Oracle has released new functionality within its Employee Care package, part of the Oracle Fusion Cloud Human Capital Management (HCM). Originally launched in June, updated in September, Oracle has now added even more features to the solution. The intent is to assist HR teams with the logistical issues of bringing employees back into the place of work. The latest addition to the solution is “Return to the Workplace Journey”.
Chris Leone, senior vice president of development, Oracle Cloud HCM commented: “The COVID-19 pandemic has forced organizations to prioritize the health and safety of employees and this has put HR leaders front and center as they help their teams adjust to change and address new challenges.
“As the future of work continues to evolve, it’s critical that organizations are able to make informed business decisions in real-time to protect their teams. Our Return to the Workplace Journey will help our customers meet this challenge and is designed to help organizations ensure the health and safety of their workers.”
Return to the Workplace Journey
Return to the Workplace Journey was presumably built using the latest feature included in the Fall 2020 release, Journeys. Journeys enable organisations to create, configure and share business processes with Oracle HCM. These processes could include onboarding, a performance review, or in this case, a journey for an individual returning to work.
Creating this, Oracle has saved many organisations an immense amount of time with a common journey path for every employee returning to work. The assumption is that organisations can tweak the Journey to personalise it for their organisation as well. For example, different locations may require different protocols for the return to work. The Return to Work Journey already includes several basic steps for each employee including:
- Ensuring the employee reviews new safety procedures
- Completing regular wellness checks
- Taking mask and safety protocol training
- Booking a COVID-19 test with preferred testing providers
- Employees can update their immunization status through self-reporting questionnaires or proof of vaccination, such as digital certificates or copies of physical records.
Oracle is also one of several tech organisations working with the Vaccine Credential Initiative (VCI) on a digital health passport. The addition of digital certificates into the HCM platform ensure that organisations and employees have better access to health passports as required.
Powering deeper analysis
The data gathered from Return to the Workplace Journey is also available for deeper analysis within Oracle Fusion HCM Analytics. HR Leaders can, therefore, quickly analyse which employees are vaccinated. When they were vaccinated and where they work. As information about vaccines’ efficacy becomes more available, this will help determine the greatest risk of an outbreak. They can then decide office occupancy levels and social distancing rules to reduce the risk of an outbreak.
Oracle has also created several other Journeys for customers to take advantage of including Safe Travels Journey, Your Well Being Companion Journey and Onboarding Journey, and more. These Journey templates are available from Oracle Customer Connect.
Employee Care Package
Much of the Employee Care Package is included within the cost for Oracle HR customers, this includes Oracle
Other functionality may have an additional cost, these include Oracle
Employee Care Package provides a complete solution for HR teams to help their organisations return to work and minimize any risks associated with doing so. For example, the pulse surveys within Oracle Workforce Health & Safety enables teams to check on the health and mental health of employees, in addition to the formal check-ins. Employees can submit incident reports where they feel risks occur.
The Oracle Digital Assistant provides instant feedback across any time zone, 24×7 for employees that need simple questions answered. Where this question cannot be answered, it will route to next available HR team member. Possibly raising a Help Desk ticket which can help track incidents and enquiries. Integrating Oracle Learning helps organisations ensure that employees are educated about the different safety protocols required for their industry and the wider applications of the LMS.
Enterprise Times: What does this mean
While this is not a major update by Oracle, it is an important one for many organisations as they consider how and when they will return to work. The Return to Work Journey template leverages the new Journey business process engine that Oracle recently introduced. While organisations could create their own, this template will save hours of work for HR teams already under stress.
