Once you add a team of employees to your small business, you have to start thinking like an HR manager. Among a myriad of other things, one of the decisions you will have to make is how you will handle the process of keeping up with changes to employee data. No matter what size your company is, it’s a fact that keeping up with informational changes about your employees can be a time consuming process if you don’t have the proper systems in place.

This isn’t just an issue when new workers are hired. It’s an ongoing concern. After all, employees often get married and change their names legally. They also move from one home to another, resulting in the need to process an address change at the office. Other common ongoing employee data changes include things like making changes to which benefits employees want, who their dependents are, beneficiary changes, tax withholding differences, and more.

When you’re busy trying to run a small business, taking the time out from your other duties to handle making all of these changes can be very difficult, and it really doesn’t represent the best use of your time. That’s why you may want to consider going to a software package that includes an employee self service feature. With you use a human resource information system (HRIS), you won’t have to spend your valuable time on these types of tasks. Instead, employees will be able to handle making changes that impact their benefits and payroll withholdings themselves.

Of course, in order for a self service system to work, you must provide your employees with access to a work station that they can use to log on to the system and make changes. You’ll also need to provide them with training that will teach them how to use the system.  If they don’t already have basic computer skills, you’ll need to work with them to get them to an appropriate level of computer literacy. However, the effort you put into teaching your employees how to use the system will pay off greatly in terms of time saved and increased productivity.

If you are looking for a time and attendance system that will integrate with your payroll, be sure that you also look for a system that allows for employee self service functionality. It will save you a great deal of time as a business owner and allow for employees to take responsibility for making sure that their records stay current and up to date. Once your employees get accustomed to the new system, they’ll be very pleased to be able to take care of making changes whenever they need to do so.