A Simpler Approach For Compliance
Compliance and Performance Management using the Success Factors Learning Module
When I joined SAP a year ago, I was ready to work hard.
So when I was asked to implement a new method for reliably and accurately recording compliance practices associated with the provincially legislated Accessibilities for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA), I was excited to take on such an enormous project. Compliance legislation is a notoriously complex and complicated area of Human Resources. As I began digging into the full depth of the requirements, I soon realized the project was going to be much larger than I expected, perhaps too much for one person to take on.
It was around that time I received my introductory training on SuccessFactors and realized how much simpler it could be.
For those who haven’t spent hours rifling through AODA and the subsequent enablement materials, let me give you a brief idea of the volume of requirements. There are two standards that each require the review and creation of training materials, policies, processes and plans. The first standard is primarily focused on how employers treat customers, and the second is about how employers treat employees. The training component is one of the most difficult challenges. It has to cover:
- Customer Service Standard
- Mandatory training for all customer-facing employees
- Reporting on all employees who have taken the training
- Training to be provided to all new employees
- Integrated Accessibility Standard
- Mandatory training for all employees in Ontario
- Reporting on all employees who have taken the training
- Training to be provided to all employees.
In Ontario, SAP has over 400 employees who could receive this training. Many already had taken it, but it was disjointed and hard to track. Potentially even more training should be delivered as we have multiple Ontario customer-facing employees globally. So where do we start?
For the first few weeks, I spent my time familiarizing myself with AODA and critically reviewing the material. In unrolling any training, there are several issues that come into play: adoption and delivery of the training, as well as ease of access to it. After reviewing the range of training available through SuccessFactors, I pitched the idea of using the Learning App to my manager. She approved and I was on my way.
Within a week, I had training material I could post onto SuccessFactors. When the full training is ready to be shared with employees, the launch will be as easy as clicking a few buttons. Employees will then be able to take the mandatory training assigned to them in the Learning Map. Managers gain greater visibility by being able to check on employees progress and see who has yet to complete the training. The HR team can check adoption rates for the methods used. Victory: training compliance achieved!
As my work on implementing AODA wraps up, I’ve ramped up my efforts on the Employee Relations practice area, and again the Learning App has been a useful tool for ensuring managers have trackable, defensible materials for performance management. As I discovered, compliance doesn’t just come into play in legislated training.
The Learning App allows managers to assign training opportunities to employees who require additional support in specific areas. Using the mandatory learning options tool, the date a manager assigned training to an employee can be pinpointed for easy follow-up. The manager reviews employee scores on consistent training, creating data that is more reliable. Documenting this kind of information is critical in the performance improvement process as it creates concrete documents to back up manager’s decisions regarding performance concerns. Using tools like this eases administrative frustrations and allow managers to focus on more important areas, such as employee development and coaching.
Innovation like this led to SAP receiving global recognition from the International Coaching Federation. Of 41 corporate applicants from around the world, SAP is one of only two companies selected for the 2015 ICF International Prism Award, which honors coaching programs that “fulfill rigorous professional standards, address key strategic goals, shape organizational culture, and yield discernible and measureable positive impacts.” SAP employees can be more successful in their performance management process because their managers spend less time documenting and more time coaching.
SuccessFactors has made implementing compliance measures substantially simpler. The consistent approach to compliance and security in documentation allows the team to be strategic in our outreach. It’s enabled HR and our managers to do more, be more effective and deliver better quality support to employees within SAP.
If your Human Resources department is expecting incoming issues in compliance and administering performance management, fortify with Success Factors
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Hi Andrea McVeigh,
Thanks for sharing this story on SCN! I'm dying to hear the ending. Can you share some of the end results once the project wraps up? Sounds like you have made a big impact in compliance measurement and overall for HR and SAP people managers.
Jeanne
Hi Jeanne
The sessions are loaded into Success Factors Learning! I'll let you know when we launch the training.
Thanks
Andrea