What is an employee center?

An employee center is a unified, multi-department portal, allowing users within an organization to stay engaged and request services from anywhere.

Human resources professionals are vital to the success of enterprise business. But the larger the employee base, the more stretched your HR department may become trying to address worker concerns, queries, and requests. Personnel information updates, time-off approvals, tax concerns, benefits enrollment, deductions—the list goes on and on, pulling your HR department away from the strategic and workforce management duties that should be its primary focus.

At the same time, employees are relying on an increasing number of software solutions and business tools to assist them in their work. In fact, according to the Okta 2022 Business at Work report, the average business organization currently deploys 89 distinct apps (up 24% from 2016), and the top 10% of companies deploy an average of 202 apps each. And, as hybrid workforces become more standard, personal devices and the realities of remote work further compound the challenges inherent in navigating information needs from multiple sources, placing more strain on IT departments in the process.

To better serve employee needs and reduce the amount of service and information requests leveled at HR and IT, successful businesses turn towards employee center solutions. An employee center provides the full range of employee self service (ESS) options, all from a single, centralized location that can be accessed from anywhere and at any time. With a working employee center, businesses can operate securely in the knowledge that their workforce has direct and available access to everything they need to get the job done.

A unified employee center is important in that it gives employees across all departments and levels a means by which they can better understand their benefits, experience curated employee content, find solutions, request access, connect with employee communities, and enjoy the all the advantages of in-office support from any location and at any time. This gives modern hybrid and remote workforces the resources they need to achieve optimal performance while also freeing up IT, facilities, and HR departments to move beyond traditional employee support roles.

Likewise, with full ESS options, employees have a central location to better understand rather than having to jump through communication hoops to put in requests and wait for responses, your workforce can quickly and easily resolve issues, find solutions, and manage their information all at the click of a button.

Taken altogether, the importance of having a reliable employee center comes down to improved efficiency, productivity, and employee experience.

An employee center is not a replacement for experienced HR or IT teams; it is a tool to supplement and support these teams and provide employees with full access to important resources and information. This can empower your business with several clear benefits, including the following:

Lower costs

Giving your employees everything they need to perform well allows you to reduce the costs associated with hiring additional support-team members.

Optimal time-off management

A working employee center automates the approval process for requesting time off and allows managers to better track vacations and sick days, and identify trends in employee absences.

Simplified benefits management

Users can access and track benefits information without needing to involve HR and can update their information and request changes quickly and easily.

Enhanced collaboration

Bringing all resources and support options together on a central platform, your employees will be able to better collaborate to find solutions and produce higher quality results.

Increased analytics availability

Usage data is automatically tracked and collected within the employee center. Managers can then use built-in analytics tools to turn that data into actionable insights.

More efficient information access

Correctly implemented, an employee center functions as a single pane-of-glass for employees to find information across applications, quickly and easily.

Improved returns

By improving the efficiency and productivity of employees at work and giving support departments more freedom to focus on strategic initiatives, an employee center offers an improved return on investment over other, non-unified ESS solutions.

Better employee experience

Finally, employees enjoy the autonomy and personalization of the employee center, creating an engaged and capable workforce that knows exactly where to go to get the resources and support it needs to do its job well.

To provide the advantages listed above, your employee center solution will need to include certain features:

Personalized experiences

Using targeted employee communications, the employee center must be capable of providing employee experiences and curating content based on the individuals’ needs and responsibilities. These targeted campaigns help improve the employee experience and give more personalized support and direction.

Manager Hub

Manager Hub delivers a purpose-built destination for people leaders to stay informed and engaged with their teams by leveraging personalized resources to guide their leadership journey. Directly from the Employee Center, managers can view a summary of team insights,

stats, important dates, requests, and action items for employee journeys. Notifications and alerts encourage people leaders to take quick action on the team’s most urgent needs and to stay ahead of important matters. People leaders can receive curated content via the Manager Library for company news and announcements, related knowledge articles, guides, and tips – giving them a single destination for resources and tools needed to better lead their teams.

User friendliness

The employee center should be easy to navigate and include built-in help options. Intuitive controls will help ensure that the benefits of the employee center are not overshadowed by an overly difficult learning curve.

Native mobile and mobile responsive

The days when work was confined to the office are long gone. Modern employees need to be able to access the full capabilities of their support systems from anywhere, or even while on the go. The employee center must provide full functionality on mobile devices.

Omnichannel integration

One of the primary purposes of the employee center is to function as a single set of controls for managing all relevant business applications. This means that full integration with the range of third-party apps is absolutely necessary.

Internal search

The employee center’s ability to aggregate informational resources in a single location won’t provide much of an advantage without comprehensive search features. These search functions must be designed to allow your employees to find the information they need quickly, regardless of what department owns the information. Internal search functions put vast amounts of data resources at employee fingertips and ensure that finding the right information is a fast and painless process.

App launchers

Relevant applications must be paired with tasks and placed in context so that employees know what software solutions are best suited for specific circumstances. Employee center app launchers pair this information with curated experiences.

Advanced reporting and analytics

Out of the box reporting functions must allow users to see how campaigns are performing and evaluate the effectiveness of new initiatives in real time. Employee center analytics must be comprehensive and accurate, and ready to generate reports at the push of a button.

ServiceNow, the industry leader in HR service delivery and IT service management, is revolutionizing how employees work, communicate, and access information. Built on the Now Platform®, Employee Center drives a completely modern intranet service for employees, regardless of where they are or when they work. This collaboration-focused digital solution brings together the applications, news, information, policies, and more that your employees need. Access data and resources across departments. Empower remote and hybrid workforces using omnichannel capabilities. Creat

simple-to-use search functions. Apply AI technologies and automation solutions to automate many tasks associated with employee requests. Integrate with top business tools, such as Microsoft Teams, Slack, Workplace from Facebook, Workday, Oracle, Ultimate Kronos Group, Okta, Microsoft Azure, Adobe Sign, and more. And through it all, create a digitally connected employee experience that meets your workforce wherever they are. ServiceNow makes it possible. Get Employee Center today, and give your workforce the support it needs to take your business further than ever before.

Get Employee Center today, and give your workforce the support it needs to take your business further than ever before.

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Keep employees engaged, productive, and informed with Employee Center, a consolidated portal for ai search, targeted campaigns, and app launcher.
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