San Francisco based Kennedy/Jenks Consultants faced an increasing disconnect between its employee performance appraisal process and the need for employee performance accountability. The firm selected a web-based system from Halogen Software to meet all of its talent management needs. Since implementing the system more than a year ago, Kennedy/Jenks has been able to:
- Create a culture of performance where the link between individual performance and the firm's success is clearly understood;
- Meet the expectations of Gen Y and Millennial employees contributing to overall recruiting and retention efforts; and
- Ensure employee accountability by making performance a day-to-day priority for everyone in the firm.
Background
Founded in 1919, with offices in ten states, Kennedy/Jenks Consultants has a history as an industry pioneer. This leading consulting firm, with 4,000 completed projects and nearly 600 employees, provides complete engineering, environmental science, and architectural services, with a strong commitment to tailored solutions for its clients.
Paper Reviews Result in Disconnect
Kennedy/Jenks has built its business on the experience and knowledge of its many employees. Although the firm was very focused on the success of its employees, when it came to measuring the performance of the team, they relied on a paper-based system to execute annual performance appraisals. The firms HR team found that while performance reviews were being completed, they resulted in little action on the part of management and employees.
"While our previous process had goals and expectations set for each employee, the follow-up and implementation of those goals was extremely hit and miss," explained Ruth Robinson, Director of HR, Kennedy/Jenks Consultants. "We soon realized that we needed to take a more disciplined approach to goal management to drive accountability among our employees. As a professional services firm, our utilization rates or billable hours are critical, and we wanted to link each employee's contribution with how we are doing as a firm."
It was also important to the executive team that the performance appraisal process be fully documented, and progress updates be available to employees. "We felt it was very important to provide every employee with concrete feedback especially at mid-year, so that employees knew where they stood in terms of performance against their goals."
The firm conducts an annual employee survey, and in recent years the HR team had noted that employees were giving lower scores to questions about the link between performance and financial rewards, and how the firm is improving profitability. With a younger generation of workers beginning to join the firm, this issue became a pressing one, since Gen Y, as a group in the workplace, have clearly shown a desire to understand how their work is making an impact on the company. "While management had a clear picture of how employees contributed, we realized that we weren't doing a great job of communicating this to employees. We wrongly assumed that employees knew things like their expected and actual utilization rate," said Robinson.
Finding a Solution to Help Make Performance a Day-To-Day Priority
Robinson and her team decided to move to a web-based system to help the firm turn employee performance management into a day-to-day priority. They identified offerings from Halogen Software, SuccessFactors and a few other vendors as potential solutions.
"I had to admit, being based in San Francisco gave me a slight bias towards SuccessFactors since they're right in our backyard. But once I took a closer look at the options available, I realized that Halogen, with its deep knowledge of the unique requirements of professional services firms, had an offering that would meet and exceed our needs," stated Robinson. "At that point I had not previously thought about integrating compensation, learning management and succession planning with employee performance management, but Halogen made it extremely easy for me to see the benefits of this integrated talent management approach."
Following an extensive due diligence process, which included speaking with existing Halogen customers and three live demos, Kennedy/Jenks' management team chose to implement the Halogen talent management solution including Halogen eAppraisal with e360 Multirater, eCompensation, eSuccession and eLearning Manager. Given the choice of on-demand or on-premise deployment options, the firm opted for a hosted implementation to ease the burden on IT and ensure automated updates to the system.
Culture of Performance Addresses Generational Needs, Drives Corporate Success
Since rolling out the Halogen system more than a year ago, Kennedy/Jenks has been able to create a culture where the value of each individuals performance is clearly defined and understood. This is particularly important as an increasing number of Gen Y workers, currently at 20% of the company's employees, join the firm.
"We have many new employees who are joining us right out of college, so there's a lot of mentoring to be done and feedback that we need to be giving," explained Robinson. "I'm finding that during the interview process candidates ask us point blank about performance management, professional development and how they will be measured. Having this type of system in place is expected by the new generations of workers, and provides us with an advantage when it comes to both recruiting and retention. "
Kennedy/Jenks has clearly defined corporate strategies that are used to drive the direction of the firm's employees by linking goals to these strategies. Employee, manager and departmental goals all contribute towards achieving corporate objectives. "Halogen has made it possible to clearly define how our goals are set, measured and achieved. Everyone is accountable and people are much more attentive to their utilization levels, which ensures we perform well as a firm," explained Robinson.
Building on the successful implementation of Halogen eAppraisal, Robinson and her team are piloting eSuccession within the firm, and recently were trained on Halogens new eLearning Manager offering. "We are getting ready to launch eLearning Manager, and were very excited about being able to add learning to our talent management programs. This is a real value add to our overall process since employees and managers will have greater power to execute on learning activities. In this way well extend that accountability from the performance process to the learning management process so that employees and managers are responsible for ensuring those activities are completed. This integrated approach to talent management contributes to our overall success," said Robinson.
