Insurer saves money with consolidated HR

Norwich Union integrates six systems and adds staff portal

Insurance firm Norwich Union has saved millions of pounds by consolidating its human resources (HR) IT systems and introducing employee self-service applications.

The insurer has integrated six different HR systems into one following a series of acquisitions.

The company has also saved more than £1.2m by introducing new applications to allow 20,000 staff in its insurance division to update personal information, bank details and holiday requests via a secure web portal.

‘We are all living in a self service world where people expect to interact and buy Norwich Union services online,’ said David Hope, HR director at Norwich Union Insurance. ‘So why should we not want our staff to serve themselves in their dealings with the HR department?’

The company has consolidated systems into its Oracle 11i HR database and now plans to extend the self-service function to contractors, outsourced and offshore staff by the end of August.

‘Contractors, particularly in the IT industry, are an important part of our business, so it raised the question of why we are we not capturing them,’ said Hope.

Some 92 per cent of Norwich Union staff are now using HR self-service systems to update their personal information.

The company wants to increase this number by adding applications that will attract employees to the portal.

Staff can already view their payslips online, and the company plans to make further cost savings by phasing out paper versions altogether.

‘We are progressively turning off paper payslips, and in May this year we will do it totally,’ said Hope.

‘It is a minor cost saving but a way to get employees to access the HR systems.’

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