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Customer Case Studies — Market Sector: Insurance
Performance Pro backs up claim for time savings at national insurance company
Ease-of-use and time-saving management tools are valued premiums.
Workers Compensation Fund (WCF) was founded in 1917 to provide competitively priced workers compensation insurance to Utah employers. WCF now provides such coverage for over 30,000 Utah employers some of whom work across the country.
In 1988 the company underwent a restructuring. Its organizational structure changed from a government administered agency to that of a private corporation. A strategic commitment was made to invest in the right people -those with the skills and experience to further Company initiatives.
Effective human resource management and staff development programs are an integral component of WCF's strategy. The company now employs more than 350 staff operating from three offices.
Needs Assessment
Delivering on WCF's commitment to invest in people is the responsibility of WCF Vice President of Human Resources Nina Brollier. Nina recalls the period in the mid 1990's when WCF realized they needed to improve their employee performance management program.
"In 1997 WCF implemented a performance evaluation template that ran on standard Windows software. The tool worked well but was time consuming for managers to complete and for HR staff to administer. Some appraisals were hand written, others were entered on the computer. There was no consistency and quite often comment fields were left blank. It was hard for managers to get past the 'blank page' syndrome. The HR staff spent hours and weeks of time copying, recopying, filing and routing appraisals for review, revision and approval."
WCF began to consider automated software solutions for employee performance management.
WCF's key requirements in an automated performance management system were:
Ease of use-user friendly
Technologically sound and secure
Readily customizable
Affordably priced
In 2004, Ms. Brollier was informed about a new online version of an employee performance management solution called Performance Pro. Initially WCF was skeptical Performance Pro would meet their needs. But when the senior management saw the new online version in action, and learned how affordably Performance Pro was priced, their CFO was impressed and agreed on the spot to run a trial implementation. Two months later WCF was in full deployment.
Smooth Implementation
So what is involved in implementing Performance Pro in a company of over 350 employees? Initially WCF collaborated with their assigned HRN Customer Support Representative to import employee data and set up job titles. Then the WCF administrator was able to customize weighting criteria, and performance factors to meet their specific needs.
WCF HR Generalist, JoAnn Kooyman was responsible for managing the implementation. JoAnn stated, "There was a bit of data entry up front to get everything properly set up but HRN helped every step of the way and overall the implementation was much easier, and faster than expected. We utilized lots of the built in job titles and performance factors, but we did need to add and customize some positions for our operation. But that's what we wanted-the ability to customize and implement specific to our needs."
To complete the implementation, HRN conducted four onsite, appraiser level user training sessions in the course of a day. That's all it took.
Management buy-in
Word of mouth among WCF managers broke down any resistance towards a new system as positive experiences were shared with peers.
Ms. Brollier stated, "Our managers loved Performance Pro from the very beginning because it is so easy to use and because of all the helpful and time saving tools that come loaded with the system. For example the Comment Coaching feature helps managers to effectively document performance, and provide meaningful feedback to employees. This has streamlined the entire process and made it much quicker. Add to that the online access and Performance Pro has certainly exceeded the expectations of our managers."
Consistency and Communication
Starting in October, 2005, WCF is utilizing the employee self appraisal feature of Performance Pro to enhance employee/ manager communication and consistently involve each employee in the performance evaluation process.
Ms. Kooyman added, "We conduct a two-part performance appraisal program. In the fall employees meet with their manager for a mid-year update and evaluate progress against their performance plan. In the spring the final performance appraisals are documented and goals are set for the following review period. Implementing the self-appraisal function will make our program complete by allowing all employees to be a part of the process."
Key benefit - time savings
WCF has realized significant operational benefits attributable to Performance Pro-most notably, time savings, ease of use and increased efficiency for both managers and HR administrators. While no hard data is available, Ms. Brollier stated, "We now think of performance appraisal timeframe's in terms of hours and not days or weeks. Our management and HR staff have each realized and commented positively on how easy the system is to use and the considerable time savings [using Performance Pro].
"Because the process is centrally administered, there are no reviews that fall through the cracks. The reports show where we stand and who has and has not completed their appraisals. The entire program is well thought out, easy to use and very efficient."
Because Performance Pro is a hosted solution, WCF commits no IT resources beyond access to computer terminals. All hardware, application, security, maintenance and technical support for Performance Pro is completely handled by HRN.
Exceptional Customer Support
Further bolstering the overall Performance Pro value proposition is expert and knowledgeable customer support at no additional cost.
Ms. Brollier concludes, "HRN's support has been great from day one. They are very patient, take ownership of any situation or question and resolve it right then or in a very short period of time. Overall we are exceptionally pleased with Performance Pro."
Performance Pro Customer Benefit Summary
| Customer Requirement | Performance Pro Capability | Result | Customer Benefit |
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