AN INDEPENDENT SUPPLEMENT FROM MEDIAPLANET ABOUT PEOPLE MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE

10 MARCH 2008 TALENTTECHNOLOGY

A Guide to People Management Software

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CONTENTS

Benefits of usingTechnology 4

Software formanaging talent 6

Career planning 7

eLearning 8

PerformanceManagement 12

Top Tips 14

TALENT TECHNOLOGYA TITLE FROM MEDIAPLANET

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IntroductionPEOPLE MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE

Software started out by calculatingpayroll, but had most impact when itautomated personnel records andgave managers and employees directaccess to the systems. Relieved ofroutine transactional work, HumanResources (HR) professionals wereable to take on a much more strategicrole in the organisation. Unfortu-nately this was an area that initiallyhad very little technology support.

“People management software islike customer relationship manage-ment was 15 years ago, with toomany bits of information in too manyplaces with too few connections,”says Phil Brown, managing directorat Youmanage, the online HR toolkitfor line managers. “This led to dupli-cation of effort and poor customerservice. Similarly, most organisationsdo not have a 360 degree view oftheir employees, because relevantdata is stored in a mish-mash of data-bases, spreadsheets, paper forms andword processing documents. Imple-menting separate systems for differ-ent areas, such as absencemanagement, appraisals and recruit-ment, only exacerbated the problem.”

This is borne out by the Third An-nual Softscape Survey, which foundthat 94 per cent of respondents do notfeel their staff are adequately pre-pared to meet their companies’ futuregoals. The primary reason HR profes-sionals are increasingly less confidentabout their workforce readiness lies intheir organisations’ immediate needto improve a variety of HR processes.55 per cent were not confident thattheir organisations can effectivelymanage their HR processes.

The main thrust of the HR softwareindustry at the moment is to provide

comprehensive suites of software (seebox) to support the organisation’s peo-ple strategies. This helps them to createa competitive advantage through betteruse of people and brings them successin the global war for talent.

“Effective software should link to-gether all aspects of the employee’slifecycle, from recruitment interviewto exit interview, and make consoli-dated information available to linemanagers and HR departments,” saysMr Brown. “This will support far moresophisticated approaches to criticalareas like talent management and

employee development.”Sarah Seabury, project director at TPI,

a sourcing advisory firm, says thatlarger organisations typically use thepeople management modules of theirunderlying business systems, usuallyprovided by Oracle or SAP. “I would liketo see some more competition in thatarea to liven it up a bit,” she says. “Thereis nothing like a good bit of competitivepressure to get better products comingout onto the market and I don’t see thatat the moment.”

She is more bullish about the spe-cialist systems that support the cen-

People workwith people

ASPECT OF PEOPLE MANAGEMENT

POTENTIAL USE OF TECHNOLOGY

People development and performance management

● E-learning● Online appraisal systems, such as

360-degree feedback● Training needs analysis ● Career management

Resourcing ● Online recruitment and selection● Induction packages● HR planning and forecasting

Employee relations and communications

● Intranet● Staff surveys● Shared service centres● Organisational development

approaches● Team development

HR information and accounting

● Intranet● Employee and manager self-service● Metrics and human capital

measurement

Retention and reward ● Payroll● Total rewards statements● Employee self-service in creation

of flexible rewards packages● Reward modelling/pay reviews● Pensions and benefits

administration

tral HR system, which are more com-petitive. She cites recruitment systemsas a good example, where she saysthe market offers a wide choice ofnice technologies from very ableteams that support recruitmentprocesses very well.

As always with technology, successstarts with a good strategy and busi-ness case and is followed by a wellplanned and executed implementa-tion. “The organisation must under-stand at the outset what it wants toget out of the technology,” advisesEmma Parry, research fellow at Cran-field School of Management. “Thisstarts with a good analysis of theprocesses that it wants to automateand an understanding of the waytechnology will improve them.”

She advises employing all the nor-mal change management activities ofcommunication, education and train-ing, to get people to engage with thetechnology and buy into it. They mustalso evaluate its success afterwards.When people don’t do that they getresistance and panic!

Robert Leggett is managing direc-tor at Omni Resource ManagementSolutions, a software vendor and re-cruitment outsourcer. He points outthat however well implemented, suc-cess ultimately depends on the waythat people use the systems.

“While technology is increasinglyimportant, it has its limitations - evenwhen used effectively,” he says. “It isstill the case that people buy peopleand people work with people andmanaging people is a subjectiveprocess. Subjectivity is not one oftechnology’s strong points, so it cannever be a substitute for the humanelement.”

� Source: ‘HR and Technology: Impact and Advantages,’ Chartered Institute ofPersonnel and Development

Integrated software suites are essential for developingpeople strategies that create competitive advantage.

BY ROD NEWING

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Benefits of using technologyPEOPLE MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE

“Managing performance is absolutelykey to the success of our relativelyyoung stand-alone business,” saysEmily Wylie, head of learning and de-velopment at Airwave. “Our systemmakes it possible by helping to buildor skills base and our business.”

Airwave Solutions helps keepBritain safe, by providing the dedi-cated mobile telecommunicationsnetwork that keeps emergency and

public safety teams in touch witheach other. It is the largest such net-work in the world. Originally ownedby BT, it became part of the mobiletelephone operator O2 before beingbought out by infrastructure invest-ment funds managed by MacquarieGroup, the Australian bank. It has 850employees and is growing very fast.

Under O2, the HR function hadbeen outsourced, but after it was

bought out Airwave decided to bringthe function back in house. The com-pany had to build an HR infrastruc-ture that would allow the function tobecome a business partner and tomeasure the results of its human cap-ital management strategies.

The core information system is Microsoft Dynamics, to which man-agers have access, for recordingtransactions and making daily tacti-cal decisions. Softscape Apex is usedto drive an integrated performancemanagement process and supports as-sociated learning and development.The software is installed on Airwave’sown servers and is available to allstaff over the internet, including thecompany’s many homeworkers.

Every employee must complete aclear twelve step automated self-as-sessment process, after which the sys-tem may identify a skills gap andadvise them what learning they mayneed to undertake. Managers then ac-cess the results to evaluate them andpeople can then see their manager’scomments. Personal development ac-tivities, such as training and reflectivelearning are logged in the system.

The system also manages a recom-mended monthly one-to-one reviewwith their manager, as preparation forthe later formal review. Because it isfully automated, the system alleviatesthe need for HR staff to take managethrough the process, constantly re-

minding them when they should bedoing their reviews.

“Feedback has been excellent,” saysMs Wylie. “It is very easy for peopleto access it and then it is intuitive,clear and easy to use. Employees likethe fact that everything is in oneplace, like a ‘one stop shop.’ Ease-of-use is fundamental, otherwise peoplewill get turned off by it.”

The system makes it easy to accesscompetencies and identify talents; thetop five per cent high potential employ-ees who will be the company’s futureleaders, and who Airwave’s programmesfor talent management, secondment,mentoring and retention need to beaimed at. As a growing business, Air-wave needs to move its talent aroundthe business and the system measuresand tracks people’s skills so that theycan be best fitted into different areas ofthe organisation when required.

The system will be evaluated mid-year to assess usage times, how objec-tive the data is and whether is has theright balance of quantitative and quali-tative information. It will also revealwhether the right goals have been setand if managers are conducting reviewsin a professional manner.

“The system is very transparent, fairand consistent and provides clarity froman HR perspective,” says Ms Wylie. “Ourpeople have clear objectives, clear ex-pectations and are measured against ourvalues and capabilities. It drives andsupports our strategies for retention, re-wards and recognition, plus learningand development.”

An integrated performance and learningmanagement system is driving performancemanagement at Airwave.

HR system helps keep Britain safe

“Ease-of-use isfundamental,

otherwise peoplewill get turned

off by it ”

“The ‘War for Talent’ is over – thecandidates have won” was an open-ing remark from a speaker at a recentHR Conference that I attended. Thisstark comment made people sit upand think about their own talent Ac-quisition strategy.

The shortage of talent on a national,international and global scale means itis vital for organisations to have ahighly effective and efficient resourc-ing function. Deploying an effectivesolution goes far beyond simply plac-ing your vacancies on to a job boardor website. It is about:● Ensuring you have visibility and

transparency off all vacancies at alllevels. This will help promote yourbrand internally as well as externally

● Maintaining consistency, control andcompliance across all departments,

divisions, regions and countries● Building a collaborative solution

where all stakeholders (hiring/linemanagers, recruiters, HR, contrac-tors, candidates and agencies) areaccessing one system.

Technology can support organisa-tions’ resourcing strategy with the aimof creating total resourcing excellence.In other words, it’s the ability to de-liver the very best candidates consis-tently, on-demand and at low cost.

Looking at number of specific areaswhere technology aids and supportsTRE it starts with ensuring the candidateexperience is a positive one with yourwebsite having clear navigation, bemulti-lingual and culturally specific forboth the local and international marketwith comprehensive search capabilities.

It needs to be interactive and allow can-didates to complete an on-line applica-tion, create a personal career page,receive jobs by email, and for candidatesto apply speculatively and yet receive aprofessional and personal response

Technology will streamline the re-cruitment process by having struc-tured job specific application processwith scoring, weighting and matchingfunctions make pre-screening easier,

faster and accurate. This ensuresgreater consistency and compliance.Clearly technology will cut the ad-ministration workload by havingstandardised processes, workflowsand group actions to allow resourcingmanagers to spend less time on ad-ministration and more time with hir-ing managers and candidates. This inturn will reduce error and improvequality within HR. Technology doesallow organisations to build a collab-orative environment with real timeaccess to all stakeholders (managers,suppliers and candidates) from oneflexible system. This gives trans-parency, control and consistencyacross every step of the process. Theobjective is to reduce the time to hire,reduce the cost to hire and most im-portantly in these days of talentshortages increase the quality of hires.

In this war for talent, technologywill enable organisations to leverageweb-based sourcing and talent rela-tionship management programs to at-tract the best people in a cost effectiveand proactive manner. This can be

achieved by ensuring all resumes[paper, email, agencies, online] areconsolidated in one single system foreasier tracking and response manage-ment, and for these systems to havesmart auto- match capabilities as wellas the ability to have smart sourcingoptions such referral programs, temp-to-perm programs, intern-to-permprograms, and hire back. Equally it isalso about building relationships withthe market and being proactive. Technology allows organisations tomaintain and nurture close relation-ships not just with people on the mar-ket but also those who in the market.

Finally, technology is there to supportyour business decision making. Tech-nology will provide you with informa-tion – quality information – acrossevery facet of your resourcing strategy.For example how effective is yoursourcing? who are your best suppliers?,are your internal mobility strategiesworking and helping to reduce turnoverand external recruitment by making in-ternal deployment more effective?

In today’s highly competitive andglobal marketplace, organisations needto ensure they have the best resourcesstrategy in place to ensure they stayahead of their rivals. This resourcingstrategy needs must be under pinned byrobust and flexible technology that op-erates globally to ensure companies at-tract and acquire the most valuable andhighly prized resource – namely talent.

Jamie Davies, managing director at MrTedLimited, considers how organisations can utilisetechnology to support and manage talentacquisition effectively on a global scale.

How technology supportstotal resourcing excellence

� Jamie Davies

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Software for managing talentPEOPLE MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE

Building relationships

Managing talent is the most criticalchallenge facing Human Resources(HR), according to ‘The Future of HR:Key Challenges Through 2015’ byBoston Consulting Group and the Eu-ropean Association for PersonnelManagement. Similarly, Convergysrecently reported that two-thirds ofsenior executives around the worldcite a significant weakness in theirleadership pipeline as one of theirmain concerns.

Talent management is the processof identifying, attracting and devel-oping individuals who have a highpotential to change the performanceof the organisation. ‘Talent: Strategy,Management, Measurement,’ is a re-port from the Chartered Institute ofPersonnel and Development (CIPD)and Nottingham Business School. Itrecommends that ‘processes must bedeveloped to track the performanceand progress of those identified in thetalent pool, as well as systems for re-viewing, refining and makingchanges to talent management initia-tives to reflect changing organisa-tional priorities.

However, 70 per cent of organisationsstill depend on manual paper-basedprocesses or word-processing/spread-sheet systems without a central data-base, according to ‘Hi-tech HR – Acontradiction in terms?’ independent re-search commissioned by Qikker

Solutions, an internet-based HR systemsprovider.

“If you have 50 key positions, withincumbents, that you want to trackand five possible candidates for eachposition, you have 300 people totrack,” points out Sue Lingard, Euro-pean marketing director at Cezanne

Software, an HR systems provider. “Ifyou are looking at a talent pool ofseveral thousand, it is impossible tomanage without a system.”

Technology is vital for talent man-agement, as it enables organisations tocreate a central source of data, includ-ing performance, skills and aspirations.This provides a single view and sup-ports strategic decision making.

“It will enable you to identify talent

“Technology isvital for talent

management, as itenables

organisations tocreate a central

source of data ”

Talent management software gives organisations visibility of their mostpromising employees and helps build relationships with them.

and assess individuals within a pre-agreed talent pool across a range ofcore variables,” says Diana Hogbin-Mills, managing director at Talent-Max, a talent managementconsultancy. “These include potential,core competencies, retention, vacancyrisk, position criticality and align-ment. A set of consolidated reportsthen provides information that iden-tifies your organisational depth acrossthese variables, along with individu-als listed by aptitude rating and bypotential.”

According to Lars Dalgaard, chiefexecutive officer at SuccessFactors, aprovider of on-demand talent man-agement solutions, a strong processalso helps organisations more closelyalign individuals’ goals with those ofthe organisation to create a more en-gaged workforce. This leads to greaterproductivity and, ultimately, improvesthe bottom line.

As well as providing sophisticatedplanning, talent management toolsalso create greater transparency andfairness. Under paper-based systemstalent can languish in appraisal formsin filing cabinets because weak man-agers are not offering up their bestpeople. Likewise, strong managerswere able to keep back their best peo-ple to prevent losing them.

“Talent management softwareprovides a comprehensive view of

talent across the company, helpingHR to create one-on-one relation-ships with talented employees,”sums up Patrice Barbedette, founderof Jobpartners, an HR software ven-

dor. “To attract and retain the besttalent, organisations need to treattheir employees and prospective em-ployees in the same way as theytreat their customers.”

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Career planning PEOPLE MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE

We all like to think that we have beenpromoted because of our outstandingtalent. However, even the most confi-dent high fliers may admit that thereis an element of luck in being in theright place at the right time.

“Career planning has often justbeen opportunistic and not viewedvery strategically,” says AlexBarfield, European director atSoftscape, an HR software vendor.“In most large organisations, the bestway to get ahead was to ‘blow yourown trumpet’ and ride the coat-tailsof a senior manager. Similarly, mostorganisations needing specific skillsat the start of a new project will nothave information on the skills avail-able internally and will hire some-body externally. These are not a goodway to manage your workforce.”

Judith Germain, director of leader-ship consultancy Dynamic Transi-tions, warns against the traditionalapproach to look for the next crop ofsenior managers from a small subsetof individuals, rather than assessingthe entire workforce for the best tal-ents that it can offer. “This approachcan ignore the true potential of a di-verse workforce,” she warns.

Richard Doherty, vice president foroperations, at Jobpartners, an HRsoftware vendor, explains that careerplanning software can establish indi-vidual development plans betweeneach employee and their manager.The system makes the process trans-parent, allows managers to monitorprogress and ensures the plan is reg-ularly updated. It also ensures thateach employee knows that his or heraspirations are acknowledged and, asa result, fosters loyalty. This helps tocreate profitable one-to-one relation-ships with every employee and in-creases retention rates.

“Career planning systems allow or-ganisations to make efficient and effec-tive use of their people,” says Mr Barfield. “They add a good level of

Structure, not luckCareer planning systems provide a structuredapproach to managing careers and eliminate theelement of chance.

structure to the process, so people knowwhat they are supposed to be workingon and that they will be rewarded fortheir efforts. To maximise the effective-ness of your people, you need to knowthat you are getting the right people,with the right skills, paid the rightamount in the right jobs - and the onlyway to do that is to have information.”

Ms Germain says that the very natureof these systems is to provide detailedknowledge of an entire organisationfrom the most junior employee to thechief executive. This allows a two-pronged approach of looking for the toptalent in the organisation, as well asnurturing talent in the rest of the work-force, which ensures that it maintainscompetitive advantage.

These systems benefit the em-ployee, by ensuring that there is clar-ity in work expectations to support

detailed discussion on job compe-tences. Employers are often unawareof the hidden skills of their employeesand risk losing them and decreasingoverall employee morale and motiva-tion. Formal feedback from managersis also a benefit, as the conversationcan lead to additional training andimproved performance.

“Our clients are currently putting alot of control into the hands of the em-ployees themselves, by going into thesystems themselves and highlightingtheir aspirations and finding out whatskills are needed to achieve them,”says Mr Barfield.

at Bond International Software, aprovider of recruitment applications.“They hope that anybody performingan internet search for specific skillswill come across their CV and heypresto – they get offered a job forvery little effort on their part!”

Diana Hogbin-Mills, managing di-rector, TalentMax, an engagementand retention consultancy, says thatGeneration Ys, born between 1979and 1999, are technologically ‘savvy.’“They are heavy users of Web 2.0, ex-pect technology to be a major part oftheir recruitment process and willlook for companies that harness tech-nology to make their working liveseasier,” she says. “Organisations mustcommunicate with them in an in-

creasingly virtualworld.”

Lesley Nash,one of the direc-

tors of Changewor-know, a webrecruitment systems

consultancy, argues thatalthough online recruitment has be-come the norm, it should not replacethe human element. It is best usedalongside other selection processes,such as face-to-face interviews andpsychometric testing.

However, the traditional agenciesare not surrendering in the new elec-tronic world. Steve Carter, managingdirector at recruiter Nigel Lynn,warns that over-reliance on auto-mated checking procedures risks los-ing out on attracting the best in themiddle of war for talent. An organi-sation may attract the ideal candi-date, but if there is no human beinginvolved in the first CV filter it maybe rejected if it doesn’t include theright keywords.

“Very often, the best candidates arenot actively looking,” he says. “They arenot going to spend time optimising theirCVs with keywords in order to try andbeat an online system, when they knowthey can go to a recruitment consul-tancy and get four interviews. People re-cruit people, not computers. You can’te-mail a handshake.”

“Employers areoften unaware ofthe hidden skills

of theiremployees ”

People recruit peopleRecruitment is moving to the web,but people must still be involved.

Online recruitment offers more effi-cient processes that lower cost and fillvacancies faster. Organisations havea choice of using internal software,usually linked to their own website,or utilising a third party website.

According to the Chartered Instituteof Personnel and Development (CIPD)2007 Recruitment, Retention andTurnover survey, websites have bro-ken even with local newspaper adver-tisements as the most commonmethod for attracting candidates.These websites range from being anelectronic ‘jobs board’ that advertisesvacancies to offering a fully featuredrecruitment and selection process.

Emma Parry, a research fellow atCranfield School of Management, ad-vises organisations to take a holisticapproach to the whole process of at-tracting job applicants, managing theprocess and responding to candidates,sifting and selection technologies,and even induction and creating per-sonnel files. “If people just advertiseon a jobs board they get flooded with

applications that they cannot manageor sift,” she warns.

The choice of own or third partywebsites often depends on availabilityof internal resources. Vanessa Robin-son, an advisor at the CIPD, says itcould be attractive for organisationsthat do not have a strong brand to at-tract unsolicited applicants. Shewarns that the downside is that on abusy day an advert may not getenough visibility on a big site.

Recruitment and selection alsolends itself to outrsourcing. MsRobinson says that it can be particu-larly useful for organisations thathave a lot of fluctuation in demand,with seasonal workers and otherpeaks and troughs.

‘Web 2.0’ social networking sitesare becoming more prominent in re-cruitment, with younger applicantsputting their career histories in theirprofiles. “A simple internet search canprovide many more potential candi-dates than job boards or agencies,”says Tim Richards, managing director

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eLearningPEOPLE MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE

Training and development of staffhave never been so important. In afast changing world, it is vital for or-ganisations to keep their staff up-to-date with the skills and knowledge

they need. In the global war for tal-ent, many organisations have to relyon recruiting people with potentialwho can be taught the skills they can-not find in the marketplace. An in-

creasingly regulated business envi-ronment is also increasing the needfor compliance training.

Unfortunately, ‘Realising Value fromOnline Learning,’ a recent report from

the Chartered Management Institute andthe Centre for Applied Human ResourceResearch, found that senior managersacross the United Kingdom are missingeasy opportunities to hone their skills,as they fail to make use of the online re-sources available to them. Only 54 percent have made use of online manage-ment resources in the past year and just20 per cent have participated in a struc-tured e-learning programme.

Barriers include loss of the humantouch (47%), too many distractions(46%), lack of motivation (28%), thecontent fails to engage them (20%)and lack of appropriate support (17%).37 per cent suggest that ‘tutor-led’ de-velopment is most effective.

“Buying available material andchucking it at the user simply will notwork,” says Martyn Sloman, an advisorat the Chartered Institute of Personneland Development. “Those organisationsthat are successful have prepared verycustomised material for their own par-ticular organisational requirements.They have also tied it in with their widerorganisational objectives.”

Fabrizio Cardinali, co-chair of theEuropean Learning Industry Group,says that personalisation and contex-tualisation are key factors in enablingEurope’s businesses to compete effec-tively in world markets. This meansunderstanding learners’ likes and dis-likes, their learning styles and prefer-ences, their habits, and their languageand culture.

Most organisations have found thateLearning works best when it is com-bined with other learning methods, in-cluding classroom lectures andworkshops, called ‘blended learning.’“eLearning is not the panacea that manypeople think it is,” says Scott McArthur,

eLearning is most effective when combined with other learning methods,but technology has an increasing role to play.

principal consultant at Atos Consulting.“It will never replace old fashioned‘chalk and talk’ and should be combinedwith mentoring and coaching. It shouldbe part of a blended programme, not anexcuse for saving money on qualitytraining and learning.”

Many people believe that Web 2.0and social networking will impactlearning, as the next generation of em-ployees will be connected throughfacebook, MySpace and Bebo. Theymay be expected learn in radically dif-ferent ways. Mr Cardinali warns thatthey may increasingly receive learningmaterials through personal digital as-sistants, BlackBerry, Nintendo, smart-phone, wearable computer, seriousgames, simulations and virtual worlds.

Mr Sloman says that workplaceskills are not just about obtainingknowledge, but learning from eachand trying things for themselves. Thisfits in with the increasing interest inthe use of games and simulation tech-niques to allow people to try thingselectronically.

Games are already being used as alow-cost way to train emergency serv-ices and a simulator has been devel-oped for a major internationalaccounting firm. It allows staff topractice their skills on a range of ‘dif-ficult’ clients before being put in frontof the real thing!

“Games technologies have maturedto the point where virtual environ-ments are realistic, usable and con-vincingly mimic the trials andpressures of work situations,” saysDavid Wortley, director of the SeriousGames Institute at Coventry Univer-sity. “Just as with theatre, it is the sus-pension of disbelief that helps toengage people.”

From blackboard tovirtual world to wearable computer

These are just a few of the companies that have revolutionised how they manage their workforce data by using HR.net,

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Promotional featurePEOPLE MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE

Develop Motivate Retain

Transforming people management!

At Qikker we work closely with some of Europe’s leading companies. We help support their transition from paper based to technology based people management. We provide world class solutions that give them instant visibility of people performance throughout their entire organisations.

So whether you are taking the first steps towards meaningful employee appraisals or want to fully align corporate goals and objectives with an on-line performance management system, we can help you make it happen Qikker.

Go to www.qikker.com to find out more about our people management solutions and complementary consultancy services, or simply call us on 0845 2600 222.

‘You can’t value what you can’t meas-ure’ it’s been said, and ‘if you can’tmeasure it how can you act on it?’should be the rejoinder. Alstom PowerService is an organisation that hasundergone considerable change andgrowth in recent years and HR tech-nology has provided a valuable toolfor measuring people performanceand engagement.

Alstom Power Service is an engi-neering organisation that was definedby a typical heavy manufacturing ap-proach. To become more dynamic andcommercial the company’s strategyshifted to a service driven organisa-tion focused on Project Management.This combined with major acquisi-tions meant Alstom Power Serviceneeded to define a consistent set ofvalues and a culture that would workwith a disparate, workforce and pro-vide a sound basis for further growthand commercial development.

Julian Webber, Head of Organisa-tional Development at Alstom PowerService North West Europe (PS NWE),says: “We had to start from scratch asnothing coherent had existed before.We initiated the process through focusgroups across our many locations. Weneeded to get buy-in from every aspectof the company at the very start of theprocess rather than impose a cultureand set of values defined by the seniormanagement team.”

The top value that emerged was Valu-ing People and the importance of peopledevelopment. “We needed to support

Alstom powered by people

this by processes that demonstrated ourcommitment to people development andperformance management. It was alsoimportant for us to track the key valuesand understand the engagement levelsof the 20,000 people across our world-wide organisation.”

Working with HR technology firmQikker (http://www.qikker.com/), Al-stom Power Service designed a globalquestionnaire ‘Our Identity: YourVoice’. Steve Jones, Managing Direc-tor, Alstom PS NWE says: “As a busi-ness, we will only be successful ifeveryone shares in our vision and

feels able to contribute towards mak-ing that vision a reality. This surveyis an important part of that process,because it measures how people Look,Feel and Act towards the business ina quantifiable way. In doing so, itgives us valuable data upon which wecan make meaningful decisions aboutimproving the way we do things andinvesting for the future.”

The global survey is conducted an-nually and results are available im-mediately with rich ‘line of sight’reporting through the business thatenables instant management analysis.

“This data is an important base formanagement decisions,” commentsJulian. “We have the management in-formation about performance levelsand fiscal growth and now we havethe people information. Overlayingthese opens up discussion and canprovide options for us that would pre-viously not have been visible.”

Alstom Power Service has alsoworked with Qikker to implement acomplementary online 360 degreeappraisal system for its senior-levelmanagers that reinforces the changeto a service culture and encouragesbehaviours commensurate with valu-ing and developing its people. “Welooked at the expectations for eachtier of management and built theseinto a 360 degree appraisal system,”says Julian. “We can now assess eachmanager’s learning and developmentneeds against agreed objectives. How-ever, this is not just about training,it’s about improving the opportunitiesfor every individual and for their owncareer. For instance, we might findsomeone who is a great change man-ager and who could be more fullystretched in a different role or loca-tion. We can match up this talent witha business need.”

360 degree appraisals have had amixed reception due to candidates’own previous experiences. Julian ad-mits that in Alstom Power Servicethere is still some challenges ahead,“Some of our managers have reallytaken to 360 degree but we do need

to motivate others. This is part of ourculture change programme as gradu-ally our people are seeing the per-sonal benefits of a thorough appraisalsystem as well as the value measure-ment provides to the business.”

Alstom Power Service’s global 360degree appraisal system is available toall employees. “Without utilising tech-nology this process would not be pos-

sible. Now, everyone is in control oftheir own performance and progres-sion, supported by HR. We can mean-while use this data and that of thesurvey to inform the strategy of thebusiness and align people to deliver theorganisation’s growth objectives.”

To download your free ‘pay-for-performance’ white paper - ‘THEMISSING LINK’, go towww.qikker.com/thetimes.

“We can nowassess eachmanager's

learning anddevelopmentneeds against

agreedobjectives”

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Promotional feature PEOPLE MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE

Mr Ted is helping to change the na-ture of Capita’s resourcing business.A big advocate of the use of technol-ogy in resourcing is Nicola Jellyman,service delivery director at CapitaManaged Services. “Technology isfundamental to our business,” shesays. “It has made a huge differenceto our industry and the way we oper-ate. New clients expect automatedsystems to be part of an end-to-endresourcing process.”

Each year Capita Resourcing, a di-vision of The Capita Group Plc, man-ages over 2,000 campaigns, 500,000candidate enquiries and 30,000 in-terim, contract and permanent place-ments on behalf of its clients. Itsmanaged services organisation pri-marily takes on responsibility formanaging the whole process of re-sourcing temporary staff for itsclients. This covers the whole spec-trum of requirements, from part timeadministrators to interim directors.

The company uses a number of sys-tems, including MrTedTalentLink. MrTed is a leading provider of talentmanagement solutions, designed tohelp organisations of all sizes to opti-mise the processes of acquiring anddeploying talent on a local andworldwide scale.

Capita Resourcing uses whicheversystem is appropriate to each client’sneeds. Although MrTedTalentLink hasonly been in use for twelve months,it is already used on major contractswith British Nuclear Group, which hasa high requirement for engineers, andEDF Energy, which is a big user ofcontract IT staff.

“We primarily use Mr Ted to facili-tate all the interactions with ourclients throughout the resourcingprocess,” says Ms Jellyman. Clientslog onto our website and enter theirskills requirements direct into Mr Ted.Experienced consultants then planand manage an appropriate campaignthrough the system and record the re-sults into it.

If the company needs to run a cam-paign for a large number of vacan-cies, it can set up a separate micrositethat is linked to MrTedTalentLink.This has details of job roles and gives

system has enabled us to in-crease the size of our net-work,” she says, “so we canconnect with a wider audi-ence more quickly to findquality candidates.”

The management infor-mation produced by the sys-tem is also vital. It builds upan end-to-end picture ofwhat type of candidateswork well in which environ-ment. This helps to producebetter matches so that Capitais able to offer better qualitycandidates to its clients. Thesystem shows the best sourcesof candidates for each type ofrole, helping consultant’s planto go straight to the most likelysource to fill a particular re-quirement.

The system also enablesCapita to build up a candi-date talent pool for eachclient. Ms Jellyman says thatit adds huge value when the sys-tem automatically matches new re-quirements with candidates alreadywithin the system.

Because Capita is providing a fullresourcing service, not just filling va-cancies, it uses the system to identifylong term temporary posts that couldbe converted to permanent positions.The system makes the back-officeprocesses far more efficient. The com-pany now has all its billing informa-tion in one place, pre-approved by theclient.

Ms Jellyman admits that she couldprobably go on forever about thebenefits of the system! “It has gen-uinely changed the way we operate inthe marketplace,” she says. “Theclients particularly appreciate the vis-ibility it gives them through havingmeaningful real-time managementinformation at their fingertips, so theycan make more valid decisions abouthiring or better using their workforce.The powerful combination of experi-enced consultants using highly func-tional software makes the resourcingprocess efficient and effective, so wecan achieve 25 per cent to 30 per centsavings for our clients.”

a superior candidate experience. Theapplicants enter their details directlyinto the system.

Clients review suitable candidateprofiles and career histories on-line.They can enter their comments on theskills or experience into the systemand use it to ask Capita to invite can-didates for interview. The system han-dles the interview administration andrecords feedback from interviewers.

If an offer is required, the client en-ters the dates and rates and the offer

is prepared by the system and passedthrough the client’s approval process,including management, budgetaryand HR approval. Capita’s consultantscan track the clients’ approvalprocesses through the system, whichprovides a full audit trail of who ap-proved what. The system understandsboth the client’s hierarchical structureand its cost centre codes.

Once the employee starts working, thesystem is capable of providing on-linetimesheets for each worker and canhandle their manager’s approval. It alsopays the worker and bills the client.

“It is great that the system can scaleup to handle varying volumes,” saysMs Jellyman. “It also interacts withother suppliers.” Capita has agree-ments with other agencies to accesstheir talent pools and use their elec-tronic job boards. The system’s on-line vendor managementfunctionality will communicate re-quirements to these third parties. “The

Real-time informationat the clients’ fingertips

Talent managment solutions; acquiring and deploying talent on a global scale.

“We primarilyuse Mr Ted to

facilitate all theinteractions with

our clientsthroughout the

resourcingprocess”

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Performance management

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PEOPLE MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE

In a world where financial perform-ance is everything and customer serv-ice is seen as a major driver, it isimportant to remember that employeesatisfaction is a major driver and aleading indicator of both. Retentionof employees is also a key weapon inthe war for talent.

Organisations have invested mil-lions, or even hundreds of millions, ofpounds in using software to help themto understand their customers, but un-derstanding the staff who serve thosecustomers has for too long been re-stricted to the annual employee survey.

It has been a cumbersome and costlyexercise that often involves third par-ties. Response rates, themselves an in-dicator or satisfaction, have also beenlower then employers would like. “Thethird party holds the intellectual prop-erty and produces data for you,” saysScott McArthur, principal consultant atAtos Consulting.

In contrast, on-line surveys arequicker, more flexible, cheaper and en-courage higher response rates. Organ-isations can conduct them as often as

Most HR professionals understandthat resourcing software can reducecosts by 50% and time to hire by upto 75%, but many are still scepticalwhen told that it can considerably in-crease the quality of the people theyhire. This improvement in talentarises partly because of the objectiv-ity that software can bring and partlythrough its ability to measure the ef-fectiveness of the process.

Software can be much more objec-tive than managers during the earlystages of screening applications andconducting first interviews with appli-cants. Some managers are not good atthese and can have very personalisedinterview techniques. In contrast, soft-ware can provide online question-naires and tests, which can provide atotally fair and objective initial screen-ing process. This is counter-intuitive,but results show that automated

Quality, not just costResourcing software can significantly improvethe quality of new hires, says Charles Hipps.

screening can result in one third morecandidates on the shortlist meeting therequired standards for employment.

The software records all details ofthe selection process, creating a valu-able data store that forms the basis ofdetailed reporting to managers. Forinstance, all competency rating scoresby each manager are recorded, to-gether with the decisions they makeon each candidate. This can then belinked with the organisation’s per-formance management system tocompare with their subsequent per-formance. This will improve the effi-ciency and effectiveness of theselection process in spotting talentand improve quality of the workforce.

The software also increases the qual-ity of the workforce by helping to getbetter access to talented minorities.The on-line screening process is mucheasier for disabled people than having

to travel to interviews. Screeners canbe shown applicant details withoutname, nationality or religion to elimi-nate any prejudices.

Some organisations offer a guaran-teed interview scheme to disabled peo-ple, but one organisation found that anunrealistic 25% of applicants claimedto be disabled. Its software was used toask a series of supplemental questionsabout the nature of the disabilities,which reduced the number claimingguaranteed interviews to a more real-istic 3%. The stored data can be usedto compare decisions made with theorganisation’s various equal opportu-nities policies, to ensure that managersare making unbiased decisions.

The flexibility and agility of soft-ware is vital for making rapid changesto resourcing processes in response toa fast-moving market. It will also beimportant now that a new wave of in-house ‘sourcers’ is emerging. They arestarting to build up a talent bank ofcandidates through direct advertisingand networking sites, such as LinkedInand other similar sites.

Software allows the organisation tobuild a cradle-to-grave picture of itshiring policies and processes and newhires’ subsequent performance withinthe business. This means that it is notjust making resourcing more efficient,it is providing the basis for a muchmore structured and information-dri-ven approach to talent management.

People focus on cost savings be-cause they have to justify investing inthe software, but systems are really

about hiring better quality people. Inthe middle of a war for talent, HR willfinally deliver on its promise to actstrategically and deliver value to bot-tom line business performance.

Charles Hipps is managing directorand founder of WCN plc, a talent man-agement and resourcing softwareprovider. He is author of ‘E-Recruit-ment Projects in the Public Sector: AGovernment Guide to Best Practice’www.careers.civil-service.gov.uk

PROMOTIONAL FEATURE

they want and can compose theirown questionnaires.

“Products like SurveyMonkeyare tremendous and you canbrand it with the organisationname,” says Mr McArthur. “It ismuch easier for employees tocontribute their views anony-mously on-line, rather thanon paper, so surveys aremore representativeand more valuable. Itis more flexible andreduces cost.”

Ben Smith, a UK head ofVovici, which provides enter-prise feedback management soft-ware, points out that manycompanies are over-surveying theirconstituents. They are irritating re-spondents, rather than building rela-tionships with them.

Gary Schwartz, vice president forproduct marketing of Confirmit, an-other enterprise feedback manage-ment software provider, recommendsmeasuring employee attitude at keymoments throughout the employee

lifecycle.These include

recruitment, induc-tion, three month ‘pulse,’

training course, new manager,new role and exit interview.

These will help to build a set of keyattitudinal indicators, such as whetherthey feel that they can make a differ-ence, the value they place on trainingand promotion, their reaction to feed-back about performance, their ability

On-line surveys are quicker, cheaper, more flexibleand get more responses, but they must be seen tobe acted upon.

Closing the Loop

to take on new skills and responsibili-ties and whether they feel their obser-vations about the company’s approachto a particular issue are being heard.

Mr Smith warns that employeesrarely see any of the resulting analysisfrom the process and too infrequentlysee any evidence that change flowsfrom their participation. He recom-mends setting up an active ‘employeecommunity’ with a panel of respon-dents to close the feedback cycle.“Gathering regular and consistentfeedback not only keeps you currentwith the thoughts and concerns of theemployee base,” he says, “it provides

the ability to spot trends and evolvingemployee sentiments over time.”

Intelligent use of survey softwarewill help to build a relationshipwith employees through a two-waydialogue. Results should be reportedthrough of every manager’s ‘dash-board’ that gives a snapshot of thestate of their organisation’s per-formance.

“A poor survey or one that is notacted upon can become a major de-moralising factor,” concludes CliveLongbottom, a director and Quocirca,an analyst. “In contrast, a good surveycan be of incredible use and value.”

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The academic world is awash with varyingdefinitions, so we have tried to simplify someof the most used terms.

HUMAN RESOURCESThe workforce of an organisation, which is considered tocontribute to the organisation’s effectiveness.

HUMAN CAPITALThe recognition of people as an intangible asset of theorganisation that can be a source of competitive advantage.Value is created by time, experience, knowledge and abilities.

HUMAN CAPITAL MANAGEMENTA strategic approach to managing those people issues that arecritical to the organisation achieving its strategic objectives. Itrequires support from systems that can analyse, measure andevaluate how the organisation’s people policies and practicesare creating value.

HUMAN RESOURCES INFORMATION SYSTEM (HRIS)A computerised system that enables an organisation toacquire, store, manipulate, analyse, retrieve and distributeinformation about its employees. It includes a single databaseor set of linked databases, and is generally associated with theback-end transactional and administrative tasks. It must beable to share data with the more strategic applications.

TALENTThose individuals who can make a difference to organisationalperformance, either through their immediate contribution orin the longer term by demonstrating the highest levels ofpotential. (Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development)

TALENT MANAGEMENTThe systems and processes for attracting, identifying, developing,engaging with, retaining and deploying talent. Originallyreferring the top single digit percentage of performers, talentmanagement is increasingly being used to describe an overallsystem that encompases career development for all employees,succession planning for senior staff and performancemanagement for all.

SOFTWARE AS A SERVICE (SAAS)A business model in which a single set of application softwareis hosted by a vendor or service provider partner and madeavailable to multiple customers over the internet. Payment isusually through a monthly ‘rental’ for each user. The objectiveis to reduce costs and complexity, whilst increasingfunctionality and reliability.

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TOP TIPS

JENNY BARRETTCONSULTANT AT MORSE, A BUSINESS AND TECHNOLOGY CONSULTANCY.

BETTINA PICKERINGMANAGING CONSULTANTFOR PEOPLE ANDORGANISATIONAL CHANGE AT PA CONSULTING GROUP

Do not get seduced by ‘best ofbreed’ promises, but considerthe end-to-end talentmanagement process. To ensure managers and HR can focus onbetter people management, talent management software needs tocover the full talent management lifecycle including performancemanagement, objectives setting and cascade, learning anddevelopment, succession planning and reward management.

Best of breed software usually offers more functionality in onespecific and contained area, such as objectives setting. However,covering the end-to-end talent management process with acollection of different specialist software increases theadministrative burden for HR and employees and increases thecost of maintaining the system.

HR staff and employees would have to constantly switchbetween, in many cases, very different approaches, terminologiesand data structures or go down a very costly route of aligningthese often very different applications. Therefore, instead ofhelping organisations to understand, motivate, develop and retainkey talent, using this approach has the opposite effect.

As talent management is a two-way process between line,functional and HR managers and employees, organisations shouldseek an integrated talent management system that covers thecomplete end-to-end talent management process. This allows easyaccess, reporting and information exchange for both employeesand managers alike.

Top tipsPEOPLE MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE

GLOSSARY OF TERMSDUNCAN MACINTRYE

GTI ONLINE SOLUTIONS

How to go about implementing anon-line job application systemand why it is important.

Today any organisation whichprocesses over 250 applications ayear ought really to be looking fora system that is based on-line.

That means more than justasking people to send in a cv andapplication form to a recruitmente-mail address, a comparativelycrude option that looks increasinglyout-dated.

A proper on-line solution canoffer a range of more sophisticatedtools to manage the process.

It will give those managing theinterview and selection processimportant information that helpsrefine the selection. This informationincludes instant access to keyperformance indicators, and a range ofselect, sift and sorting tools.

It ensures the hiring process isboth accountable and transparent,key requirements for any modernorganisation.

At the same time the process needs to be quick, efficient, costeffective and leave the candidates feeling that they have beentreated with respect, whatever the outcome.

So when implementing a system define your processes clearly.Measure and set the work involved in dealing with each candidate,be aware of implementation timescales and crucially make sureyou have a senior manager on your side who understands theadvantages of the changes you propose.

“A properon-line

solution canoffer a range

of moresophisticated

tools tomanage theprocess. ”

Organisations often simply look to train people up to be replacements for a specific job, becausethat is what they have always done. However software can provide information that can helpthem to manage succession planning more effectively and improve their employees’ readinessfor a move up into a range of different roles within your organisation. These may be posts thatcurrently exist within the organisation, or new roles that could be created in the future as theorganisation responds to changes in the business environment.

Organisations must not use succession planning software just to identify a few potentialreplacements for current incumbents of key positions in the organisation. Instead, the fullpower of succession planning software should be used to identify the skills required to move thebusiness forward, identify those employees who have the potential to meet the future needs ofthe organisation and help them to realise that potential. In this way, the succession planningsystem will help to retain talented employees within the organisation and use them to drive yourorganisation forwards in achieving its strategic objectives in a fast-changing world.

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Promotional feature PEOPLE MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE

With a product range that is literallyas diverse as a packet of allsorts howon earth do you keep everybody inharmony? For the corporation to stayfocused on driving growth and im-proving its efficiency it was vitallyimportant everybody was pulling inthe same direction; the need was tofind ways of enforcing standards thatwere internationally consistent with-out creating a bureaucratic nightmarethat reduced senior managers to form-filling automata -more Willy Wonkathan key players in a globally com-petitive 21st Century organisation.

Part of the solution has beenfound by adopting flexible and verypowerful on-line performance man-agement tools.

The aim, in management jargon,was to “promote the alignment andcascade of objectives with clear link-age to business goals.”

In other words to make sure every-body was singing from the same songsheet. However, with a deadly seriousobjective because such a system wouldprove the only sure way to track andmonitor the business efficiently and toensure that it was complying with allof the management and legislative re-quirements made on it.

Keeping the all sorts in line and on target

Schweppes to be maintained and acompany “look and feel” to the systemwhile the modular design of the tech-nology allowed further developmentthat would eventually bring all peopleprocesses into a single system.

Business ResultsToday, 11,000 Cadbury Schweppes

managers in Europe, NorthAmerica, South America,

Asia and the Pacific are using thesystem, with more languages due tobe added soon.

It enables them to ensure that indi-vidual objectives are properly alignedto company performance targets andthat the cascade of corporate goals isproperly adhered to.

And there have been other benefits,including an increased focus on devel-opment discussions between col-leagues and a building of commitment.

It has also been much easier toapply global performance ratingsconsistently while the reporting andanalysis of data has become easier,leading to better decision making andtighter compliance support.

“We have succeeded in simplifyingour performance management processwhile also reducing administration.

We can now focus on deriving morevalue from the tools it gives us offeedback, coaching and developmentwithout having to worry about themechanics.”

Julia Freeman, People Capability andProcess director, Cadbury Schweppes.SuccessFactors: a superior choiceSuccessFactors helps organisationsachieve their objectives of rapidlyaligning, developing, motivating andrewarding their workforces.

This is achieved through the deliv-ery of world-class applications thatdrive organisational alignment, work-force performance and bottom-lineresults to the complete satisfaction ofall customers.

Why SuccessFactors?Cadbury Schweppes chose Success-Factors because it could provide aquick, flexible solution in multiplelanguages. One that had the capabil-ity to expand when required.

The system was introduced in 10languages, covering 96 per cent of thetarget audiences. The SuccessFactorssolution allowed the essentialelements of the Cadbury

The world’s largest confectionery company employs over 70,000 people,all busy making and selling a kaleidoscope of famous brands fromCadbury’s Dairy Milk chocolate to Dr Pepper and Bassett’s LiquoriceAllsorts. They do it in virtually every country of the globe, giving Cadbury Schweppes a giant-sized administrative headache.