City saves time, improves employee engagement with new appraisal system

Last year, Henderson, Nev., managers recognized that they needed to modernize their approach to talent management to help develop leaders throughout the city and save time. The existing paper-based employee appraisal process was becoming resource-intensive and hard to track. City managers looked for an electronic system that would be flexible and easy for all city departments to use, as well as increase employee engagement and improve the efficiency of key service departments.

After investigating several options, the city purchased an online performance and talent management system from Ottawa, Ontario-based Halogen Software. The city began rolling out the system with two front-line departments: fire and police services. Because both departments are unionized, the human resources (HR) team worked with fire and police unions to secure their approval and support for the new system before introducing it to employees.

First, Henderson Fire Department administrators were trained on the system and worked with the HR team to develop appraisal forms for the key competencies required by firefighters. Then, fire employees were trained on the system and taught about the new performance review process. After three months, the fire department began using the system. Next, those same steps were followed for the police department, and within six months, police were using the system. Everyone was trained to use tools such as development plans and performance journals to make performance discussions more meaningful.

Firefighters, police officers, managers and the unions now have greater visibility of the appraisal process, and performance gaps can be clearly documented and addressed. As a result, performance discussions and appraisals are more consistent. Appraisal forms are only open to be completed during an appraisal process, but completed appraisals can be viewed online at anytime.

The city sends data from its HR management software, PeopleSoft, to the Halogen system nightly to update information such as reporting relationships and appraisal schedules. When funds are available, the city plans to automate the process of sending completed appraisal reports from Halogen to PeopleSoft. Now, Henderson is rolling out the new performance appraisal system for all non-public safety/non-represented employees.