Flexible employee performance and talent management solution ensures defense contractor achieves privacy compliance
Premier supplier of defense industry technology, L-3 Communications Interstate Electronic Corporation is using Halogen's eAppraisal™ to:
- Increase the quantity and quality of information in employee reviews;
- Better track employee competencies, goals and objectives year-over-year; and
- Ensure employee appraisal information is secure and in compliance with defense industry privacy standards.
Company Background
L-3 Communications is a prime contractor in Command, Control and Communications Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance, Government Services, Aircraft Modernization and Maintenance and has the broadest base of specialized products in the industry. L-3 is also a major provider of homeland defense products and services for a variety of emerging markets. L-3 includes 107 divisions and employs approximately 65,000 people worldwide. Interstate Electronics Corporation, a business unit of L-3, designs, develops, and manufactures critical test instrumentation systems, advanced military GPS solutions, and Network Information Systems.
Challenge
IEC wanted to improve the quality and consistency of employee appraisals in the Interstate Electronics Corporation Division. It decided to source an online employee appraisal system, as the company's paper-based system provided limited opportunity for manager and employee input, and made it difficult to track employee goals year over year.
"Employees submitted feedback that looked virtually identical to their job descriptions. No comments were being made with regards to competencies. There was very little to no verbiage to back up the ratings given by the managers," said Alicia Van Blair, HR manager, Interstate Electronics Corporation. "There was no self appraisal of competencies, goals or objectives. The process did not tie to previous years' objectives or to the accomplishment of those goals. The goals were written, but they were not tracked."
Solution
When researching employee performance and talent management vendors, Van Blair and her team created a strict list of criteria. The system must be paperless, have the capacity for a self appraisal of detailed core and leadership competencies, goals, and development plans. Potential systems had to have the ability to carry over and track past goals and objectives into the next year. Finally, it had to enable notes to be recorded throughout the year, include a comment helper, and support HR's vital role in the performance process.
Van Blair also initially wanted the system to be delivered On-Demand, at the request of her busy IT team, who was part of the selection process. She was attracted to Halogen's On-Demand or "Software as a Service" (SaaS) offering, which in addition to being hosted, also implies a "subscription" licensing model. Users access the application over the Internet using a web browser. "While other solutions offered some of our criteria features, Halogen was by far the best value and could host the solution for us. Our IT team loved the concept of having the solution hosted by the vendor."
However, because IEC is a defense contractor, it must comply with a set of government security policies. Mentioning product or project names in employee evaluations might be sensitive. "We started looking at a hosted solution, because it really appealed to us, and it worked wonderfully. But because our reviews were going to start containing much more specific information, our people started to question the privacy of our performance appraisals. After careful review, they felt it was too much of a risk," said Van Blair. So right before implementation, IEC quickly changed its technical back-end, and brought the appraisal system in-house, otherwise known as an On-Premise model. "Our IT team was concerned when they were told that we would have to host it internally -- they worried about the amount of work it might cause for them. But the flexibility of the Halogen offering made it easy to quickly change from an On-Demand to an On-Premise deployment," said Van Blair. "IT quickly realized it would not be a burden; they saw how easy it was to host and became very comfortable doing it."
Benefits
IEC initially introduced eAppraisal to over 500 employees and has seen immediate changes. In addition to benefitting from the flexibility of Halogen's On-Choice delivery model at the implementation stage, IEC has improved the entire employee appraisal process. "The information provided both by the employee and the manager in our appraisals has greatly increased. The quality of the reviews is by far better than it was, and we are now able to track goals year over year and see the employee competencies in a broader context. This demonstrates that there is more care and attention being given to the review process and to employee accomplishments," said Van Blair. "As a result, our morale is better and that is tied directly to retention. Employees have a chance to include their say and provide input, and they can see that managers are paying attention."
IEC's president is pleased with the improvements. "Our president had being looking to implement this for a long time and he is very happy with how things have gone," said Van Blair. "About a month into things he approached me and asked to see a few changes made. The Halogen training was great - I could make most of the changes immediately without throwing off any of our processes."
Van Blair reports that the new Halogen eAppraisal system has been a very positive step in the direction of improving the performance appraisal process. Van Blair states, "I would absolutely recommend Halogen -- either On-Demand or On-Premise -- to anyone looking to improve their employee appraisal processes."
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