Pennsylvania Employee Onboarding. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Office of Administration

Transcription

1 Pennsylvania Employee Onboarding Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Office of Administration Contact: Tony Encinias, CIO Category: Improving State Operations Initiated: August 2011 Completed: November 2012

2 Executive Summary The executive branch of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania hires an average of 600 employees each month. Historically, state agencies managed new employee onboarding through local, manual procedures happening at 3,658 work site locations. This decentralized process was time intensive and required the distribution, management, collection and processing of nearly 15,000 paper forms each year. These pre-hire requirements were followed by in-person orientations (checklist of 96 items) that required 7,446 hours of time and the printing of 652,766 sheets of paper each year. In November 2012, the commonwealth s HR Service Center (HRSC) launched the Infor Enwisen HR Service Delivery OnBoarding module supported by a comprehensive, enterprise employee onboarding process to create administrative efficiencies resulting in cost savings of over $1 million. Additional objectives include reduced turnover, increased compliance and heightened customer service for new employees. The (HRSC) was created in 2010 to unify high-volume human resources services into an enterprise shared services organization. The HRSC provides customer service to 80,000 employees and 13,000 supervisors, as well as 38 agency HR offices and executive leadership. Despite the robust ERP system and SaaS already used to support its operations, the commonwealth was not fully reaping the positive financial impacts of the shared services approach. The HRSC identified employee onboarding as a key function where SaaS could improve state operations. Pennsylvania s onboarding project involved sweeping changes to many existing processes associated with bringing a new employee into the workforce, including the traditional, face-to-face orientation of a new employee by HR staff, routing and filing procedures for hard copy documents, supervisor and agency HR office roles and responsibilities, employment eligibility verification (I-9/E-Verify) and the provisioning of accounts, badges, credentials, workspace and technology. The project included training and tools for more than 925 HR personnel and 13,000 supervisors, an online orientation for new employees, systematic notifications to ensure compliance and automated filing of electronic official personnel documents. The process integrates the SAP HR/Payroll ERP, SaaS through the Infor Enwisen HCM product suite, and the federal E-Verify system for immediate confirmation of a new employee s legal immigration status. The standardization of responsibilities, training and tools are expected to aid supervisors and HR professionals in successfully navigating the process of bringing new hires into the state government workforce. The standardization new employee information is expected to reduce confusion and compliance issues previously caused by inaccurate information. The collection of feedback from both supervisors and employees will allow HR leaders to continue improving the new employee experience and enhance the commonwealth s position as an employer of choice. Submitted May 2013 Page 2 of 7

3 Description Business Problem The commonwealth runs prisons, state parks, health facilities, public welfare and aging programs, licensing operations, construction sites, etc. The population of 80,000 employees includes full-time, part-time, civil service, non-civil service, union, management and executive employees working in 2,800 position classifications. The diversity of employees within 38 agencies is immense and requires a consistent method for delivering HR service and information. HR professionals and supervisors in state agencies act as the front-line in the hiring process. A high percentage of new employee activities are administrative and repetitive in nature, but are critical to establishing a good foundation. These stakeholders faced tight budgets, time constraints and conflicting priorities, and were increasingly unable to work on strategic HR or management activities due to the high-touch requirements of a decentralized new hire onboarding process. The decentralized onboarding process required the distribution, collection and upload of paper forms followed by data entry, printing of employee materials, personal presentation of materials and manual tracking procedures. In evaluating the return on investment, the state forecasted an annual savings of $1.03 million in administrative cost savings following the improvement of onboarding operations across the enterprise. Project Solution Building on the current HR shared service delivery model, the Pennsylvania employee onboarding project was launched in August Executive sponsorship was critical in the early phases; the project was endorsed by the Secretary of the Governor s Office of Administration and the Deputy Secretary for Human Resources Management. A governance committee comprised of HR directors from large and small agencies and directors from budget, IT and placement offices was formed to guide the development of the project charter. In the project charter, the leadership team outlined the business need, objectives, drivers, critical success factors, benefits and guiding principles. The project moved forward with 50 individuals working on three teams: Tours & Materials, Technology & Integration and Agency Change Management. These team members were asked to roll up their sleeves and actively participate in process improvement planning, content development, system changes, training development, etc. The project teams worked collaboratively to identify common questions, design and vet technical solutions, and ultimately develop a change management plan to address the process improvements that would be needed. The project also received technical and project management support from staff at Infor Enwisen. The implementation took 16 months within the following phases. Generous time was allotted to the development phase due to the collaborative nature of the project. Submitted May 2013 Page 3 of 7

4 Assessment: research conducted, project charter signed, teams developed and vendor resources secured (May-August 2011) o Planning meetings with Governance Committee o Project presented to HR office representatives o Project kick-off meeting held with designated team members Development: guiding principles established, technology integrations planned, standardized processes agreed upon, content developed and common questions answered (September February 2012) o Surveys collected from agency HR office regarding current practices o Vendor meetings held weekly o Team meetings held biweekly o Technology deliverables assigned to key resources o Online orientation writing assigned to partnering HR personnel o Onboarding system notifications finalized by joint committee o Final design specifications delivered to vendor Design & Training: system requirements clarified with the vendor, change management activities underway, communications plan launched, training conducted for HR offices and supervisors (March-August 2012) o Reference handbooks finalized o Worksheets and documents to support the project released o Implementation meeting conducted for key contacts o Classroom training for central HR offices o HR training sessions on video for field office personnel o Supervisor web-based training released o Series of supervisor s sent, announcing the project and the availability of training materials Testing & Transition: issues identified and corrected, internal HRSC procedures created and training conducted (September-November 2012) o Testing conducted by HRSC staff o Connectivity tested by field locations o Integrated electronic official personnel file tested o E-Verify implemented o Employment eligibility training sessions conducted o Reference materials for all online orientation content released o Transition instructions released to agencies o Frequently asked questions released for internal staff o New and modified interface files deployed o Production system deployed o Web-based sessions about E-Verify and process transition Stabilization: new employees report to work following the new onboarding process (December ongoing) o Agency support provided on an as needed basis during the transition Submitted May 2013 Page 4 of 7

5 o Outbound customer service procedures established o E-Verify resolution procedures established o Customer feedback collected through a series of online surveys o Project metrics developed Technologies Utilized The HRSC is supported by a complex array of technology, including the commonwealth s ERP system; a hybrid cloud HR knowledge base that plugs into our ERP employee self service functionality; call center telephony, management and metric packages; third-party provided customer relationship management applications; document management applications and more. Technology was the enabler that allowed all stakeholders to benefit from the wide range of process improvements. Pennsylvania implemented the Infor Enwisen HR Service Delivery OnBoarding module through Software as a Service. The following technologies were also integral to the success of the initiative. SAP HR/Payroll and Employee/Manager Self Service Infor Enwisen Knowledgebase and Case Management Verizon WebCenter Implementation Success The Office of Administration s information technology and human resource teams worked alongside Infor Enwisen staff throughout the design, specifications, testing and implementation phases of the project. The project team evaluated each step of the current process to find a balance between system functionality, technology integration, process improvement and change management requirements. Employee self service previously provided robust tools; onboarding required a new layer of access and the delivery of timely, accurate data be sent from SAP to Infor Enwisen. This close collaboration of IT and HR business owners resulted in the successful launch of the employee-centric onboarding system. The new onboarding process map is complex and requires the involvement by various parties in order to ensure success. Hiring managers and HR offices now submit a hire request earlier in the process; however, no paper forms are required to create the new employee record in SAP. With the nightly interface file, the onboarding system sends a notice to the new hire s home address. The system also sends a courtesy notice to the agency s provisioning offices to begin their decentralized procedures for space management, computer access and security badges. New hires are encouraged to begin the online orientation prior to their first day of employment and to complete all required employment forms online. Employees even have the opportunity to select a medical plan to begin coverage effective their first day on the job. After electronic workflow is used to verify employment eligibility through the federal E-Verify system, new employee data is sent back to SAP nightly. Hiring managers are kept up to date on employee progress through system-generated notifications. Submitted May 2013 Page 5 of 7

6 Employees are required to read and acknowledge workplace policies online prior to their third day of employment. Copies of the Form I-9, Policy Acknowledgement Summary and Workers Compensation Acknowledgement with their electronic signatures are sent nightly to be filed in the employees electronic Official Personnel File. The online orientation continues with educational information about HR support, employee self service, compensation, leave, benefit programs and other common tools which is required to be completed within the first two weeks of employment. The project has allowed the key process stakeholders to refocus their time and effort on strategic requirements and activities within their agencies. The quality training materials, clear communications and consistency of the onboarding project goals contributed greatly to the acceptance and adoption of this transformative new process. The new onboarding process also empowers employees to become comfortable with the human resource procedures early in their employment by introducing employee self service and orienting them to the HR Service Center as a single source for common HR questions and issue resolution. Significance The Pennsylvania employee onboarding project improved state operations by meeting the following objectives for standardization, automation, administrative savings, accountability and process transformation. 1. Deliver standard information online for all newly hired employees. The project team consolidated loosely defined requirements into a comprehensive online orientation. This standardized requirements across all agencies and employee groups, while the technology filtered and presented appropriate content to personalize the user experience. 2. Execute consistent, automated onboarding activities across the enterprise by and use collective best practices to roll out a new process. This improvement resulted in the development of online forms, electronic acknowledgements, online orientation materials, system generated notifications, E-Verify electronic workflow, daily import/export files and the nightly delivery of PDF files for employees electronic official personnel files. 3. Create efficiencies to reduce administrative overhead in human resource offices. By reducing manual processing and local onboarding requirements, the HR office workload will be reduced by 22,650 hours annually. 4. Create accountability for process owners. The system generated notifications will remind stakeholders of deadlines and initiate requests for provisioning of accounts, badges, credentials, workspace and technology. 5. Provide training and tools for hiring managers, supervisors and HR offices. This included web-based training, handbooks, checklists and other tools. Submitted May 2013 Page 6 of 7

7 The high quality of the project is best measured by its adoption rate by new employees, supervisors and HR professionals. In the first five months following the implementation, the following project metrics were reported. 2,449 new employees loaded into the onboarding system 85% completed tour 1 (forms and policies) by established deadline 76% completed tour 2 (job details and benefits) by established deadline 10,276 estimated hours of labor time saved due to the new onboarding process 48% of new employees responding to the survey indicated computer access was available on day one 79% of new employees responding to the survey agreed or strongly agreed that the orientation allowed him or her to become quickly engaged and productive 64% of supervisors responding to the survey agreed or strongly agreed that the orientation allowed the new employee to become quickly engaged and productive 40% of supervisors have completed the onboarding web-based training course Benefits Financial Benefits HR staff time decreased; estimated at $661,000 in annual savings Productivity increased; estimated at $331,000 in annual savings Paper usage reduced; estimated at $40,000 in annual savings Non-Financial Benefits Improved User Experience: The new process improves the employee experience. The online orientation provides an early opportunity for new employees to acclimate to the culture of their new employer. It utilizes one vehicle to deliver information, collects data through online forms and accurately presents benefits programs, enrollment opportunities and decision deadlines. New Employee Engagement: In addition, the high quality of the online orientation makes employees feel welcomed, valued and prepared for what lies ahead with their new employer. It also orients them to HR resources early in their employment, empowering employees to find information themselves and introducing the HR Service Center as a single source for common HR questions and issue resolution. Supervisors are free of paperwork requirements and able to help improve the job performance of new employees. Long-term, this high level of employee engagement will reduce employee turnover. Efficient HR Service Delivery: The HRSC s integrated technologies have allowed its 80 staff members to effectively manage a large workload, including 110,000 employee calls and 74,000 personnel/position transactions in Process Improvements: The central onboarding solution will allow the state to continue providing high quality service to each employee. Technology upgrades, innovative services, standard information and process improvements will continue to be easily implemented as needed in the future. Submitted May 2013 Page 7 of 7