Employee portal: Self-service saves time for all

By the nature of the industry, most employees of a greenhouse do not have a desk job with their own individual computer. For day-to-day operations, this is just fine. But when an employee needs to use a computer to submit work-related documentation, this could pose a problem.

One solution is to have an employee portal set up on your company’s website. An employee portal would allow secure access to work-related functions from anywhere, even from home.

Here are some examples of what types of options that can be used in an employee portal:

•    Certifications – Most greenhouse workers are required to fulfill safety and functional certification training. Through an employee portal, each individual employee can track which certifications they have completed or still need to complete. The portal can inform the employee when and where upcoming training classes will take place. There can also be links to online certification courses, or suggestions for non-required certifications, such as CPR training.

•    Training – Every greenhouse has their own method of producing their product from the beginning to the end. However, they may use different equipment, different technology, or have different terminology to describe similar processes. A greenhouse can set up modules in a portal to give classroom-type exams for training, much like the “written” portion of a driving test at the DMV.

•    Notifications – The traditional way of posting notices at a job site (tacking to a cork board) may meet federal requirements, but may not be the best way of sharing information in a greenhouse. Due to the sheer size of many large-scale greenhouses, many employees may not have time during the work day to walk to all the way to the other side of a greenhouse to look at job postings, safety regulations, or company-related notices. With a portal, employees can look at these types of notifications at their leisure. Plus, notices can be sent out to individual or groups of employees, which can cut costs for copying notices.

•    Employee Self-Service – Some human resource programs, such as Sage HRMS, have employee self-service modules that allow employees to keep track of their important documentation. Through a portal, employee self-service can have access to pay stubs, keep track of vacation time and documents such as W-2s and W-4s. Employees can also update personal information, such as a new phone number or email address.

•    Benefits enrollment – Employees can also take care of benefit enrollment (or re-enrollment) from the convenience of their home through an online portal, such as adding or subtracting benefits or changing dependents’ information.

•    Time-keeping – With a large-scale operation, a greenhouse may have a backlog of employees standing at the traditional time clock, waiting to clock in or out. By using an Internet-based time keeping program, such as eTimeClock, employees can clock in from virtually everywhere. This can also be used by employees who are travelling.

As more business-related functions move away from traditional paperwork and into the digital age, it becomes increasingly more important for greenhouse employees to have the ability to access their information. Having an employee portal on a greenhouse’s website can help alleviate the logjam of employees needing to use company computers, allowing them to access their important information anywhere.

Practical Software Solutions is a Sage Authorized Partner. For more information, contact Greg Lafferty at (704) 721-6800 ext. 3019 or glafferty@practicalsoftwaresolutions.com.