Move Routine HR Requests to the People They Concern
Employee and manager self-service is the GullyHR module that gives each employee their own profile, leave balance, attendance, payslips, letters and current policies, and gives each manager a view of their own team and the approvals waiting on them. Routine requests move through a tracked workflow with a status, so HR is no longer the post office for things that only needed a lookup.
Employee and Manager Self-Service in brief
Employee and manager self-service is the GullyHR module that gives each employee their own profile, leave balance, attendance, payslips, letters and current policies, and gives each manager a view of their team, the approvals sitting with them and the queries raised through the helpdesk. Requests are raised and decided where they belong instead of passing through HR on the way.
- GullyHR is an HR consulting, HR services, training and software company based in Bengaluru, working with Indian startups and small and medium businesses.
- It covers the employee profile, leave and attendance, payslips and letters, policy access, requests and approvals, team information, a manager dashboard and an employee helpdesk.
- An employee sees their own record and a manager sees their own reporting line. Nobody gets a wider view than their role was given.
- It reads the employee, attendance, leave, payroll and document records already held in the platform rather than keeping a second copy of them.
- It is normally configured after the modules whose data it exposes, because self-service is only as good as the record behind it.
The starting point
Is HR Answering Questions That Only Needed a Lookup?
In a growing business one HR person ends up as the route for every leave request, payslip copy and policy question. None of it is hard, and all of it takes the first hour of every day.
We configure what people may do for themselves, the approval route, and a helpdesk for the rest.
You may be experiencing:
- Every leave application arriving as a message to HR, who check the balance and forward it to a manager anyway.
- An employee asking for last month's payslip because there is nowhere to find it.
- A manager with no single view of who on their team is out today or what is waiting for approval.
- Questions about what the policy says going to HR instead of to the policy.
- A change of address arriving on paper and sitting in a drawer until somebody updates the record.
- Approvals happening in a chat thread, so the only record of a decision is a message that scrolls away.
- An employee raising a request a fortnight ago and having no idea whether anyone is looking at it.
- A payslip or a letter issued once, then re-sent by HR every time somebody asks for another copy.
- Employees calling or messaging HR to ask what is left of their leave.
- A manager planning a week without knowing which of their team is absent.
- A request raised in a message with nobody owning it, and no way for either side to tell where it stands.
What we can help with
What the Module Does
Own Profile
Personal, employment and statutory details visible to the employee without asking anyone, with changes either made directly or sent for approval, as you decide field by field.
Leave Applications
An employee sees their attendance, entitlement and balance and applies directly, with the request reaching the right manager.
Payslips and Letters
Employees collect their own payslips, appointment and other letters rather than request them.
Policies
Employees read the version-controlled policy that applies to them, so questions go to the policy before they go to HR.
Tracked Requests
Leave, document and change requests moving through a workflow with a status, so the person who raised one can see whether it was seen.
Manager Team View
Reporting structure, attendance and leave status for the manager's own reporting line, without calling head office.
Pending Approvals
A manager's dashboard showing what is waiting on them and what their team's week looks like.
Employee Helpdesk
A route for an HR question, sorted into categories and routed to whoever should answer it, so a query becomes tracked rather than lost.
The scope
What the Module Covers
Each item below is something an employee or a manager does for themselves, or something HR stops being the route for. You decide which actions are open to employees, in what order, and which changes need approval.
Own Profile
Employees see their personal, employment and statutory details without asking anyone.
Profile Changes
Employees change some details directly and raise a request for others. You decide field by field, for example a phone number going straight through and a bank account going for approval.
Attendance and Leave Balance
Employees see their attendance, entitlement and balance without asking HR what is left.
Applying for Leave
Employees apply for leave themselves, and the request routes to the reporting manager.
Regularisation Requests
Employees raise a regularisation for a missed or wrong punch and see where it stands.
Payslips and Letters
Employees collect their own payslips and appointment and other letters from the document centre.
Policies
Employees read the version-controlled policy that applies to their role, department or location before asking HR what it says.
Tracked Requests
Leave, document and change requests move through a workflow with a status, so the person who raised one sees whether it was seen.
Manager Team View
Managers see reporting structure, attendance and leave status for their own reporting line, without calling head office.
Pending Approvals
Managers see what is waiting on them and what their team's week looks like on one dashboard.
Employee Helpdesk
Employees raise an HR question under a category you set, it routes to the owner of that category, and they can see its status.
Working together
Ways to Work With Us
Demonstration and Scoping
A walkthrough of the employee and manager views, then configuration to the actions, approvals and helpdesk categories you choose.
Configuration and Rollout
Self-service can start with one action, usually leave, before opening up documents, profile changes and the helpdesk.
Ongoing Support
Continued support as roles, approval routes or helpdesk categories change after go-live.
You decide which actions are open to employees and which changes need approval. Starting with one action, usually leave, lets people get used to it before more is opened.
The deliverables
What You Receive
Depending on the scope, you receive:
- A configured leave, document and change-request approval workflow matching your reporting structure.
- A configured manager dashboard scoped to each manager's own reporting line.
- A configured employee helpdesk with query categories and routing rules.
- Role-based access rules restricting each person to their own record or their own team.
- Field-by-field rules for which changes go through directly and which need approval.
- Training sessions for employees, managers and HR administrators.
- A short reference guide to the common self-service actions, written for employees rather than administrators.
- A post go-live review covering usage, gaps and what to open up next.
- A list of which actions are open to employees and managers at go-live and which will be opened later.
- A named owner for each helpdesk category, confirmed by you.
- A rule for who approves where the normal manager is unavailable or is the subject of the request.
Step by step
From HR as Post Office to Self-Service
Decide What People Can Do Themselves
We set out the options and what each one means for HR's workload and for control. You decide which actions are open to employees and which changes need approval.
Set the Approval Route
Routing is configured to your reporting structure and the exceptions you name, so a request reaches the person who should decide it.
Configure the Helpdesk
Categories, routing and status handling are set up around the queries your HR actually receives.
Train Each Group
Employees, managers and HR administrators are trained on the actions each will perform, which is what decides whether people use it.
Open Up in Stages and Review
We start with one action, review usage after go-live and open the next, keeping support available as roles and routes change. Where set-up support is included in your engagement, we also help with the message to employees that this is now the route, since that decides whether people use it.
The difference
What Self-Service Gives You
Self-service helps you:
We do not promise outcomes. We record a baseline before work starts, covering how many routine requests reach HR each week and how long they wait for a response, and report against it, so you can see what changed and what did not.
- Let employees look up their own profile, leave balance, payslips and policies instead of asking for each.
- Give managers their team's status and pending approvals in one place rather than across messages.
- Show a visible status on every leave or document request, so nobody has to chase.
- Leave a record with a name and a date on every approval, rather than a chat thread.
- Give HR a week with fewer interruptions of the kind that only needed a lookup.
- Land a helpdesk question with whoever should answer it instead of whoever was nearest.
- Open self-service one action at a time, starting with the one people want most, usually leave.
- Show an employee where a request stands without HR replying to a message.
- Keep a manager's pending approvals visible, so a missed approval is something you can see rather than discover at payroll.
- Keep approval authority exactly where you assign it, while changing who raises and who tracks a request.
Find your fit
Who the Module Is For
Companies Where Everything Goes to HR
Businesses where every leave, payslip, document or policy question arrives as a message.
Growing Businesses With a Single HR Person
Companies where handling each request by hand no longer fits in the week.
Multi-Site Businesses
Companies whose managers cannot see their team's attendance or leave without calling head office.
Companies Already on GullyHR
Businesses using the platform for records, attendance or payroll inputs who want people to reach that data themselves.
Businesses Approving Over Chat
Companies that approve informally and want the decision on record without adding paperwork.
Field and Shop-Floor Teams
Employers whose people need to raise a request without coming into an office.
HR Teams Spending the Morning on Lookups
Teams whose first hour each day goes to leave balances, payslip copies and policy questions that only needed a lookup.
Managers at Remote Sites
Site managers whose HR sits somewhere else and who need to see their own team's attendance and leave.
Good to know
How It Fits Your Workflow
Day to day, by role
- Employees look up their profile, balance, payslips, letters and policies, apply for leave, raise requests and ask HR a question through the helpdesk.
- Managers see their own team, work through the approvals waiting on them and plan the week from team status.
- HR administrators answer what the system routes to them, such as helpdesk queries and requests that still belong with HR.
Opening it up in stages
- Start with one action, usually leave, so people get used to the route.
- Add documents, profile changes and the helpdesk as people settle in.
- Review usage after go-live and open the next action when you are ready.
Self-service can start with one action before more is opened.
Good to know
What You Can Track
What the module makes visible
- The status of every leave, document and change request.
- A manager's pending approvals and their team's week.
- Helpdesk queries by category, owner and status.
- The name and date on every approval.
Before and after
We record a baseline before work starts covering how many routine requests reach HR each week and how long they wait for a response, and report against it after go-live, so you can see what changed and what did not.
Good to know
What It Is and Is Not
What it is
- The GullyHR module through which employees and managers see and raise routine matters themselves.
- A tracked workflow with a status, a route and a recorded decision.
- A view onto the same employee, attendance, leave, payroll and document records held elsewhere in the platform.
What it is not
- It does not take control away from HR. It changes who raises and who tracks a request, not who is entitled to approve it.
- It is not a separate data store. It reads records already migrated for the underlying modules, which is why those normally go first.
- It does not connect to systems outside GullyHR by default. Such a connection is assessed and scoped separately.
- It does not compute pay. The software is separate from consulting and services.
Good to know
Getting Started
What you bring
- The reporting structure, and who approves where the normal manager is unavailable or is the subject of the request.
- Your decision on which actions employees may complete directly and which need approval.
- The helpdesk categories that match the queries HR actually receives, with an owner for each.
- The policies, letters and forms you want employees to reach.
- A clear message to the organisation that this is now the route.
What we do with it
We set out the options and what each means for HR's workload and for control, then configure the views, approval routing, helpdesk categories and access rules you confirm. Where implementation support is included in your engagement, that covers training for employees, managers and HR administrators and a review of usage after go-live.
Good to know
Access and Data
Who sees what
Access is restricted by role, so opening the system to everyone does not open the data to everyone. An employee reaches their own record and a manager reaches their own reporting line, and what a manager can see about a team member is configured to your rules.
What you decide
- Which fields an employee may change directly and which need approval.
- What a manager may see of their team.
- Which requests still belong with HR.
Good to know
Frequently asked questions
See their own profile, attendance, leave balance, payslips, letters and current policies, apply for leave, raise document and change requests, and ask HR a question through the helpdesk. Which of these you open up, and in what order, is your decision.
Yes. You decide field by field which changes go through directly and which raise a request for approval. A bank account change usually goes for approval, while a phone number usually does not.
Just their own reporting line. Role-based access restricts each person to their own record or their own team, and what a manager can see about a team member is configured to your rules.
Yes. Employees and managers use self-service through the platform on whatever device they log in from, which is usually what decides whether field and shop-floor staff use it at all.
No. Self-service can start with one action, usually leave, before opening up documents, profile changes and the helpdesk. A phased start also gives you a first cycle to review before the next step.
They move into the workflow, with a route, a status and a recorded decision. The aim is to remove the reason for approving over chat by making the route quicker than the message.
Self-service reads the same employee, attendance, leave, payroll and document records held elsewhere in the platform, so it works best alongside employee records and attendance. We scope what is needed for the actions you want.
That depends on training and on what you open up first. Starting with an action people want, usually leave, and training each group on what it will do, matters more than the features. We review usage after go-live.
After a demonstration of the employee and manager views against your current practice. The proposal sets out the actions, approval routes and helpdesk categories included, and is agreed in writing before work begins.
No. Approval authority stays exactly where you assign it. What changes is who raises a request and who can see its progress, not who is entitled to decide it.
No. It reads employee, attendance, leave and document data already migrated when the underlying modules were set up, which is why those modules normally go first.
An employee raises a query under a category you configured, it routes to the owner of that category, and the employee can see its status. It replaces the message that may or may not be answered.
The request stays visible on their dashboard and in HR's view, so a pending approval is something you can see rather than something you discover at payroll. Escalation rules can be configured where you want one.
Yes. Self-service can go live for an agreed group, or for one action such as leave across the company, before it is extended. Most businesses find a narrow start easier to support.
It is built on the GullyHR modules for employee records, attendance, leave, payroll inputs and documents. A connection to an outside system is assessed and scoped separately rather than assumed.
Your HR team owns day-to-day monitoring of requests, approvals and helpdesk queries, and answers what the system routes to it. We remain available for configuration changes as roles, routes or categories change.
Give People the Answer Without Asking HR
Let employees and managers do the routine things themselves, with a status on every request and a record of every decision.
Prefer to talk first? Call +91 80958 58589 or write to hello@gullyhr.com.
Book a Personalised Demo
Tell us what reaches HR that should not.
