Hargray Creates Cutting Edge Performance and Onboarding Experiences with SilkRoad

SilkRoad and CompensationXL Results

• Employee onboarding savings—81 days, $15,000
• Performance/compensation savings—160 hours and $7,500
• Stand-out onboarding experience
• Flexible performance process
• Easier analytics—compensation, talent, goals
• Speed and insight of automated succession planning

Human Resources Challenges Solved

• Time intensive onboarding process
• Inflexible performance management
• No global view of talent and succession planning
• Manual employee compensation management
• Analytics difficult to assemble

Starting Point—One Size Does Not Fit All

Goodbye traditional approaches. For Hargray, a leading telecommunications company, a cutting edge approach to its people strategy was the best path to their company goal of world-class service.

“We realized that one size doesn’t fit everyone,” said Carrie Barth, director of Human Resources, Hargray Communication. “We needed flexibility and an employee experience that sets us apart. And a picture of how everything ties up became a pressing need.”

To get there, Hargray selected SilkRoad Performance, SilkRoad Onboarding and SilkRoad partner CompensationXL.

“These solutions made us a front runner in three ways,” said Barth. “First, a stand-out onboarding experience. Second, adding some flexibility in an otherwise bureaucratic performance process. Finally, leveraging compensation analytics never available to us in the past.”

Performance and Succession Planning Go Flexible

SilkRoad Performance offered the flexibility that Hargray needed to inject new life into its performance management program. “We can now customize performance evaluations by individual managers and build different formats,” said Barth. “The managers can set up different frequencies for performance check-ins and goals can vary by employee.”

Both managers and the HR team find the system easy to use, whether it’s finding quick answers to questions or rolling up goals. “We now have a picture of how everyone ties back into the goals we set as a company,” said Barth.

Hargray also automated succession planning with SilkRoad Performance, uncovering a new global perspective on organization talent. By mapping out full information on employee skills, managers and the HR team can now easily identify internal candidates for open positions. “It’s pretty cool that you can put succession planning online and easily view that information in one spot for an immediate need or long-term planning,” said Barth.

Employee Onboarding that Stands Out

Two key needs drove Hargray’s hunt for an employee onboarding solution: the volume of tasks to manage and a standout experience.

SilkRoad Onboarding simplified managing all the tasks behind onboarding a new hire. With the flexibility of multiple, customizable task lists, the HR team created separate new hire checklists for both regular and sales employees. “It was a tremendous time saver and reduced our paperwork. We project a savings of 81 days and $15,000 in the first year,” said Barth.

To increase the wow factor for new hires, Hargray connects new employees to an onboarding portal once an offer is accepted. Barth describes this portal creation as needing full attention and planning time, but that the reaction from new hires is worth it. “New hires really like getting a preview of the company and seeing that everything is ready for their arrival,” said Barth.

CompensationXL Solves Painful Process

Hargray also discovered CompensationXL while exploring SilkRoad Performance and Onboarding. “We have used a spreadsheet system for the past 6 years. It was extremely tedious and time consuming, especially the set-up time,” said Barth.

CompensationXL, with its easy-to-use structure, housed all their employee compensation information through uploads and downloads of existing spreadsheets. “We didn’t need to change our existing process, which was really important to us,” said Barth. “Changes can be made instantly. It’s a lifesaver for managing a very demanding process.”

The solution opened up a new world of reporting not previously available, such as looking at individual employee history. It also helped Hargray make a strategic decision about compensation planning. “After running a report in CompensationXL to compare our compensation against market data, we discovered that we were competitive and did not need to adjust our strategy,” said Barth.

Automated enforcement also makes it easy for the HR team to quickly analyze if managers are working within the range of the company compensation philosophy, saving valuable time over the old manual process.

Cutting Edge Results

Barth estimates a savings of 81 days and $15,000 in onboarding and 160 hours and $7,500 across performance and compensation, but the additional benefit was a fresh approach.