When Training Isn't the Answer
Developing Performance-based Job Aids for PeopleSoft Implementation

© 2001, CEP

Training is all too often viewed as the only recourse for performance issues. Are people not meeting expectations? Is there something they don't know how to do? Then send them to training! But as the following case study suggests, there are times when training may not be the most effective performance intervention.

As the results of a merger, a leading telecommunications provider found itself operating eight disparate payroll systems. In an effort to eliminate system redundancies, the company decided to implement PeopleSoft HRMS 8.1, a human resources management application, on an enterprise-wide basis. The goals for the project were to:

• Enable the company to establish a single suite of mechanized systems that would offer fully integrated and enterprise-wide HR, time reporting, and payroll services

• Standardize technology and business processes across divisions

• Improve current business processes

• Ensure a smooth transition to the new system

• Empower employees to directly access and manage their own personnel and payroll data

• Reduce overall operating expenses

Performance Challenges Faced

The logistics of implementing any system on an enterprise-wide basis can be daunting. In this case, some of the challenges included:

• Over 30,000 employees across a widespread geographic area would require some form of support: The primary end users of the new system would consist of over 11,000 managers and supervisors, as well as regional HR managers. Yet at the same time, all of the company's employees would need a basic understanding of the new system to enable them to conduct such functions as changing personal information and tracking hours worked.

• Management would be taking on additional administrative responsibilities previously handled by HR: Managers and supervisors would be required to learn new business processes and tasks, and would have ultimate responsibility for ensuring that all HR tasks, including those entered by their direct reports, were input correctly and on a timely basis. 

• Performance support had to be immediate: Senior management wanted the core business functionality implemented as quickly as possible; therefore, the performance solution had to be designed and developed quickly, and made immediately available to system users.

The Solution

Rather than focusing solely on the functionality of the PeopleSoft system, CEP worked with business and technical subject matter experts to determine:

• What types of jobs and job tasks would users need to perform on the system?

• In what instances would users perform these tasks?

• What would be the outcomes of these tasks?

• How well would users need to perform each task?

• How important would these tasks be to the users' jobs?

• How difficult would it be for typical users to perform each task?

• How often would typical users have to perform each task?

• What would be the consequences if users didn't perform these tasks in PeopleSoft?

CEP consultants identified approximately 30 separate job tasks that users would need to perform on the system, everything from tracking hours worked to approving salary changes to terminating employees. They recommended the development of online performance supports (job aids) as the most cost-effective and efficient solution. The benefits of this solution included:

• Flexibility - The job aids could serve as a learning tool and provide ongoing support for users

• Time savings - Users would not have to be pulled away from their jobs to attend training, nor would they have to spend valuable time searching for instructions

• Cost savings - No travel would be required either for employees to attend training or for instructors to visit regional sites

The performance-based job aids were designed to easily provide users with whatever level of support they required, from a high-level overview of each task to a step-by-step breakdown of how each task should be performed. Each of the job aids also included an explanation of the company's HR business rules, including explanations of why the tasks needed to be performed and the implications for not performing tasks in the right way. For example, what are the implications of giving an employee a 5 percent salary increase versus a 15 percent increase? What happens to an employee's paycheck if the hours worked aren't properly tracked? This information was deemed critical to help ensure that all employees understood the importance of entering data correctly.

In anticipation of the company's enterprise-wide rollout of the new system in November 2001, the job aids underwent a tryout by segments of the target population. Feedback from the tryouts has proven extremely positive.

To familiarize people with the job aids and the new PeopleSoft system prior to the software's release, the company is in the process of requiring that all employees preview the job aids. To accomplish this, the job aids - which were developed in XML - are being added to the company's learning management system. Employee time on the system will be tracked.