A change for the better

AIB managers can now give staff more regular feedback

Allied Irish Bank (AIB) is introducing a hosted performance management system to ensure that its staff are handled fairly and transparently - and that its managers have access to timely information.

The organisation, which operates in the Irish Republic, the UK, Northern Ireland, the US and Poland, employs more than 24,000 staff to provide customers with retail and commercial services. It also has a capital markets division based in Dublin.

AIB decided to automate its employee appraisal and feedback activities after introducing changes to the staffing structure of its retail business, including the development of new profiles for different job roles and putting a new career development framework in place.

Mary Fitzgerald-Horgan, AIB's group performance manager, says the organisation wanted to introduce more clarity around roles, accountabilities and objectives, so that each employee understood how their performance contributed to the company.

'But it was also about recognising individual contributions and supporting the development of a continual feedback culture to promote continuous improvement, rather than it just being a one-off process once a year,' she says.

Previously, performance reviews had been recorded in Microsoft Word documents, before the printed form was passed to the central human resources (HR) department for rekeying in and filing. The administration and extraction of management information was manual, however, and performed by a range of personnel from across the division.

The bank began phasing in the use of hosted applications from supplier SuccessFactors to the UK, Northern Ireland and some support functions in the Irish Republic at the start of the year.

'The biggest thing about a supporting system such as this is that everything will be automated, which frees people up to spend more time managing their staff,' says Fitzgerald-Horgan.

'We also had to wait until the end of the year for analysis of performance management processes, but this will now take place at the end of each quarter, which will allow line managers to give staff more regular feedback.'

The system is also being integrated with the firmís SAP HR package, which underpins activities such as payroll and recruitment, with the aim of informing decisions around performance-related pay increases.

The next step will be to introduce additional functionality to deal with staff competencies. The goal is to introduce a more planned approach to training as the system makes it easier to capture individual learning and development goals.

'Performance management is about ensuring people are managed fairly and transparently - this is giving managers extra support to do it and providing them with timely information on their desktop,' says Fitzgerald-Horgan.