Market-leading online advertising company PointRoll is using Halogen eAppraisal™ to:
- Provide employees with clear feedback on their performance in a format they can digest and act upon;
- Keep investment in its people at the forefront, even during the busiest business cycles, and;
- Provide HR with an infrastructure that frees it up to focus on strategies for future growth.
Background
PointRoll, a wholly owned subsidiary of Gannett Co., Inc. (NYSE: GCI), enables advertisers, agencies and publishers to create engaging advertising that connects with consumers by creating an interactive online environment that generates conversion. The company powers more than 60% of all rich media campaigns online, working with over half of the companies on the Fortune 500.
PointRoll is a fast-paced, high-energy organization with explosive growth potential: in just over a year it has grown from 100 employees to 260. It expects to add another 100 in the coming year, in numerous offices across North America and abroad.
Challenge
Until recently, PointRoll had very few documented HR policies and procedures in place, and was using an informal home-grown system for performance appraisals. The company recognized the importance of investing in talent management to groom its top performers and maintain the pace of business it was experiencing.
“We wanted to implement an employee performance and talent management program that would match the progressive nature and technology savvy of our organization,” said Brian Spence, Director of Human Resources, PointRoll. “We also wanted a system that was simple but could expand with us. It was important that the solution be scalable – we need our infrastructure to grow with us.”
The average age of a PointRoll employee is 32; with recent college graduates becoming the fastest growing portion of the company’s staffing increase. For many who are part of the Millennial generation, their position at PointRoll marks their first career job, and having clear feedback on their performance, as well as specific goals to work towards, is key to job satisfaction. “The online advertising environment is fast-paced, deadline intensive, and ever changing. We needed an appraisal solution that would make the review process much less cumbersome – to make it bite-size for our employees, easy and manageable.”
Solution
Spence was aware of Halogen Software from some previous research. “After seeing a demonstration, I immediately thought Halogen’s eAppraisal was a necessity for any HR professional,” said Spence. “I couldn’t – and still can’t – imagine another system out there that actually makes the appraisal process so easy to administer. It removes layers of work from the traditional way of doing appraisals. Once I set up an appraisal process, the system practically runs on its own.”
Spence’s entire team agreed that Halogen was the best solution for PointRoll. The performance journals allow managers and employees to record important performance milestones and providing a basis for ongoing feedback. And since the company selected Halogen eAppraisal and e360 Multirater, they were able to have peer, direct report and managerial input into any employees review process, also addressing the company’s needs for assessing performance more broadly. The selection took place in summer 2007 and the company is now in the midst of its second annual appraisal process.
Benefits
PointRoll employees have responded very positively to the new appraisal process. “Halogen’s solution helps to close the communication gap. It provides great insight to access everyone’s information easily, and the self-appraisal tool enables staff to feel they have input into their reviews,” said Spence. “Because it’s so automated, the Halogen system helps us to focus on our people, despite the high level of activity that’s going on here. It helps keep our investment in our people at the forefront even when we’re swamped with projects.”
From an HR perspective, Halogen has enabled Spence to step aside from tactical activities and focus on strategic projects that will help the company as it grows. “Halogen eAppraisal has freed up my time to focus on the demands of a growing company,” he said. ‘We have constant deadlines and an ever-changing market and technology that we have to stay on top of.”
Next Steps
PointRoll is currently expanding its uses of Halogen technology. It is now looking at including goal management into the program so that each employee can see how their individual performance goals align and support the organization's strategy. "One of our own biggest challenges is that while we have established strategic goals at a senior level, there is a disconnect between how those are communicated, and the retention of that knowledge, throughout the whole of the team," said Spence. "We are now looking at how we can use Halogen to tie personal and team goals to our strategic company goals via the on-target goal management capability in eAppraisal."
There are additional benefits. Since the company opted for the Halogen hosted model, PointRoll's IT team is able to focus its time on the company's customer-facing initiatives. Spence also finds the Halogen solution flexible and able to grow with him as his needs change and expand. "From the time we only had 100 employees, PointRoll has invested in its employees as the larger company we plan on becoming. Halogen is an important part of that investment as we utilize their expertise to develop our employees."
