Employee Self Service

The Town of Reading is pleased to introduce you to our Employee Self-Service (ESS) website. After reading below, click here to log in. 

ESS allows you to view up to 5 years of pay check history. 
It also allows you to do the following:

  • See the the history of time off you have taken in a list or on a calendar
  • Update personal information that is in our Human Resources database such as your address, phone number and  emergency contacts
  • Communicate with HR and payroll to inform them of changes or corrections to your profile demographics
  • Change your tax withholding by completing the W-4 information in the Pay/Tax section of the website
  • View 5 years of W-2 history

Your username is the first initial of your first name combined with your full last name, all using lowercase letters  and your four digit employee number which can be found on your pay stub in the upper left corner. (example: “Joseph Bean” employee # 4567 would be jbean4567).  Your temporary password is the  last four digits of your Social Security number (example: Joseph Bean with a Social Security # XXX-XX-6677, the password would be 6677).  You will immediately be asked to update your password .

Attached is an instruction document explaining the login process with screen shots.

Once you have logged in to the Employee Self Service Tab, you can access the 21 page USER GUIDE document that details how to use all of the website that is currently available to employees.  It is in the Resources drop down menu (just under your name in the upper right corner.)

If you have any questions, please email us in HR and payroll. Town and RMLD Employees use the email  ess-town@ci.reading.ma.us.  School employees use the email   ess-school@ci.reading.ma.us.  These contact emails are also on the ESS Welcome page in the banner at the top of the page.

Feel free to send me feedback on the instruction documents.  Hopefully you won't need to rely on them too much.  Just click on the tabs in the right side bar menu or click on any blue links that will lead you to more details of the information you are looking at.  Exploring is encouraged.