Methodist Hospitals have selected Halogen Software to help boost employee engagement and improve the accountability and accuracy of its performance review process. Factors that contributed to the selection of Halogen eAppraisal(TM) Healthcare over other talent management solutions on the market include: its intuitive user experience, the flexibility of the solution to meet the hospitals’ unique business requirements and Halogen’s exceptional customer service.

Prior to implementing Halogen, the human resources team at Methodist Hospitals found many employees were disengaged from the performance management process; it wasn’t clear to them how performance was evaluated, or how training was assigned. Further, the healthcare organization was unable to easily identify training requirements based on identified areas during the performance appraisal process, or track completion rates. An internal group of clinical and non-clinical employees was tasked with finding a solution that would drive employee engagement in the performance review process. The team also mandated that the chosen solution provide a consistent employee experience and clearly tie development plans to performance gaps and training requirements.

“In the minds of our internal study group, Halogen stood head and shoulders above the competition,” said Ed Klein, Director of Compensation, Benefits and HRIS. “We wanted to increase employee engagement in our performance appraisal process, and so the experience Halogen eAppraisal Healthcare offered for all users – managers, raters and employees – was a critical factor in our decision to go with Halogen.”

For employees, the move to Halogen eAppraisal Healthcare is providing transparency and consistency to the performance review process.

“Managers are telling us the experience is intuitive, and are saying things like ‘the information is right at my fingertips’, and ‘I can see information about my employees that I’ve never been able to see before,” said Klein. “This level of insight will be helpful in fuelling performance conversations; employees can better see that ratings are fair and equitable, and that their performance information is gathered in a secure consistent way – it will drive up engagement dramatically.”

The development planning gap is closing. The hospitals’ training departments have visibility they lacked with the previous paper-based system. They can see what individual employees feel they need in terms of training, as well as what managers and other raters have identified as areas for development.

For Klein, the flexibility of Halogen’s talent management suite means the software will grow with the needs of the healthcare organization, allowing the HR team to take full control of its talent management processes without having to rely on Halogen or internal IT teams to do the work.

“With other vendors you’d need to hire a programmer to do the customization and configurability that Halogen provides. With Halogen, the user interface is so flexible that we can do it ourselves.”

Methodist Hospitals is also implementing Halogen Job Description Builder(TM) to link job-specific competencies to performance expectations. Plans to roll-out Halogen e360 Multirater(TM) and annual clinical competency assessment to select departments will follow.

Source:http://www.marketwatch.com/story/halogen-software-fuels-performance-conversations-for-methodist-hospitals-2011-09-27