Creating a people portal
| Pages | 4-4 |
| Published date | 01 January 2005 |
| Date | 01 January 2005 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/14754390580000582 |
| Subject Matter | HR & organizational behaviour |
4Volume 4 Issue 2 January/February 2005
e-HR
,
How technology is changing the way HR works
Creating a people portal
A
ll large organizations
accumulate masses of data – and
AstraZeneca’s UK Marketing
Company (UKMC) is one of a number of
companies aiming to turn its people
data into meaningful insight. The
pharmaceutical company’s people
portal, now in the second phase of
implementation, provides line managers
with performance metrics and
personnel data on employees.
The portal, designed by specialist IT
consultancy Detica, is a key part of
UKMC’s HR transformation program and
aims to deliver the right blend of HR
capability – strategic, operational and
transactional. “Any good HR is based on
having the right information on your
people,” says Mark Burton, the
company’s head of HR excellence. “We
had 78 different sources of data – people
information had become divorced from
the operational running of the business.”
Maximizing sales effectiveness
The UKMC HR transformation program
ran in parallel with a sales force
effectiveness program with three areas
of focus: quality, quantity and attitude.
“We wanted to really drive those three
metrics,” explains Burton. “For example,
in terms of quantity we aim for 190 days
of in-field sales per year. This is a tough
target and we needed to have robust,
accessible information to help us
achieve it. We needed to pull together
data from all our different sources and
present them to business leaders in an
easily understandable manner.”
Getting buy-in
Working with Detica, UKMC involved key
personnel at all levels, from area sales
managers to the sales director, in the
design phase so they would understand
and benefit from the portal. Focus was
also placed on consistent communication
on the project to ensure buy-in to its
implementation.
When the portal was launched in
early 2004, UKMC ran 25 regional
training sessions. These focused not just
on the portal’s technical aspects, but on
the supporting HR processes. “For
example, we wanted attendance to be
an issue owned and managed by the
line,” says Burton. “But, we didn’t just
show managers how to view employee
attendance data, we also trained them
on the underpinning HR processes that
support that issue.”
Making metrics visible
The portal gives managers at UKMC a
view of key metrics associated with
their teams, linked to a single view of
an employee’s personnel information.
The phase one implementation also
includes a tool to administer staff role
changes, ensuring the right people with
the right specialist skills are matched to
customers’ needs. The portal helps to
measure and capture employee
performance and capabilities against
roles at mid-year and end-of-year
reviews. HR can now drive compliance
to that process and ensure that reviews
are of a sufficient quality and capture
performance, potential and aspirations.
The second phase of the project is due
for completion in December 2004 and
expands the portal in two main areas.
First, it will bring salary and related
information into the “single view” of the
employee, including a tool to track
changes. Second, it will provide a training
record for each employee, including
relevant training courses attended as well
as qualifications and experience.
Ownership and usability
Line managers at UKMC can now access
a richness of information on their people
that they didn’t previously have, giving
them ownership of their employees’
performance. By driving responsibility
for people performance out to the line,
HR has delivered considerable value to
the organization by reducing
administrative and headcount costs. It’s
also enabled a degree of compliance to
basic HR processes.
One of the key success factors is that
the portal is easy to use, says Burton.
“Our solution is intuitive and easy to use.
It hides complexity from the user. Any
organization that wants to make better
use of its data and empower people
without overcomplicating their day-to-
day jobs could take advantage of this
type of program.”
Zak Doffman, head of life sciences at
Detica, concludes “More and more
companies are now looking at self-serve
employee portals, both to enhance
service levels and to make better use of
their disparate sources of people
related data. AstraZeneca’s UKMC
people portal is a great example of the
potential benefits available.”
AstraZeneca is one of the world’s leading
pharmaceutical companies. It was formed
in 1999 through the merger of Astra AB
and Zeneca Group plc. It employs 60,000
people worldwide and achieved sales of
US$18.8 billion in 2003.
ASTRAZENECA
© Melcrum Publishing Ltd. 2005. For more information, go to www.melcrum.com or e-mail info@melcrum.com
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