. But before reaching this strategic level with self-service, higher ed institutions must focus on perfecting the basics. If you can’t process an electronic paycheck correctly, Schmitt says it’s unlikely your school’s leadership team will take you seriously as a strategic partner. “As schools develop self-service utilities, they need to think about how they assist their institution with their strategic plan,” says Schmitt. “Putting in a utility that enables employees to change their name and address is not strategic. However, it’s exceptionally important to do those things very well. It’s hard to be taken seriously from a strategic perspective if you don’t do the tactical stuﬀ well.” the next two years is to transform every single HR activity into an online, self-service process. So far about 25 percent of HR processes, including beneﬁts and training enrollment, have already been converted. The group is currently working on terminations—a complicated project because there are so many beneﬁt implications. More than likely, Gartrell says, managers will complete an online form to terminate an employee; that action will trigger other electronic activities, such as automatically sending that worker COBRA information. While DU’s HR department is similar to those at other schools—short-staﬀed, dealing with limited resources, and struggling just to keep up with the ﬂow of business—he believes the end result is worth the sacriﬁce. “We all started very late and were slow in the process,” says Gartrell, adding that his school employs 2,350 staﬀ and faculty. “Even though it’s a big job to get there, we’re not going to have available resources to put toward new, creative things until we get some [relief] through this process.” MYTHS AND LIMITATIONS Art Brooks often meets HR administrators at universities or colleges who haven’t yet made the leap to self-service. As vice president of sales at BeneTrac, which provides online beneﬁts management and enrollment tools along with employee self-service portals, he has noticed some common myths about why schools are reluctant to change. In some cases, HR decision-makers aren’t comfortable using technology and they believe their employees won’t be either. Other times, they assume the cost is out of reach or that employees won’t be able to ﬁgure out how to access a self-service portal. Now for a big dose of truth. Brooks says the national average for self-service technology ranges between $3.50 to $4.25 per employee per month, while the start-up cost is equivalent to two months’ worth of those fees. Many of his clients also report that their school’s return-on-investment for the technology exceeds 100 percent the ﬁrst year of implementation. Another consideration is that a new Employees of Chestnut Hill College can view policies and beneﬁts updates from the institution’s insurance broker online. them for their age, gender, or last doctor visit, and then provide an analysis of which plan—such as an HMO or PPO—would be most appropriate for their lifestyle and health status. Some institutions are currently using self-service technologies to distribute wellness surveys to employees to better understand their personal health habits, preferences for insurance plans, and what they do and don’t do when it comes to interacting with HR, Brooks notes. But self-service isn’t the ultimate panacea. There are times when one-on-one contact with HR is needed, says Michele Mocarsky, HR manager at Chestnut Hill College in Philadelphia, which supports approximately 300 employees. Employees can now view policies and beneﬁts updates from the college’s insurance broker online. And roughly 70 percent of Chestnut Hill’s job applications are completed online. Mocarsky hopes that beneﬁts and training enrollment, all job applications, and applicant tracking will become self-service, but she says HR activities such as interviewing job candidates, ﬁring employees, addressing employee performance problems, and evaluating employee progress will still require a face-to-face sit-down. 36 | July 2007 universitybusiness.com http://universitybusiness.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of University Business - July 2007

Contents
College Index
Company Index
Advisory Board
Editor's Note
People Watch
Sense of Place
Marketing
Viewpoint
Human Resources
Money Matters
Financial Aid
Community Colleges
Seeds of Scandal
Controlling the Flow
Special Delivery
Presidential Progress
Best Foot Forward: SOX and Financial Standards
Business Technology
What's New
Calendar of Events
Direct Connect
End Note

University Business - July 2007