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Customer Case Studies — Market Sector: Non-Profit

Performance Pro brings home the gold for Utah based olympic non-profit foundation

Overall Value and Ease of Use Judged Key Points in Winning Performance: The Utah Athletic Foundation (UAF), based in Park City, Utah, is a non-profit organization responsible for managing and operating the 2002 Olympic Winter Games legacy venues-namely the Utah Olympic Park, and the Utah Olympic Oval.

Staffing requirements at these state of the art athletic competition and recreational facilities vary from highly skilled technicians and sport experts to hourly seasonal positions. Depending upon the season and schedule, staffing ranges from 175 to 250 employees.

Stephanie Burton is the UAF Director of Human Resources. She is responsible for all HR functions. Ms. Burton commented, "I never know where my office will be from day to day. One day I'm at the speed skating rink, the next day, I'm on top of the bobsled course. For this reason, it's vital that our HR systems provide remote and secure real-time data access."

Initially when setting up UAF's HR systems, Ms. Burton was most concerned with ensuring the salary and compensation program was in tune with industry and market standards. This is how she came to meet Jerry Nelson, President of HRN Management Group.

Ms. Burton recalls, "Jerry showed us a product called Compease that provides valuable market data, classification criteria, and salary bands for our job functions. It's a great tool that ensures we are competitive in the marketplace. In the process of researching the salary application, we also became aware of another product by HRN called Performance Pro that automates and simplifies performance management."

Needs Assessment

Prior to learning of Performance Pro, UAF was administering performance evaluations utilizing a standardized paper-based system.

Ms. Burton recalls, "The paper-based system was so redundant and labor intensive. It filled around 13 pages per appraisal, took hours, and included everything, but said nothing. When I saw Performance Pro I knew that it could streamline the process for us and make us more efficient."

UAF identified and evaluated their core requirements in a performance management application. Specifically:

Why Performance Pro?

As a non-profit organization, a significant factor in the decision was price. Since Performance Pro's final cost is based upon the number of employees, UAF received full benefit of all the powerful features the large companies enjoy, at a price relative to their moderate size.

Ms. Burton stated, "Performance Pro exceeded my expectations on ease of use, simplified the performance appraisal process and it enhanced our overall compensation program."

Successful Implementation

Once the decision was made, it was like an Olympic event, racing against the clock, to implement Performance Pro.

Ms. Burton explains, "I had a very small window to get Performance Pro up and running. The rollout occurred at a time I was very involved in implementing several other HR systems concurrently. Once my schedule cleared, there was only three weeks until our annual performance appraisal schedule began. We had to learn and set up the program in lightning speed."

HRN provided onsite training to all the UAF managers. The HRN customer support team worked with Ms. Burton to import and set up all the employee data, reporting structures, and customize performance factors and goals. UAF made their operational deadline and the implementation went smoother than expected.

High Marks from The Judges

Since implementing Performance Pro in 2004, UAF has completed one full appraisal cycle. Feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. For example, each UAF employee is required to complete the self evaluation component of the program. Ms. Burton commented, "We expected some resistance, but learned that our employees appreciate being involved in the process."

When asked how management has adapted to the new system Ms. Burton stated, "The managers were tentative at first, but once they realized how simple it was to use and experienced the immediate benefit of time savings, they became quite supportive."

UAF managers now complete each appraisal in 20 minutes to an hour compared to several hours in the previous paper-based system. Plus with Performance Pro an overall performance rating is assigned. This rating scale is equitably factored into overall compensation adjustments.

Consistent Benefits

But what about HR administration and company benefits? Here too Performance Pro received high marks.

Ms. Burton summarized, "There was a time investment up front getting the system set up the way we wanted it. That investment has really paid off- especially now during year two. Performance Pro provides better and more complete performance documentation than I have seen in most systems designed for our size. The system is built on communication, consistency and fairness. Each employee, in their position, is rated using the same structure and core performance factors."

"For example, by reviewing the self-appraisal feature rating comparisons, our CEO and I are able to determine and then eliminate rater basis so each employee is rated as fairly and consistently as possible. Additionally from an operational standpoint, managers and directors can view report information on how their department is performing overall. Measurement is now objective vs. subjective."

Exceptional Customer Support

Further bolstering the overall Performance Pro value proposition is expert and knowledgeable customer support at no additional cost. Ms. Burton concludes, "It's great to be able to call [HRN] and speak directly to a product specialist to have any questions or issues promptly resolved. They are proactive and listen to our suggestions. HRN is even incorporating some of our feedback into the next Performance Pro update. Their support team and customer service is excellent."

Performance Pro Customer Benefit Summary

Customer Requirement	Performance Pro Capability	Result	Customer Benefit
Low cost	Value priced Free customer support Complete usage reports	Purchase price considerably less than other competitive products Fast ROI and low total cost of ownership	Excellent overall value proposition Expert customer support included in purchase price
Flexibility and functionality secure, online access	Secure hosted 24/7 HRN server Daily data backup Off site remote data co-location Secure administrator level access	Anytime, anywhere, secure online access and convenience Centralized data storage and real-time revision updates	No customer IT administration or hardware/software overhead Individual password protection Increased accessibility
Ease of use - user friendly	Clear, uncluttered interface Simple, intuitive instructions Company specific content	Fast implementation and deployment Minimal training required Increased relevance and acceptance	Improved manager efficiency and employee communication Increased productivity
Ease of administration	Customized program and features readily deployed by authorized client administrator Real-time data update/availability Secure and complete employee performance history record	Minimal training and user documentation required Consistent rating scale across all job functions Access to secure and complete employee performance history record	Reduced administrative cost Consistency and fairness in performance rating criteria Usage and rating report data