Human Capital Management (HCM) Project Update
Tim Werth, senior director of the transformation project in Purdue’s Office of the Treasurer, provided APSAC with this update of the Human Capital Management (HCM) project. The job family structure initiative is part of the HCM project.
In February, the planned April 1, 2018, go-live of the Human Capital Management (HCM) transformation project was delayed due to the need for a longer and more robust testing cycle and additional user education and training. Several deployment dates were reviewed, and ultimately the determination was made that January 1, 2019, would be the best choice. The delay not only allowed the project team’s focus to turn to the General Ledger (Finance) Transformation, but it allowed time for more robust testing cycles, better aligning interfaces with SuccessFactors, additional education and training, and a dedicated analysis of the job family structure.
Treasurer and Chief Financial Officer Bill Sullivan has partnered with the Human Resources compensation team and consultant Mercer, an expert in career solutions within higher education, to refine the job structure and coordinate communication efforts. A progress update was provided at the March deans’ meeting, and the team has been actively working to outline each organization’s structure. The compensation team collaborated with leaders and designated subject matter experts to map each position to a career stream and a career level.Leaders were provided with position mapping recommendations. The compensation team, along with executives and deans from across the University will continue to analyze, fine-tune, and validate the structure before it is finalized.
Another very important change in our project has been the realignment of our team to bring more people to the table, allowing for extra focus on each workstream. Additionally, a pilot group within Student Life will test the mobile time reporting application in October with Purdue Fort Wayne and Purdue Northwest each incorporating a pilot group on their campuses as well.
Engagement sessions began with business offices in June to provide information on the redesigned business processes, SuccessFactors demonstrations, and a question-and-answer period. Three different sessions were presented, covering topics such as recruiting and onboarding new employees, time and leave functionality, and employee data changes (replacing personnel action forms). Department support staff attended engagement sessions in July focused on creating positions and recruitment and onboarding processes through SuccessFactors. Just recently, engagement sessions rolled out to supervisors. Dedicated training will occur during the months of November and December to ensure clear understanding of processes before the January deployment.
During a previous APSAC meeting, Human Resources collected some frequently asked questions related to the project and specifically to the job family structure. Here are those answers.
- What is the goal of the HCM transformation project? The Transform Purdue initiative is designed to streamline, simplify, organize and automate Purdue business processes and related systems.The HCM transformation will rebuild the core human resources structure. Our processes for delivering human resource activities at the University are almost entirely paper-based, requiring manual manipulation, as well as significant review and correction by personnel. Our intention is to streamline our data and processes, ensure accuracy at the point of entry and utilize new technology to provide automation.
- Why was this project delayed? From day one of the transformation, we have promised a quality-first approach. We felt that our processes and related technology, training and engagement needed more time to ensure a successful implementation. We delayed the go-live to achieve this and to allow the General Ledger Transformation project, which was successfully implemented on July 9, 2018, to stabilize.
- If I am a regular user of our HCM system (e.g., for recruiting, hiring, evaluating employees) how will these changes improve my experience? Upgrading from SAP to SuccessFactors (an integrated, cloud-based core human capital management solution) will transform the way we manage people processes, providing additional transparency in recruitment by allowing hiring managers to view a candidate’s status; shifting processes such as onboarding and merit from paper-based to electronic; and adding an integrated goals and performance management module. By implementing an organizational structure as our foundation, we will be able to utilize automated work and approval flows.Job Family Structure will make more information available to you as a user to evaluate salary and compensation data to make better hiring and other personnel decisions that will create significant value over time across the University.
- If I am not a regular user of the HCM system today, how will these changes impact me? Every employee is impacted by the upgrade to SuccessFactors. All employees will access SuccessFactors to review pay statements and edit other personal information (similar to Employee Self-Service today), request time off or leaves, complete performance appraisals and view open positions. Hourly paid staff will access SuccessFactors to complete timesheets, when applicable. All supervisors will approve timesheets, time off requests and complete performance appraisals through SuccessFactors.
- Will people lose their jobs as part of this project? With this project, many business processes will be simplified and improved. From the beginning, we made it clear that if we execute these changes successfully, we will need less people to support our processes in the future. Our organization has high attrition, and we will use this whenever possible to satisfy our need for less people by making decisions on whether to fill existing or new vacancies as unit leaders assess the improvements created by the new system.
- I understand that job classification will be established as a part of the HCM project; what is this intended to accomplish? Today, there is not a clear job structure across campus. The objective of the job family structure is to establish clear structure for job classifications, competencies associated with those jobs, and to provide transparency for career paths. Our goal is to enable employees and their managers to have meaningful discussions about their career at Purdue; the job family structure will allow individuals to understand where their current job falls within the established structure, and make informed decisions about their careers and development goals.
- Will people be forced to take a pay cut when they are placed in their job classification? No, existing salaries will not change as a result of the new structure.
- What impacts will this transformation have on compensation for staff members? The implementation of the job family structure does not change your current compensation or benefit package. Compensation guidelines will be introduced in Fall 2018.
- How many different job families will there be? The new structure is organized into 13 job families impacting staff and approximately 71 subfamilies.
- How will I be informed of changes to my internal position title and my job’s location in the job family structure? Tools and resources will be put in place to train managers and supervisors about the new job family structure and how it will work. We will be working with Mercer to coordinate communication resources in order to ensure that all individuals have the opportunity to learn how their position relates to the new structures.
- What opportunities are there for employees to be engaged in providing feedback regarding job family structure and position titles? Employees can discuss job family structure questions with their supervisor. Their unit leadership collaborated with compensation on the mapping process. Questions can also be sent to jobfamilystructure@purdue.edu. We anticipate offering informational sessions to communicate key principles regarding the new structures.
- How can I see what the new structure will look like? Mercer is helping us create a job family webpage within the HR Compensation website. Communications via Purdue Today, Business@Purdue News and other newsletters will announce when the webpage is available.
- If I have any questions about this project, who can I direct those to? Questions can be forwarded to bpr@purdue.edu.
