In his article ‘integrating self service’, Dennis Keeling makes the point that modern HR and payroll systems can be implemented ‘in a matter of weeks’ and the days of cost-hungry consultant time to make sure everything is copied over correctly and actually works are behind us. He also quite rightly urges caution when it comes to checking usability and flexibility.[1]
This article summarises the key elements of a case-study based talk I gave at the recent Softworld in HR and Payroll[2] show on how we made the business case for improved HR software to streamline our processes across the organisation and, critically, free up more HR resource for some of the things that cannot be done by machines, such as mentoring and personal development work.
Background to the organisation
The Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) is a membership organisation and learned society providing support and qualifications to professional civil engineers, promoting the importance of civil engineering to society and providing expert opinion and advice to media and government about civil engineering issues.
Thomas Telford Ltd is the commercial arm of ICE, and includes a civil engineering knowledge business and a conference and events business in Westminster. In total there are approximately 320 diverse employees, ranging from chartered civil engineers and other qualified professionals, to kitchen porters who may not have computer access at work or home, spread through a variety of locations, including some home-based.
With such a diverse workforce, challenges when implementing and monitoring the various requirements for each part of the business are inevitable. These include:
- flexible working hours for office-based employees;
- pro-rated annual leave based upon working hours and patterns;
- shift work and overtime for employees in the service sector of the organisation; and
- benchmarked salaries based upon sector, location and role.
The challenge
Business Objectives:
We were able to relate the three main 2009 HR objectives back to the introduction of a new HR system.
- To ensure all regular recruitment and departure activity is effectively managed on best of breed systems. This would allow tracking of costs and applications and allow HR to work to CIPD benchmarks.
- To co-ordinate all performance management and reward policies across the group so as to integrate where appropriate and co-ordinate otherwise. This would thereby allow the organisation to work towards a more performance led culture.
- To enable all staff to participate in an integrated learning and development process in order that business plans can be better achieved.
In addition, we also made the case for streamlining and automating a number of existing administrative processes, which across the HR and payroll teams was estimated to save five days per month (translating as three months per year or 0.25 of a full time equivalent) just on the time expended in retrieving and manipulating data for reporting purposes and duplicating data entry. This saved time meant the HR team and the wider organisation would have more time to focus on its strategic objectives. These are:
- business-like approach;
- investing in our people;
- broad and inclusive membership;
- customer focus;
- knowledge transfer; and
- public voice.
Investment Appraisal:
ICE wanted to determine the best supplier based on what could be provided for the best price possible. The implementation budget was estimated, however it was made clear that this would be mitigated by the loss of the majority of the administration work required by HR. It also meant there was no longer the need to pay a payroll bureau to run the payroll externally, which had many benefits including:
- later deadlines before the payroll run, as information only needs to be passed between two rather than three teams;
- more flexibility for making changes as communication is to colleagues within the organisation and changes are made directly onto our own system.
The efficiency savings meant there would still be no need to increase the headcount or hours of the payroll administrator when the payroll was brought in house.
Selecting the preferred supplier
ICE visited an HR software exhibition to establish a shortlist of potential suppliers. The team discussed current and upcoming technologies with potential suppliers to develop a better understanding of what benefits the software could provide and see the system in use. The suppliers were asked a series of questions regarding what the system could offer based upon essential and desirable criteria, then those rating highest were invited to tender, where we reviewed their costs and the service they could provide. The top three suppliers were invited to present the software to the key users within the organisation who then rated the software’s suitability and fed back to the team.
Employees really see the benefit of self-service and I don’t think they can now remember or imagine a time without the software. The technology has given employees the autonomy to be able to update their own address and personal details as needed, view their job and salary history and payslips at the touch of a button, request annual leave while being able to view their team’s planners and request training for various internal and some external courses. The implementation of the software has been well received by employees and resulted in some encouraging feedback, including ‘great innovation’ and ‘definitely money well spent’. Although there is of course still administration to be completed within the team, we have much more time to focus on value-added projects and time with our employees.
The relationship between HR and the rest of the business has become less transactional and service orientated. The flexibility and ability to design our own screens and build our own workflows, which include automatic reminders for review meetings, notifications of changes to personal information and prompts to update an absence record, without customising the core product so that it becomes dependent on specialist advice is key to sustained effectiveness. Now that employees and managers have instant access to personal/employee data we get better decision making not to mention a reduced carbon footprint by producing less paper.
[1] http://www.apbusinesscontacts.com/the_people_bulletin-pb_8/softworld.aspx
[2] http://www.softworld.co.uk/amybrowne