Forming a Partnership with IT – Part Two

Earlier this week we were looking at how to form a partnership between HR and IT, and I wanted to share the story of one of our customers, Carhartt. This leading manufacturer of workwear is a great example how HR and IT can work together and the results they can achieve.

Carhartt, one of the world’s leading names in workwear, was founded in 1889 and is still managed today by descendants of the company’s founder. The company was relying on a paper-based appraisal system, which was frustrating for both HR and IT, while employees were completely disengaged from the performance review process.

Working together, IT and HR agreed they needed a better way to do things, and began to research options for moving to a standardized, automated process that would provide visibility and control. A key part of assessing solutions was the development of a list of requirements from both the HR and IT teams, as well as a feasibility study. Any solution that Carhartt selected needed to be able to deliver a high level of functionality, have a user friendly interface, all while putting the HR/IT teams in control and enabling them to quickly and easily create forms and change the workflow. The feasibility analysis examined a move to an automated solution on two levels, technical and economic, and clearly outlined the impact of this project on the IS team, as well as the expected ROI and cost savings of replacing the existing system.

Upon selecting and rolling out its new employee performance and talent management system, Carhartt has been able to increase the level of employee engagement, gain insight into the process, and achieve measurable cost and time savings. The ROI on the Halogen solution has been 120% for Carhartt, with a measurable annual cost savings across HR, IT and managers.

Additionally, IT and HR working together has ensured that the solution can be used with little support from the IT team as it has put HR in control of the system, managing forms and processes. For IT, very few help desk tickets are opened related to the maintenance or function of the system. As Katrina Agusti, Senior Analyst from the IT team at Carhartt said “Our group supports dozens of systems and this is one of the lowest maintenance systems we have.”

In forming a relationship between IT and HR, the most important thing is that everyone understands the benefits of moving to an online talent management system, and the organization’s requirements and/or limitations up front. By opening up a dialogue at the beginning, it will ease the process of identifying, selecting and ultimately maintaining a solution.