Nowadays, most of the companies in the healthcare industry have HR portals for their employees. Therefore, the moment you are hired to work in the healthcare industry, you are likely to be given a web address/URL, through which you can be accessing the HR portal. Then you would be told that it is through the portal that you would be viewing your paystubs, your work schedules and the whole range of other work-related resources you need. In this article, we will be trying to gain deeper insights into the workings of such (HR) portals. We will begin by answering the question as to why the HR portals are set up. Then we will go a step further, and try to understand how exactly the HR portals are set up. We will also deal with the question as to how the HR portals are supposed to be used, and what the future of the HR portals for the healthcare industry looks like.
Why HR portals for the healthcare industry are set up
The HR portals are mainly set up with the objective of improving efficiency and effectiveness in the management of human resources. They are also meant to make life easier for the employees. Look at it this way: before the HR portals for the healthcare industry started coming up, employees would have to visit the HR offices in person (or call the offices on phone) whenever they wanted to access various work-related resources. But with the advent of the HR portals, healthcare industry employees can access their work-related resources at any time, and from almost anywhere in the world where there is Internet access. This means that life for the employees has becomes easier with the advent of the portals. For instance, an employee who is on holiday somewhere in the Caribbean can just log in (from the beach chair, using his mobile device), and get to see when he is scheduled to get back on duty. This would have been unthinkable in the days before the advent of the HR portals. In those days, the employee would have to call the HR office, to inquire on when he was scheduled to go back on duty – which would mess up with the spirit of the holiday completely. So we see that the HR portals have made life easier for the employees, while also improving efficiency and effectiveness in the management of human resources.
How the HR portals for the healthcare industry are set up
There are two models under which the HR portals for the healthcare industry are set up. The first model is the one where the HR portals operate as parts/sections of the healthcare companies’ main websites. And the second model is the one where the HR portals operate as stand-alone websites. In the first model, the employees may be instructed to go to their companies’ main websites, and once they get there, they find a link they can click on in order to be taken to the HR login page. Then once they manage to log into the HR sections of their companies’ websites, they can find the various resources they need. On the other hand, in the second model, the employees are given a web address/URL (different from that of the companies’ main website) which they are supposed to enter into their browsers in order to be taken to the HR portals. Then when they get there, they are able to log in and access the various resources they need. We are also increasingly seeing cases where the major healthcare companies are setting up mobile apps through which their employees can access the various work-related resources.
In all cases, the HR portals are linked to databases with the employee resources. So when the employees click on the links for various resources, the databases are queried, and the result of the query is what is displayed to the employees.
How the HR portals for the healthcare industry are supposed to be used
As we mentioned earlier, the HR portals are meant to be utilized by the healthcare industry staff, to access the various work-related resources they need. If, for instance, an employee wants to check his paystub for a certain month, he only has to go to his company’s HR portal, login there, navigate to the paystubs section, and get to see the desired statement. Similarly, if an employee wants to check his work schedule for a certain month, he only has to go to his company’s HR portal, login there, navigate to the work schedules section, and get to see the desired schedule…
Most of the information in the HR portals is of a private and confidential nature. That is why in all cases, these HR portals are password protected: meaning that one has to log in, before being able to access any resources through the portals. Some of the HR portals allow one to remain logged in for a certain duration of time. Others are designed in such a manner that login sessions expire after very brief durations of time (after which one has to log in again).
What the future of the HR portals for the healthcare industry looks like
For one, we are moving towards a future where all healthcare companies will have HR portals for their employees. The few healthcare companies that are yet to set up HR portals for their employees are under a great deal of pressure to do so. It is easy to foresee a future where HR management will be wholly undertaken online, and where the HR portals will be integrated with the rest of the companies systems, making ‘Single Sign On’ functionality possible.
Secondly, it is easy to foresee a future where the HR portals will become ever more sophisticated, in terms of capabilities. Initially, we had HR portals that were capable of only showing paystubs. But now we have HR portals that are capable of showing things like work schedules as well. Some have become so sophisticated that changes in work schedules are updated in real time.
Thirdly, we are likely to see more and more companies setting up mobile apps through which their employees can access their work-related resources. As mentioned earlier, the major companies in the healthcare field have already launched such apps. It is likely to be just a matter of time before the smaller companies are drawn to follow suit.