Small steps, big savings: the eHR solutions that have the biggest budget impact are the ones that affect the most people the most often

Workforce, Oct, 2002 by Michael Esposito, Jeff Novak

Success comes from getting the basics right and fine-tuning key processes. Those steps in th eHR process may not sound exciting, but the cumulative effect can produce savings in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Get new-hire data right from start

Let's say an HR employee mistakenly records a new hire's birth year as 1940 instead of 1970. The mistake is caught years later, when the 35-year-old begins receiving standard communications about her approaching retirement.

Those initial errors can wreak great havoc. So the first step is to design a system with the processes to ensure perfect initial data entry:

* Have all potential hires provide information through automated self-service

* Build quality checks into the process for particularly critical information. A prompt could say, "Please confirm that you were born in 1940."

* Once a potential hire becomes an employee, have the system transfer all the data from the recruiting process directly into the employee system.

Anticipate changes, then automate them

In another scenario, a candidate accepts a job offer and uses the self-service new-hire system to complete benefit selections. That information is sent to his health plan, and ID cards are sent out. The health plan covers the birth of his child, and physician visits that followed. The problem? This worker never actually showed up to start his job.

This organization lacked an automated system for handling changes. As a result, the firm spent thousands in inappropriate benefit payouts.

* Remember that all data can go through the four "CRUD" steps: create, retrieve, update, and delete. Make sure that all of your downstream systems handle all four steps cleanly.

Use a single sign-on approach

Most companies have added various new eHR technologies and applications at different times, resulting in each employee having a handful of passwords and user IDs. A simple inconvenience, until you consider the fact that every employee call to IT costs an average of $33, according to Forrester Research.

* Create a single sign-on approach. One password and one ID for each employee.

* Companies not ready to tackle a single sign-on project might start by adding a password-recovery feature to their Web-based applications, allowing employees to retrieve passwords by e-mail or other form of credential.

Provide self-service answers to frequently asked questions

"What happens to my 401(k) money if I leave?" It's a simple question. A five-minute phone call. And, if the company is big enough, that question can cost $100,000 in calls over a few months.

* Use the Web to post the answers to Frequently Asked Questions.

* Put time-off activity and balances right on the pay stub. Put pay-stub information online, for 24x7 access. Leveraging an established communications vehicle like the pay stub for a seemingly unimportant detail like this can provide unexpected savings.

Automate employment verifications

The call from the mortgage lender is routine: "Does John Doe work there? What is his salary?" That one simple call can cost a company thousands as HR employees stop what they're doing, pick up the phone, and send out confirmation letters, so:

* Automate employment verifications. One way is to issue an employee a PIN that expires in 30 days. The employee can give the number out to various lending institutions, which can use it to get onto a Web site where they will find the appropriate information and generate their own letters.

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