Cummins Mid-South is a division of Cummins, a rapidly growing leader in diesel engine and generator sales and service. The organization is powering the growth and development of its people using Halogen's talent management suite. The suite is helping the organization’s human resources team to:
- Unify and streamline its talent management processes across all locations;
- Instill pay for performance by linking appraisal results with compensation adjustments;
- Strategically identify talent gaps and easily recognize high-performing employees; and
- Improve the effectiveness of training and development plans within the organization.
Cummins Mid-South — Using Strategic Talent Management as the Engine for On-Going Success
Headquartered in Memphis, TN, Cummins Mid-South L.L.C. is the exclusive distributor of Cummins and Cummins Onan diesel products in eight different states. The organization has 14 locations and 550 dedicated associates throughout its territory to provide timely customer service. The company is committed to enabling its customers to maximize the uptime and profitability of their Cummins-powered equipment.
Growing HR’s Strategic Role: Taking Control of Employee Performance Management, Succession Planning and Compensation Management
With multiple locations across six states, Cummins Mid-South struggled right from the start with finding the best way to streamline and unify its talent management initiatives. This issue became more pressing as the company more than doubled in size in just a couple of years, from about 200 employees to over 500 after the acquisition of several other distributors.
As a result of this growth and the challenges that accompanied it, the company's manual talent management processes for assessing performance, making compensation adjustments and planning for succession just weren't meeting its needs. It was difficult, if not impossible, to directly link performance scores and compensation, and there was little thought given to the possible talent gaps in the organization; no one was being identified or prepared to succeed at the organization’s most senior levels. Michael DeVries, Vice President of HR with Cummins Mid-South was brought on board and charged with sourcing a new talent management system that would meet the organization’s growing needs.
DeVries led the search for a new talent management system with the backing of senior executives who understood the importance of employee performance management and the tight link to succession and compensation planning. “Our rapid growth compelled us to reform our outdated HR processes very quickly. In the beginning we did not even have an HRIS system, said DeVries. “Our executive group has been extremely supportive. They understand that because of the rapid change we couldn’t run HR the way we had in the past and still be competitive.
Implementing an automated talent management system was also meant to free up time for HR so that they could focus more on people strategy, and less on administration. In particular, the HR team needed more time to dedicate to training, ensuring their managers embraced performance management as a year-round process rather than a once a year chore.
Peers Rev Up Enthusiasm about Halogen
There are 16 different distributors in the Cummins network; each run as its own separate business entity linked to the Cummins parent company. Representatives from each of the organizations come together periodically to share insights and resources. During these networking meetings, DeVries asked other HR professionals how they were tackling the challenge of talent management. One of them, Cummins Rocky Mountain, had just implemented Halogen’s talent management solution and was really pleased with both the product and the service they received.
Based on their recommendation, Cummins Mid-South looked into solutions from Halogen Software as well as several other vendors including Taleo and SuccessFactors. In reviewing responses to an RFP, the organization quickly identified Halogen as the best available value, providing Cummins Mid-South with the enterprise-class functionality they needed to address both their current and future needs.
Devries and the organization determined that the Halogen talent management suite, including eAppraisal, eCompensation and eSuccession, met all of their predefined critical criteria. Chief among these was the use of a web-based portal, to eliminate paper and allow central administration of the system. They also wanted detailed reporting, so that HR could readily and easily see how people scored and who their high performers were.
Getting the Team on Board and Reaping the Benefits
The full benefits of the Halogen solution could not be fully realized without employee buy-in and engagement with the system.
After a smooth three-month implementation, employees and managers were already responding very positively to Halogen eAppraisal. Managers reported that not only could they complete evaluations more easily than ever before; they were delivering higher quality appraisals.
"This higher quality has everything to do with the tools they now have to make the process easier. With more information like self-appraisals and past reviews at the managers’ fingertips, and writing aids like language checkers and comment helpers, the process is quicker and the results more meaningful, said DeVries.
The Cummins Mid-South team sees its new talent management system as a tool that positively impacts its operations by improving overall employee performance. “If a manager completes an effective evaluation showing where an employee needs to improve and what that employee does well — the employee can then share these high-performance skills with other employees, said DeVries. “If I can identify and harness these skills, I have just improved the training capacity of my organization. Plus if I can get that associate to rise above our standards in other areas, then I have improved our business.
Another big plus for Cummins Mid-South is the ability to improve employee performance by tying development to performance. Succeeding as a business is dependent on many different positions and skill sets. Managers can now assign better individual development plans based on the unique skills requirements of the various positions. These improved development plans address the specific skill gaps identified in each employee's appraisal and boost performance at every level.
A Holistic Performance-Based Approach to Talent Management for Company Wide Benefits
To ensure a holistic, performance-based approach to talent management, DeVries has also implemented Halogen eCompensation and Halogen eSuccession to automate their compensation and succession planning processes. Implementing the additional modules was as straightforward and seamless as eAppraisal.
Halogen eCompensation has removed the administrative burden of allocating accurate merit-pay increases, because compensation adjustments are based on the data from the performance evaluation process. "We don’t have to make calculations ourselves based on scores. It is amazing how well it works, said DeVries.
Increases are aligned with budgets from the start, without HR needing to tweak them. Halogen eCompensation takes any debate out of the process. It also saves the managers frustration as they do not have to juggle figures to make their budget work — the system does that for them. Says Devries, “It helps managers see any disparities when assigning pay increases to those within a certain appraisal score range and it helps managers stick to our budgets. It is amazing.
Although Cummins-Midsouth has just recently begun using eSuccession, the adoption of this important talent management module is showing early success as well. The organization has created talent pools that are tied to industry recognized best practices, and that are connected directly to the performance management process.
Devries recognizes that effective succession planning is important to the future of the organization. “Using eSuccession and having this process in place lets our high performers know that we acknowledge their potential and want to develop and elevate them to higher positions, said DeVries. “This succession process also clarifies the actions that are required to best develop this talent.
Halogen eSuccession also enables the organization to identify its talent gaps. The solution shows Cummins Mid-South who it needs to recruit or develop at specific levels. If there isn't an identified candidate prepared to step into a particular senior position, the organization must decide if it is going to hire from outside or start identifying and developing potential candidates from within the company.
Greater Talent Management Resources for Future Growth and Success
“The Halogen solution has provided managers and employees with great resources for completing appraisals, making it valuable to both the organization and the individual, said DeVries. “In addition, using Halogen for each of our core talent management needs — performance, compensation and succession — makes it possible to get a clear picture of where we stand as an organization in terms of our talent.
DeVries is also thrilled that he is now better able to focus his time on higher level activities, rather than shuffling paper and tracking down documents. The new system has enabled the HR group to use its time to train managers in best practices for managing performance and properly completing appraisals. While saving time for HR is important, DeVries and the team are most excited with the "human capital" return on their Halogen investment - ensuring that employees are better trained, have greater skill sets and are better positioned to contribute to the growth and success of the organization.
