Summary
Real estate investment, development, and management firm, New Boston Fund made the move from a tedious paper-based appraisal system to a web-based offering. The organization selected Halogen's HR software because it demonstrated the flexibility required to accommodate New Boston's existing goal management processes. With the new system, New Boston Fund has been able to:
- Streamline processes by eliminating the paper involved in the mailing of documents between offices;
- Improve the tracking of employee goals and create a meaningful link between individual and corporate goals; and
- Increase employee participation in self-appraisals to 75%.
Company Profile
Founded in 1993, New Boston Fund is a real estate investment, development and management firm based in Boston, MA that manages over a billion dollars in private equity capital on behalf of high net worth and institutional investors. With nearly $4.0 billion in cumulative acquisition and development activity through seven successful private equity real estate funds, New Boston's value-added investment strategies focus on middle-market investment opportunities in the Eastern United States. Employing over 185 professionals, the company maintains offices in Massachusetts, Connecticut, Washington, D.C. and Florida.
Challenge
The HR team at New Boston Fund recognized a need for the company to move its employee performance appraisal processes on-line, as a way to streamline and better track them. "Our prior system was a paper-based system; we didn't have anything on-line. It was very cumbersome," said Lisa Dolan, HR Manager. "It didn't work well and it didn't fit our needs. We decided that we needed to find a full solution that would enable us to do it all on-line."
Dolan began to look for a solution that would not only enable them to move the process on-line, but would also support their existing practice of tracking employee goals and linking them to company goals. Additionally, the team sought a solution that could be customized to their specific needs. "When looking for a new solution we wanted a system that we could configure to match our current processes as closely as possible," said Dolan.
Solution
At New Boston Fund, employees set their annual goals, and at the same time they set six-month objectives against those goals. These mini-goals help the employee start working towards the annual goals. At mid-year, they set objectives for the next six months. Following a review of available solutions, New Boston selected Halogen eAppraisal™. "After evaluating numerous vendors, only Halogen allowed us to maintain our current processes," remarked Dolan.
After a short cycle of training and testing the system with focus groups, New Boston Fund unveiled the system to its employees and immediately saw results.
Results
With the new web-based talent management system, New Boston Fund has been able to streamline their processes, as well as improve the tracking of employee goals. "By removing the paper burden, we've eliminated the mailing of documents between sites, especially for signatures," said Dolan. "We are now taking advantage of electronic signatures, which is making things much easier. Employees are responding to the email reminder system, resulting in a 75% completion rate for self-assessments."
New Boston Fund has also improved its organizational goal management. It did so without disrupting employees' expectations of their appraisal processes. Going forward, New Boston Fund is planning to expand its use of employee evaluation forms to measure employee goals and cascade them with corporate goals. "We are going to be using three processes. We had two forms in our original processes, but we will likely expand those to accommodate different roles," said Dolan.
"Feedback indicated that the system was very easy to use and that it resembled our original forms and processes enough that it was very familiar," said Dolan. "It did not present any kind of culture shock to those involved. Everyone is happy about the change. It is definitely a much easier process than we had in the past."
