As part of our Connect for Success change programme, we are looking at ways to make every day work easier. This includes improving our processes and systems, and having the right technology and tools in place to help us become more agile.
In June, we thanked you for taking part in a survey that asked for your thoughts on current HR and payroll processes that support different aspects of working for the council.
Your feedback is an important step to help us develop iTrent, our new HR/Payroll system and a new employee self-service area, to replace MyVIew.
Here are some of the issues we asked you comment on.
Talentlink
We Asked…
For your thoughts on the time it takes to use Talentlink as part of the recruitment process.
You Said
- 14% of managers replied that it took 31 – 60 minutes to create a vacancy and 28% advised it took under 5 mins to authorise a vacancy.
- 20% of employees who applied for a vacancy advised it took them 2-5hrs to apply for a vacancy and 26% rated their current recruitment experience as 4 stars.
- 38% of managers took between 2-5hrs to shortleet applications and organise interviews and 21% of managers took between 31 – 60 minutes to create a successful candidate form, upload attachments and send the contract request email to HR.
Summary
Feedback shows both managers and employees find the current recruitment process via Talentlink/MyJobScotland time consuming and that you regularly have to seek help when using it. The findings also state that the application process is too long and many or you would prefer a portal to upload all documents electronically.
Comments included:
- “Processes are very cumbersome and take a lot of time. As I am not doing them every day I need to refer to the guidance every time as the Talentlink system in particular is not intuitive or user friendly. A system that led you through each step one after the other would be better”.
- “Advertising/recruitment is robotic and uninspiring”
- It would be useful to have a cohesive recruitment system – i.e. accepting a post through MyJobScotland and uploading documents in one portal, rather than ad hoc, to different personal (sometimes management, sometimes admin).”
We Did
We have taken all your feedback to help and guide us in building the new HR and Payroll system and assist in the wider review of the Council’s approach to recruitment. We will consult further as we build our new system.
My View
We Asked…
For feedback on MyView for accessing payslips, personal details, training and other personal requests.
You Said
You told us that you were not satisfied with MyView, stating that it was clunky to use, a struggle to log into and that you have difficulties in completing processes such as return to work forms, travel and subsistence claims.
- 26% of managers took 0-5 minutes to find a list of their team members, 48% took 0-5 minutes to approve an expense claim, 33% took 6-10 minutes to record an employee’s return to work interview, 27% took 11-30 minutes to record an employee’s attendance review and 55% of managers took 0-5 minutes to approve a training request.
- 71% of employees take 0-5 minutes to log into MyView, 54% could view their personal details including post detail within 0-5 minutes, 20% of employees could request a training course in 0-5 minutes and 22% of employees took 6-10 minutes to enter a travel and subsistence claim. 31% of employees rated MyView as 4 stars.
Comments included:
- “It is very clunky to log in to, often seems to not work and having to change your password frequently is annoying. It would be better if it was linked to your overall log in, like LEON is”
- “MyView is not intuitive, so guidance materials are needed to be able to work out how to use it”
- “MyView is terrible…The interface itself is clumsy”
- “Very unwieldy and ‘not very nice’ system to use. It ‘discourages’ my access of the information contained and access is so infrequent I need to go through password reset each time”
We Did
It is clear from your feedback that some of our systems would benefit from improvement and could be more user friendly. The new system we are developing based on your feedback aims to save more time and provide easier access to the information you need.
My Options
We Asked
What you think about My Options for recording attendance.
You Said
Some areas could do with improvement. They include the password sign in and the ability to quickly access your employee workbench from the favourite’s area of the home page.
- 39% of managers took 0-5 minutes to update clocking’s for their team members.
- 66% of employees took 0-5 minutes to review their flexi or annual leave balances. 70% of employees could submit a missed clocking request within 0-5mins and 74% of employees could request leave within 0-5 minutes. 35% of employees rated My Options as 5 stars.
Comments included:
- “MyOptions is v straightforward and quick”, it “works fine and is relatively user friendly”
- “My Options should have single sign-on for staff to enable login to be quicker”
- “MyOptions could be better. There are too many steps between opening the site and actually clocking in”
- “It would be great to have the employee workbench back as a favourite on the home page as it’s a pain having to click in a few screens before you get there”
We Did
Employees and managers should already have their MyOptions password linked to their network password for ease of sign in. If your password is not linked to your network password, please contact hrdevelopmentenquiries@argyll-bute.gov.uk (please include your name and network username), and the team will be happy to help.
We have also updated the favourite’s panel for the ‘employee only profile’ in My Options. We will work on updating the ‘line manager with employee profile’ as we move forward.
Other HR Processes
We Asked
For thoughts on the other HR processes available within the council.
You Said
You told us that of the other HR processes available, both managers and employees had to rely on guidance for these processes, and many also faced difficulties in finding these initial guidance documents. You also stated that they struggled to use the Hub’s search feature and could rarely find key information they were looking for.
- 36% of managers took 0-5 minutes to approve a leave request (maternity, paternity etc.), 16% of managers took 0-5 minutes to process a special leave request e.g. career break, bereavement etc. and 14% of managers took 11-30 minutes to process a leaver.
- 3% of employees took 11-30 minutes to find and process maternity forms and 7% of employees took 0-5 minutes to request bereavement leave. 13% of employees rated processing of special leave as 4 stars.
Comments included:
- “I have only been a line manager for a few years and recently been handling HR processes that are all very new to me. Although some pages for guidance are given on the hub it is not very detailed, a step-by-step guide would be very handy. Especially for leavers forms. These are important processes to complete and it is worrying to know that it has been completed correctly as guidance in some places is vague”
- “It is much quicker speaking to an HR advisor rather than trolling through the hub, reading guidance, etc. as this is very time consuming when some HR processes are not carried out frequently. Anything which streamlines guidance to save time would be beneficial and greatly appreciated”
We Did
All this feedback will help and guide us in building the new system. We aim to make information more accessible to save you time in your day-to-day work.
What you would like in the new system
- Looking towards the future
- 67% of managers and 54% of employees would welcome automation of HR processes,
- 56% of managers would like better reporting tools,
- 39% of managers and 51% of employees would like to use system technology to provide immediate answers to common HR queries or to book holidays, process expenses and arrange check-ins all by using conversational and interactive Chatbots 24/7.
- 38% of managers and 54% of employees would like improved dashboard visibility
We plan to re-run this survey after the implementation of iTrent in May 2024 where we will compare data with the data gathered in April 2023.
