Technology Brings Employees the Hartford Experience

The way Shelly Bancroft sees it, human resources and company success areinextricably linked–and technology is the glue binding the two. As assistantvice president of human resources information systems at the Hartford, Bancroftis responsible for the human resources department’s automation strategy. Sheis now heading up a massive three-year technology initiative to consolidate andbring online the company’s various HR systems.

Known internally as “e-HR,” the initiative, which is based on humancapital management applications made by PeopleSoft, is expected to boostproductivity and efficiency, and, over the long term, reduce costs. But Bancroft’soverriding goal is to align the Hartford’s human capital with the company’skey business objectives, while shifting the human resources department from anadministrative to a strategic role.

The original impetus for the initiative was a branding strategy called TheHartford Experience, which refers to the $15.1 billion financial service andinsurance company’s promise to provide solutions to problems, make it easy forcustomers to conduct business, and deliver superior service. It makes sense thatemployees will be more likely to deliver that kind of positive experience tocustomers if their own encounters with the company are equally glowing. Withthat in mind, the human resources department sought ways to extend the HartfordExperience to its 27,000 workers.

Bancroft saw technology as key to achieving that goal. “Our employees’experiences with HR transactions should reinforce the message that we want todeliver to our external customers,” she says. “Through technology, we canmaximize each employee’s contribution and strengthen their Hartfordexperience, so they’ll be in a better position to serve customers.”

A veteran of both human resources and technology, Bancroft has been with theHartford for 20 years and in her current position for six. She started out ininformation technology and business analysis, and over the course of her careerhas developed computer applications and managed IT departments and informationcenters. She moved to human resources in 1989, during a time when HR technologytended to revolve around ad hoc reporting, program development, and technicalwork.

Today the field of HRMS–and Bancroft’s role in it–is far morecomprehensive and vital. And as the human resources department becomes astrategic player, Bancroft faces the challenge of developing systems thatsupport the Hartford’s mission and brand.

The e-HR initiative, which has been under way for about 18 months and ishalfway complete, includes upgrading HR information systems from a manual to aWeb-based operation; developing a new hardware infrastructure to support theupgraded systems; implementing customized functions aimed at managers;constructing a data warehouse; and using analytic tools to measure HR functionssuch as staffing, compensation, talent management, and training.

Rolling out a comprehensive array of employee and manager self-servicecapabilities was the first step, which is mostly complete. Now workers havequick, easy access to their employment, personnel, and benefit information. Theycan update their personal data, view their compensation history, refer friendsto jobs, apply for open positions within the company, complete a profile oftheir skills, and automatically receive e-mail alerts of job openings that matchtheir profile.

Managers also can maintain correct listings of employees who report to them;change reporting relationships; view their employees’ compensation history;manage and plan employees’ total compensation, including salary, bonuses, andincentives; create requisitions for new positions; and submit compensationchanges–all from the desktop.

“Just look at what it takes to process an address change in the old worldversus the Web world,” Bancroft says. “In the past, it was time-consumingfor employees to make an address-change request. Now they have it at theirfingertips. They just click on a link and make the change.”

Such applications can save not only time and frustration but money as well,according to a PeopleSoft return-on-investment calculator that compares costs of business processes before andafter deployment of self-service applications. “Most organizations see a 50 to75 percent reduction in transaction costs,” says Jason Averbook, director ofglobal product marketing for HCM at PeopleSoft. “For example, each call on atypical help desk costs around $30. But using a Web-based self-service system,each transaction costs around 10 cents.”

Self-service applications lead to fewer errors, more accurate data, andquicker access to information. “Instead of having just HR responsible, now thewhole workforce is interacting with business processes in real time,” Averbooksays. “Employees have access to the information they need when they need it.”

But despite the convenience, transitioning from a manual to an online way ofdoing business is a “tremendous culture shift,” Bancroft says. “Changemanagement was our biggest challenge.” To introduce the new capabilities toemployees, the Hartford offered training programs, including “employee expos,”during which the HR staff demonstrated the new applications. “We wanted tomake people comfortable with the change and get them excited about it, so weshowed how it will directly benefit them,” Bancroft says. “That went a longway in ensuring our success.”

Bancroft’s current challenge is building an integrated data warehouse to store and manage HRMS data and link it withthe company’s financial, customer, and contractor systems. Such a consolidatedsystem will eliminate the need for ongoing IT maintenance and training formultiple systems. More important, once the data warehouse is complete, HR staffand managers will have desktop access to powerful analytic tools and will beable to slice, dice, drill down, and delve into data for in-depth analysis, aswell as measure effectiveness of HR programs and obtain better insight intoworkforce performance.

“Once this foundation is in place, we will be positioned to look at dataanalytically and focus on results, measurements, and metrics,” Bancroft says.”For example, we’ll be able to tie competencies to job openings,compensation, and performance management. We can create scorecards with jobobjectives, which can drive total compensation. Learning events, such astraining, classes, online resources, and reading materials, can be linked tocompetencies, helping employees strengthen the skills they need to advance. Froma management perspective, it makes sense to tie everything together.”

Such a system will help executives quickly see if key performance indicators–suchas head count, compensation, or ethnicity ratios–are on track or out of whack,Averbook says. “Instead of flat reporting, it can deliver instant, real-timealerts if data is not consistent with the company’s goals, and it showsmetrics in the user-friendly form of red, yellow, or green lights. For HR to bestrategic, it needs to see more than static data. It needs to see how peopleaffect customers and the company’s finances. It needs to see how competencies,skills, and education interact.”

Linking the systems will also help managers and HR staff get new workers onboard as quickly as possible, Bancroft says. “As soon as a new hire accepts ajob offer, a ‘hire record’ will be automatically created, which will triggeridentifications, equipment procurement, and all the other steps necessary tohelp the new employee be productive from day one.”

The Hartford would not divulge the cost figures involved in its e-HRinitiative, saying the information was “proprietary.” But according toPeopleSoft, such a massive undertaking could cost several million dollars,depending on how many applications are being licensed, the organization’srevenue, and its number of employees.

However, the resulting gains in productivity and efficiency, along with fewerexpenses for printing and distributing pay stubs and various employment forms,decreased time and costs for recruiting and hiring, and savings on anticipatedredeployment of HR staffers, will more than make up for the e-HR costs, Bancroftsays.

“At the beginning of the e-HR process, we conducted a detailed analysis ofeach human resource transaction to measure the productivity we would realize. Welooked at how many people were involved with a transaction–for example,employee, manager, administrative assistant, HR specialist–and how much timewas devoted to each step,” she says. “We could prove there would be hugeproductivity gains by shifting from a manual world to a Web-based one, and thatwas the biggest seller [to the company’s leaders].”