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  • Amy

    3 simple ways to protect your company from off-boarding risks

    Amy 2:26 pm on May 10, 2010 | 0 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: hr forms, , , ,

    When an employee leaves a company, that departure can create a significant amount of risk to the organization.  A well-designed off-boarding workflow can be a very useful tool to make sure that the off-boarding process is applied consistently, the process runs smoothly, and any potential issues are resolved.  Here are three important ways to protect your company from risk during the off-boarding process:

    Invalidate account permissions: When employees leave a company, the departure process typically affects numerous databases, systems, and departments.  In order to limit the risk to the company and ensure adequate information security, it is important to revoke all ex-employee account credentials. Workflow software can help to manage the cancellation and deletion of account privileges formerly given to the employee, such as email access, ERP, CRM, CMS, or DMS system access, keycard /fob access, and even access to the BPM software itself.

    Manage inventory: When employees leave a company, it is important to ensure that all company property (phones, computers, company car, equipment, etc) is returned by the employee. Workflow software can help manage employee assets by aiding in the creation and cross-checking of an inventory of property issued to employees, helping to make sure that the appropriate property is accounted for before an employee departs.

    Update systems and databases: When an employee departs a company, often that is not the end of the road. Some employees may be eligible for severance pay, retirement benefits, pension benefits, extended health care benefits, etc, according to the employee’s contract terms. At the very least, the employee needs to receive the appropriate final paycheck. Workflow software can help manage and update the appropriate departments and systems to ensure that the employee is appropriately accounted for even after her final workday.  Likewise, workflow software can verify eligibility for benefits automatically, to ensure that employees are truly eligible for benefits sought and protect against fraud and errors.

     
  • Amy

    The Secret Managers Can Learn from Exit Interviews

    Amy 11:54 am on May 6, 2010 | 0 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: hr forms, , , ,

    The exit interview is a very important element of any well-designed employee off-boarding process. No matter the reason for the employee’s departure, exit interviews are a key part of making sure that the employee’s tenure with the company wraps up on a positive note, and are of great importance to both employees and management.

    From management’s perspective, the exit interview serves as a valuable opportunity to receive insightful feedback. Through candid exit interviews, the company can receive suggestions that can then be used to reflect upon and improve company operations. The key is not only to conduct the exit interview, but to also take the next step and actually learn from the feedback. An off-boarding workflow can help route information gleaned from exit interviews to the right decision-makers. By ensuring that the information reaches the right people, the “secrets” learned in off-boarding interviews can actually change the company and help it grow.

    An off-boarding exit interview can also be of great value to the employee. When an employee leaves a company, whether due to a layoff or by her own volition, she often has a lot to say about it.  The exit interview can provide a sense of closure and leave the employee with more resolution than if she were simply terminated and sent on her merry way. Furthermore, exit interviews give employees the opportunity to provide honest feedback on their experiences and share their thoughts on how the company could do better, both positive and negative (like aperformance review in reverse!)  Employees may also feel more open to express their opinions and give more honest feedback, since they are on their way out the door.

    Through a standardized exit interview checklist, workflow software can standardize the exit interview process and ensure that it is productive exercise for employees, managers, and HR personnel who analyze the results. Workflow software can also route information to the correct decision-makers in order to shed light on any issues with company operations or policies, and create a record of feedback across departments and over time.

     
  • Amy

    How to manage forced layoffs of good employees

    Amy 7:17 pm on May 5, 2010 | 2 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: hr forms, , , ,

    Traditionally, when an employee left a company, this departure was usually due to one of two reasons:  either the employee found another job elsewhere, or the company fired the employee due to poor job performance. But in our current economic climate, a new category of layoffs has emerged: forced layoffs of good employees, simply due to budgetary cuts or financial reasons.

    In these tough economic times, when layoffs have skyrocketed, the employee off-boarding process has taken on much greater importance.  Many companies had not experienced significant layoffs until recently, and many good employees are finding themselves out of a job due to economic, rather than performance-based, reasons.  So when a company is forced to lay off good workers for financial reasons, the off-boarding process takes on a new significance, both for the employees and for the company itself.

    To ensure that employees leave on the best possible terms, as well as manage stress and reduce risk, it is important for human resources management to establish a consistent and uniform off-boarding process to coordinate employees’ departure.  Companies are wise to distinguish between employees who have decided to leave the company on their own terms, those who have been terminated for poor performance, and those mentioned above who have been let go for economic reasons. Likewise, during the off-boarding process, different considerations and steps should be incorporated into the workflow design depending on the circumstances of the employee’s departure.

    For example, even those workers terminated for performance-based reasons may be entitled to severance packages, or an extension of health care or other benefits even after their departure.  Likewise, certain employees may be eligible for early retirement benefits, or pension plans, depending on their longevity with the company. Employees who leave on their own volition may or may not be entitled to these same benefits.  A good off-boarding process ensures that the appropriate benefits are identified and the proper steps are taken to provide them.

    Furthermore, when a layoff is economic rather than performance-based, many employers are choosing to add employees’ resumes to an internal “resume bank” in order that they be considered for job opportunities within the same company.  When employees are terminated due to budgetary reasons, companies may wish to maintain a database of those employees’ resumes in case new positions or opportunities become available in the future. Workflow software can support the creation and management of such a database to ensure that good employees stay with the organization.

    Lastly, if an employee is being terminated principally for economic, rather than performance-based, reasons, an honest exit interview can provide a valuable opportunity to discuss those factors and hopefully leave the door open to the employee in the future. Or at the very least ensure that the employee leaves with a positive impression of the company.

     
  • Amy

    Motivate Employees with the Performance Review Process - Part 2

    Amy 10:16 pm on April 27, 2010 | 2 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: hr forms, ,

    In my previous post, I mentioned three ways to motivate employees with a well-designed performance review process.  Here are three additional ways to make sure that performance evaluations help employees to succeed:

    4.  The performance review process should be balanced: Encourage managers to provide a fair evaluation; balance critiques with constructive suggestions, negative feedback with praise, and manager-generated evaluations with the employee’s own self-assessment.  A purely negative evaluation will dishearten, rather than motivate the employee, while a purely positive evaluation leaves the employee without suggestions for improvement or direction for further growth. All employees have areas of strengths and weaknesses, so be sure to incorporate both into the evaluation process.

    5.  The performance review process should be serious: It goes without saying that the performance reviewer should be honest with the review-ee, and vice-versa.  But at times performance evaluations can be awkward or uncomfortable, not only for the review-ee but also for the reviewer.  Some mangers treat performance reviews as a waste of time, as if they are punishment for “bad” employees and the “good” employees don’t need to take them seriously.  So it’s important that the HR department establish that the performance review process is an important opportunity to learn and grow while receiving valuable feedback.  A manager who skips through a “light” review is not doing the employee any long-term favors.

    6.  The performance review process should be related to tangible incentives:  Employees often anxiously await performance review time, because evaluations often go hand-in-hand with raises.  While some would argue that financial pressures can distract from the spirit of the performance review itself, the fact remains that employees can be greatly motivated by tangible incentives.

    In these tough financial times, offering raises or bonuses may not always be feasible.  But in addition to financial incentives, employers can get creative as to the non-monetary incentives they offer, including public and private recognition / attention / praise, opportunities for training / travel / seminars, and offering promotions/leadership opportunities to those who have earned them.

     
  • Amy

    Does Your On-boarding Checklist Prepare Your Employees to Thrive?

    Amy 9:35 pm on April 23, 2010 | 3 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: hr forms, , ,

    When a new hire first arrives at your door, you have one chance to make a good first impression.  The employee on-boarding process can then set the tone for the employee’s perception of the company, which in turn impacts her attitude, productivity, and contribution to the company as a whole.

    To make sure your company’s on-boarding process prepares your employees for success, one of the best places to start is with your on-boarding checklist.  Does your HR department have an official, comprehensive list of tasks for each and every time there is a new hire?  Here are some suggestions of items that may be on that to-do list:

    • Confirm offer letter sent to new hire, by HR or hiring manager
    • Confirm acceptance by new hire
    • Confirm new hire’s personal data (name, address, emergency contact, etc)
    • Call new hire to welcome her to the company
    • Have new hire complete the appropriate tax forms (Form W-9, etc.)
    • Provide new hire with a designated contact in the event of questions / issues
    • Assign an on-boarding mentor to the employee
    • Schedule New Employee Orientation during first four weeks on the job
    • Schedule New Employee Technology Training during first eight weeks on the job
    • Give the new employee copies of the company policies and handbook
    • Register the new employee for a parking permit
    • Register the new employee for an ID badge
    • Issue a workstation, computer, phone extension, and office supplies to new hire
    • Create an email address, Net ID login, and password for new hire
    • Send announcement email to the department and staff announcing the new hire
    • Update website with the new employee’s bio and contact information
    • Order business cards
    • If the employee is a non-resident alien, coordinate work visa documents
    • Add employee to payroll
    • Contact the union representative (if applicable)

    Once you have a comprehensive list of your on-boarding tasks, you’re ready to begin streamlining your new hire on-boarding process.  In my next post, I’ll discuss how to streamline the on-boarding process and creating a more positive new hire experience for employees, hiring managers, and HR departments alike.

     
  • Amy

    Easy Ways to Share Hiring Data with the Employee On-boarding Process

    Amy 11:44 pm on April 14, 2010 | 0 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: hr forms, , ,

    In my previous post, I created an example hiring process map.  In my example workflow, the last task of the hiring process is actually the beginning of a new workflow, the Employee On-boarding process.  One of the benefits of using workflow software to automate HR processes is that you can share information and data seamlessly among different processes, without the need for extra programming or pulling and pushing data among different systems.

    There are a number of pieces of data that are relevant to both the Hiring Process and the New Hire On-boarding process.  By sharing those related variables automatically, the workflow software eliminates the need for redundant data entry, reduces the chance for errors, and limits the resources required of the human resources department in executing the Employee On-boarding workflow.

    When the employee fills out a job application form, she enters her personal data (first and last name, home address, phone number, etc).  That information can then be pulled directly from the job application, and in conjunction with information from HR and the employee’s manager regarding salary and contract terms, used to create the employee’s contract template.  Then, the employee’s personal info can be used to create her unique company identity, including her login user ID, company email address, ID card, business cards, etc.

    Furthermore, additional data from the hiring process can be used to automatically populate the employee’s HR records.  By pulling information from the contract including salary information, start date, vacation information, benefits information, etc., the integration between the Hiring Process and the Employee On-boarding process ensures that the terms of the contract are reflected in the HR records, and that the employee’s data is accurate and the records are generated without delay.

     
  • Amy

    Taking the "Human" out of Human Resources Workflows?

    Amy 10:39 pm on March 18, 2010 | 2 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , hr forms, , ,

    By taking labor-intensive human resources processes (like a leave application process or expense report process) and automating them with BPM software, HR workflows can become more streamlined, more efficient, and best of all, nearly hands-free.

    But as I wrote about in my last blog post, employees can get confused, upset, and downright scared by workflow automation.  On one hand, management totes the efficiency benefits and savings that BPM software can provide.  On the other hand, managers say “streamline” and employees hear “layoffs.”  And the fear of being “optimized-out” is very real: as I demonstrated in my example leave application process and expense report process maps, a BPM software system can actually replace many of the administrative tasks formerly done by HR employees.

    The point of BPM is to connect people and systems and bridge the gaps between them, not replace humans with machines. That’s why it’s absolutely critical for management to dispel misconceptions and communicate to employees that the BPM software is to help make their jobs easier, quicker, and more streamlined, NOT to replace them with bots.

    Recently I was talking to someone from the human resources department of a bank that had recently installed BPM software.  Unfortunately, no one in her department actually wanted to use the HR workflow software.  Why?  First of all, the employees had not been trained to use the system.  Some were not sure how to operate it, and were reluctant to abandon their paper HR forms for fear that the BPM software would complicate their jobs.  Others feared that the new system would actually work TOO well, and the bank wouldn’t need as many HR employees.  They would be effectively optimizing themselves out of a job.

    It’s true that BPM software allows an organization to do more, faster, with less.  But its important to give employees adequate training, both on how to use the BPM software and on the big-picture goals of the BPM implementation as they fit in with the organization’s larger mission, to dispel any misconceptions and help employees get on board.  Without that orientation and understanding, the BPM software can create gaps, rather than building bridges between people and systems as intended.

     
  • Amy

    How to Increase Employee Satisfaction with BPM Software

    Amy 9:44 pm on March 15, 2010 | 1 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , , , , hr forms,

    When we think about business process management software, we often focus on business process management from an administrator or manager’s perspective.  Much emphasis is placed on the benefits BPM software offers to an organization as a whole; specifically, the efficiency tools it offers to managers and the impact of BPM on an organization’s bottom line.

    Yes, those benefits are of primary importance.  But in order for a BPM initiative to be successful, it is essential to consider business process software from the end users’ perspective.  In my previous blog, I observed that “beyond its benefits to the organization as a whole, BPM software creates opportunities to make life easier for both the “end user” (in this case, the HR department) and the “client” (in this case, the employee).”

    End users are the people who will actually use the BPM software to do their jobs on a daily basis.  End users include employees, supervisors, administrators, clients, partners, or any person who interacts directly with the BPM software.  When a new BPM software is introduced to an organization, the end users are absolutely key to making sure that management’s vision is carried out.  Change can be difficult and scary, and management must work to ensure that the end users view the BPM system as a solution rather than a hassle.  When end users perceive BPM software as a helpful tool that actually makes their jobs easier, they are prepared to reap the benefits of the BPM software and support the company’s BPM goals and vision.

    Returning to the expense report process example, the benefits to employees / end users participating in human resources processes are significant, and processing the expense report is much easier with BPM software.  Everything the employees need to do their jobs quickly and efficiently is right at their fingertips.  They are free from entering redundant data, looking up information, or sending notifications.  However, if these benefits are not explicitly communicated to employees by management, the benefits risk being lost in the shuffle.

    Whether its a new BPM software or any other top-down initiative, when employees feel that management has taken their needs into account the end results tend to be much more favorable.  Considering the ways that the end users will interact with the BPM system, communicating the direct benefits to end users, and ensuring that the end user perspective is central to the organization’s larger IT goals, goes a very long way towards maximizing the success of a BPM software implementation.

     
  • Amy

    Expense Report Process and BPM Software

    Amy 10:11 pm on March 13, 2010 | 0 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , , hr forms,

    Business process management software can be used to automate and optimize administrative tasks, reducing waste and increasing efficiency in HR operations.  In my last blog, I walked through how BPM software could optimize a leave application process, totally eliminating the need for HR to participate in the process at all.  Now I’d like to explore how BPM software can cure another common HR headache: the expense report process.

    The expense report process is a basic administrative process found in almost every organization.  When an employee advances an expense on the organization’s behalf, she then submits an expense report to her supervisor and/or the HR department using a standard expense reimbursement form.  Someone from HR then processes the expense reimbursement form and approves or denies the request.  Accounting is updated, and reimbursement is issued to the employee.    Additional steps may be added to the customize the expense report process, but the basic “bones” are consistent across most organizations.

    It’s important to remember that beyond its benefits to the organization as a whole, BPM software creates opportunities to make life easier for both the “end user” (in this case, the HR department) and the “client” (in this case, the employee).  By automating and optimizing the expense report process, BPM software can help to increase employee satisfaction by reducing reimbursement lag times, speeding up the expense report process duration and shortening the time the employee has to wait for reimbursement. Using BPM software, the employee can easily monitor the progress of her expense report form online, and receive automatic updates as the reimbursement form advances, increasing transparency and giving peace of mind that the expense report is moving through the reimbursement process.

    Furthermore, BPM software enables the HR department to automatically store, archive, and retrieve information related to the expense report process by accessing a database or by connecting to other software systems (such as ERP or accounting systems — more on this later), eliminating the need for redundant data entry and making HR’s job significantly easier.

     
  • Amy

    Leave Application Workflow, with and without BPM

    Amy 9:10 am on March 11, 2010 | 1 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , hr forms, , , , , vacation request form

    I have been blogging recently about BPM software and opportunities for automation in a typical leave application process.  I wanted to create a visual example to show how many steps can be automated by using a BPM tool to automate the vacation request process.  Requesting a vacation should be a fairly simple and straightforward process, right?  An employee asks for vacation days, a supervisor checks the request against the employee’s HR records, the request is approved or denied, and the HR records are updated.  Simple, right?

    Not so much.  In order for that paper-based vacation request form to be processed properly, it has to pass through many steps and desks before it is ultimately approved.  Take a look at this example process diagram showing a typical paper-based leave application workflow:

    Leave Application Process without BPM Software

    Each extra step wastes time and effort:  asking people to do things, sending emails, checking and updating databases by hand, and manually reviewing data are administrative tasks that could be automated and streamlined with BPM software.

    Now, let’s look at the same process, automated with the help of a BPM software suite:

    Leave Application Process With BPM Software

    In the BPM-automated process, the administrative waste is cut out.   The employee’s vacation data is automatically pulled from the HR database and added side-by-side to the vacation request form, so when the Supervisor reviews the form she has all the information she needs to make the decision to approve or deny the request.

    Information is also pulled from, and pushed into the HR database.  See how the HR department staff doesn’t even participate in the automated process diagram?  By automating the administrative, communicative, and labor-intensive tasks, the BPM system trims the fat from the leave application process.

     

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