Company size:	9,000 employees in 45 states
Number of Managers:	500
Product:	Performance Now
Project Leader:	Joe Denny, Vice President Education/Training/Organizational Development

Situation:

Insignia Management Group, an industrial space leasing company, was experiencing rapid growth through acquisition. As they grew, Insignia's Human Resources Department soon found they were acquiring companies with no formal performance review process and no documented record of employee performance.

Extending a comprehensive performance review program to these newly acquired units was a high priority for two reasons: 1) Insignia is committed to developing employee performance through regular performance feedback, and 2) due to the employee attrition that often accompanies acquisition, employees with undocumented performance left Insignia legally vulnerable.

Insignia's existing performance review method utilized a paper form that was complex, rigid and time-consuming to complete. And like many organizations, Insignia's managers weren't always effective at documenting performance and clearly communicating performance issues.

The inefficiencies of the traditional performance review process can drain productivity from the most stable organizations. Fast-growing Insignia needed an efficient way to get 5000 employees up-to-speed with a consistent performance review program without losing their focus and compromising their competitive edge. Insignia chose a software-aided performance review system from KnowledgePoint called Performance Now.

Already a user of KnowledgePoint products, Ken Miller (Information Tech Group) identified that Performance Now, with its step-by-step method of coaching supervisors through the process, giving regular feedback and producing a clear assessment of performance could be invaluable to Insignia. He presented the software to Joe Denny, Vice President of Education/Training/Organizational Development, who was equally impressed.

Rolling Out Performance Now

Insignia began by testing Performance Now with 25 managers. After a successful test, the Human Resource Department rolled Performance Now out to all of its 500 managers. Although KnowledgePoint provides a full-range of support services, including training, Insignia found that the program was so straightforward, they could use in-house resources to train managers and launch the project.

Joe Denny designed a course that included an overview of the employee review process - its advantages, why people resist reviews, legal aspects, how to conduct the interview - as well as training on using Performance Now software. Because Performance Now provides managers with online HR advice and expertise, the training is reinforced every time managers conduct reviews. "Managers love how easy it is to use," said Denny. "When they see the text generated as they select ratings, it's impressive."

Performance Now Results

By providing their managers with an easy-to-use tool and "just-in-time" training, Insignia saw a striking effect on their performance review process. "We were surprised to find how useful Performance Now was in building trust and respect," says Joe Denny. "It increases the professionalism of the employee review process. Unlike a traditional written review where 'that's that,' employees see their comments can be added into the review. It can really be a collaborative effort."

Denny was particularly impressed with how Performance Now helped managers properly document performance and create more comprehensive reviews. "The Employee Log helped us document problems with poor performance. In addition, managers can note strong employee performance or outstanding feats and use these notes in the review. Because of this, the Employee Log makes the performance appraisal much more effective."

Denny also notes that Performance Now has improved communication. "In the past, we tried to encourage managers to be consistent from employee to employee: some did, some didn't. Performance Now has increased consistency and improved our managers' dialogue with their employees."

Performance Now! allowed Insignia to meet its goal of extending performance reviews to newly acquired units, and it greatly improved their existing review program in the process. The professionalism of their managers has improved, the quality and timeliness of employee feedback has increased, and the review process is more consistent across this widely distributed organization.

By breaking free of convention, Insignia Management has saved time and money. But more importantly, they've made a positive impact on the overall effectiveness of their organization.