Career Boost
Getting the right people into the right jobs at the right time is a Herculean effort for any human resources professional. New human resources applications, however, are streamlining the hiring proceess while boosting employee performance and reducing paperwork for small and large consumer goods companies.
At Procter & Gamble (P&G), a global career and skill development system (GCSD) and an open job posting system work together to allow this category giant to get the right employee into the right job at right time. Both applications help the company identify and leverage an employee's strengths, passions, skills and interests, according to Kim McGraw, global learning manager at P&G.
"These systems have changed our staffing process from a closed system in terms of assignment and development planning to an open architecture featuring shared ownership between employee and managers," says McGraw.
Identification Required
With the GCSD tool, associates create a personal talent profiles, including strengths, interests, experiences and key skills. On the management side, this comprehensive job profile allows P&G to identify key potential candidates for top-level positions and better plan assignments so that "rising stars" have the skills and experience required when top openings occur.
On the employee side, associates aspiring to certain roles in P&G use the system to review the requirements of a destination job then compare them to their current personal talent profiles to isolate the gaps. They then use the Web-based open job posting tool to identify the "stepping stone" roles that will give them the skills and learning experience that build their capabilities and transform them into likely candidates for those destination jobs.
Not only can employees view jobs and set priorities, they also can automatically be alerted by e-mail when the "next step" jobs are open. The e-mail will list job qualifications and hiring manager contact information.
"The two systems work together to allow proactive planning and control for both management and employee," says McGraw. "We are filling positions much more effectively because there is virtually no more guesswork."
Rapid Retention
P&G also utilizes a global learning management system called RapidLEARN that delivers an average 30 to 50 percent job performance improvement. McGraw says RapidLEARN accelerates the delivery of knowledge and skill development to a 21st-century approach that includes at-your-desk "live" distance learning; self-paced on-line learning; performance support tools available 24/7; and the ease of accessing the right learning to deliver the knowledge faster.
"RapidLEARN has changed the face of learning here at P&G by creating an integrated learning network that connects employees throughout the company to a wide variety of learning opportunities," says McGraw. "It has reduced significantly the time required to find and access learning occasions and allows learners to connect live all over the globe on a real-time basis. It enables the classroom to come to the learner."
RapidLEARN's collaboration, performance and analytical functions are based on technology from Saba of Redwood Shores, California. Several content providers deliver the global online courses, including NETg of Naperville, Illinois and SkillSoft of Nashua, New Hampshire. SkillSoft provides 100 business skills courses in the RapidLEARN system, all focusing on leadership, management, and finance, as well as 125 IT courses primarily focusing on Microsoft products and Lotus Notes.
Time and Attendance
Mt. Olives Pickles, the largest privately held pickle company in the country, streamlines its automated time and attendance application, reduces its payroll preparation workload, eliminates manual timesheets, calculates errors and gains improved flexibility with software from Kronos of Chelmsford, Massachusetts.
The Web-based time and attendance application calculates the gross hours to be paid to employees according to the company's overtime, premium and other pay rules, and manages employees' attendance records. Attendance tracking provides managers with real-time reporting and historical views for employee attendance patterns. For Mt. Olive Pickles associates, it offers assurance they are paid properly and fairly for hours worked.
The single-server Kronos application runs on a Windows-based server and hosts about 15 PCs used by HR as well as timekeepers and supervisors.
"One of the things we like best about the Kronos system is that it allows specialized, customized applications without having to change our processes or modify our interfaces," says Mark Bryan, HR generalist for Mt. Olive Pickles. One interface includes a HR payroll package, provided by Software Plus of Florham Park, New Jersey.
Self-Service Pays
Many of the industry's HR applications are moving to single-portal, employee self-serve systems allowing enterprise-wide access to and from numerous areas of the business. While some companies are still running heterogeneous, non-integrated systems that make it difficult to employ a single-portal view, others have moved to best-of-breed, Internet-based systems.
Michelin of Greenville, South Carolina, uses an employee self-serve application from PeopleSoft of Pleasanton, California, while McKee Foods of Chattanooga, Tennessee runs a similar application from Kronos. Ceridan Corporation of Minneapolis, Minnesota; Lawson Software of St. Paul, Minnesota and SAP, a global company with regional headquarters in Newton Square, Pennsylvania are among other HR software vendors providing employee self-serve applications that are paying off in the consumer goods industry.