Overview
Ranked as a Top 150 Technology Company1, and one of the Top Ten Best Workplaces in Canada2, Geosoft Inc. has always been focused on properly developing and engaging their highly-skilled global workforce. By implementing CRG emPerform’s online employee performance management software, Geosoft was able to provide one consistent and practical platform to all global locations and employees. The new solution automated manual assessment processes, allowing them to transition smoothly to a job-specific competency assessment model, increasing the accuracy and fairness in employee reviews, and resulting in unprecedented performance reporting and status tracking.
About Geosoft
For more than 25 years, Geosoft has been focused on exploration and the earth sciences – delivering services and technology solutions across desktop, server and Internet platforms. With offices across five continents, and a network of international business partners, Geosoft serves thousands of organizations, including government geological surveys and agencies; educational institutions teaching the earth sciences; and the most successful oil and mineral explorers in the world.
Situation
In 2011, Geosoft decided that in order to better assess and develop their workforce, they would have to move from using broad level-based competency assessments to a more accurate job-specific functional competency model. The new performance management model would increase the accuracy of reviews and ensure that employees were evaluated on expectations geared to their unique roles. Using Word-based appraisal forms, Geosoft was limited with the number of unique forms that could be created and maintained. In order to implement their new competency-assessment model, they would have had to create and maintain over 80 unique forms, which would not have been realistic or feasible. They were also faced with many challenges relying on paper-based appraisal forms:
- Both managers and employees found the forms cumbersome and time-consuming to complete.
- Frequently changes were lost when the form was not saved correctly, and had to be redone.
- Due to the work involved in creating and maintaining forms, they were only able to tailor the form to three employee groups – Executive team members, managers and employees.
- Uploading the form to their HRIS was difficult for certain global offices with broadband issues.
- There was no way for HR to track the progress of a performance evaluation until it was submitted. Geosoft decided the time was right to find a solution that could support their talent management vision and provide their workforce with a modern, easy to use performance management platform.
The Selection Process
Geosoft began its search for a performance management vendor online and at the Annual HRPA Conference & Expo in Toronto, ON. “Our requirements were simple but definitive. We needed a provider with a cloud-based tool that would be simple to set up, easy for our people to understand and use, and would allow us to implement role-based competency appraisal forms and workflows and copy them forward from year to year,” said Angela Finlay, Director HR for Geosoft.
Geosoft narrowed its search to four vendors. “After a closer look at software providers, emPerform was clearly the only provider who met all of our needs. We also really liked the fact that emPerform is a fellow Canadian company with a heavy focus on providing highly personalized service and support. The last thing we wanted was a large vendor who wasn’t responsive.”
emPerform is a great system—very flexible and adaptable to our needs and their implementation and customer support team is excellent!
Results
Geosoft implemented emPerform in 2012 and since then has noticed several measurable benefits:
Easy Implementation: emPerform worked alongside Geosoft to understand the company’s exact needs and create a tailored training and implementation plan that would allow them to quickly realize success. “The implementation process was impressive – hands down the easiest implementation I’ve ever been involved in. Having emPerform come to our office to set up our system with us was great. An extremely simple and pain-free process.” Within a few days, Geosoft was able to create the electronic evaluation forms needed to assess the competencies specific to each employee’s role.
Global Access & Standardization: Geosoft’s new system provides consistent forms to all employees and online access to emPerform means that evaluations can be completed and submitted from anywhere without fear of losing data. “The global access issue for us has been solved completely and our 2012 performance evaluation process was extremely smooth.”
Improved Usability: As a high-tech solutions provider, Geosoft understands the need to provide employees with the right tools to help in their development. “Making things easier for employees was key. Reactions to emPerform at Geosoft have been extremely positive across the board. We solicit feedback from our employees regularly on this, and everyone agrees that emPerform is a huge improvement over our manual processes.”
Progress Reporting for HR and Senior Management: Using emPerform reporting, Geosoft is now able to track the status of reviews year-round and extract powerful metrics and trends from their evaluation data. “The ability to see and report on the various stages of individual performance evaluation completion is a key advantage of emPerform. In the past, we had zero visibility into evaluations until they were uploaded to our HRIS – there was no way for the HR team or senior management to know what stage the process was in. In addition, the ability for senior management to see evaluation results for their entire teams is extremely valuable – we have never had this level of insight into performance before.”
“As a software company, it’s important for us to empower our employees by using the latest performance management technology. Our employees expect us to provide them with processes which are efficient and easy to use and emPerform delivers just that.
– Angela Finlay, Director of HR