Implement PDS Employee Self Service
This page outlines how to implement PDS Employee Self Service in your organization. These guidelines can help you successfully introduce ESS to your employees.
Note: The time it takes to fully implement ESS depends on the size of your parish/organization and how comfortable your staff is adapting to new processes.
Phase 1 - Set Up ESS
- Meet with your senior leadership team, and make sure they are on board. Discuss the ESS feature. Explain the benefits for the parish/organization and employees. Assure them that you're working with the same trusted partner that supplies the Ledger/Payroll program.
- Select the primary site administrator. This should be a trusted person with full access rights to the Payroll sections in PDS. The site admin is responsible for learning about all aspects of ESS, including the pages in the PDS Employee Self Service section, the ESS features in PDS, and your parish/organization's ESS website.Tip: You can designate additional users as administrators later, but initially, you need one primary admin.
- In PDS, assign security access rights for the user who is the primary site administrator.
- Register your site.
- Verify your employee records, and perform the initial upload of data from PDS to your ESS site.
- Log in to your ESS site for the first time as the primary site administrator.
- Configure your site profile information and address. Select whether to display the Time Off tab for employees. Select a logo that represents your parish/organization (.gif, .jpg, or .png file) to display at the top of your ESS site. This reassures employees that they are on the correct site. For more, see Use PDS Employee Self Service.
- Decide if you want to set up supervisors. This is useful for larger parishes/organizations. A supervisor is responsible for a specified group of employees, and can view all information for the employees they supervise.
- Decide if you want to set up additional site administrators. Administrators have full access to your ESS site and can view all information for all employees.
Phase 2 - Senior Leaders
- Follow up with your senior leadership team, and discuss the progress so far. Explain what has been accomplished and what the next steps are. Share that you will send them an invitation to your ESS site via email. Be specific about the day and time you send it because some may be wary of an unsolicited email asking to confirm social security information.
- Designate the primary site admin as the local contact for employees.
- Invite your senior leaders using the Invite Employees feature on your ESS site. Monitor the Employees page to see who responds to your invitation and creates a login. If necessary, send reminder emails or ask them to check their spam or junk mail folder if they don't see the invitation.
- Depending on the timeline of your implementation plan, you may go through one or more payroll cycles during this testing phase. Each time you print paychecks, you can upload the new records to your ESS site. Remind your leaders that these details are available online.
Phase 3 - Supervisors
- When your senior leaders are comfortable using ESS, you can start implementation for the next group of your staff.
- If you decided to have supervisors, meet with them to discuss ESS and their role as supervisors. Have one or more of your senior leaders share their experience with the group. Let supervisors know you will send them an invitation to your ESS site via email. Be specific about the day and time you send it because some may be wary of an unsolicited email asking to confirm social security information.
- Supervisors should direct questions about using ESS to the senior leaders who have been using ESS. Other questions can be directed to the primary site admin.
- Invite your supervisors using the Invite Employees feature on your ESS site. Monitor the Employees page to see who responds to your invitation and creates a login. If necessary, send reminder emails or ask them to check their spam or junk mail folder if they don't see the invitation.
- Depending on the timeline of your implementation plan, you may go through one or more payroll cycles during this testing phase. Each time your print paychecks, you can upload the new records to your ESS site. Remind your supervisors that these details are available online.
- At this time, you have a larger group of users who can answer questions when ESS is introduced to all employees.
Phase 4 - Remaining Employees
- When your senior leaders and supervisors are comfortable using ESS, you can start implementation for your remaining staff.
- Meet with your remaining employees to discuss ESS and their role as employees. Have one or more of your senior leaders and/or supervisors share their experience with the group. Let employees know you will send them an invitation to your ESS site via email. Be specific about the day and time you send it because some may be wary of an unsolicited email asking to confirm social security information.
- Announce the schedule so your staff knows when updated payroll information is posted online.
- Employees can direct questions about using ESS to the leaders or supervisors who have been using ESS. Other questions can be directed to the primary site admin.
- Invite your remaining staff using the Invite Employees feature on your ESS site. Monitor the Employees page to see who responds to your invitation and creates a login. If necessary, send reminder emails or ask them to check their spam or junk mail folder if they don't see the invitation.
Completion
After completing the four phases, you have successfully implemented the PDS Employee Self Service!
Tip: Want a paperless solution? Consider getting rid of paper paychecks by using Direct Deposit.