Case Studies

The challenge

The AIB Group successfully manages financial capital. However the company has another form of capital it seeks to effectively manage. its human resource. The firm's annual salary review is one of the central functions of its HR department and getting it right every time is crucial.

Calculating the correct level of remuneration for each employee is a mammoth task and previously its salary review was based around a Lotus Notes system**. With a host of different job types to be assessed and a wide variety of performance management assessments involved, AIB Group decided that it needed to streamline its salary review system. "What we wanted was a standard tool that anyone in the organisation could use," explains Deborah Brady, project manager for the Salary Review Project.

Along with standardisation, the firm also had a number of additional requirements. "We needed to introduce an MIS [Management Information System] capability. We wanted the ability to produce statistics and analysis for managers at any given time," adds Brady. The second requirement was a letters capability, essentially the facility to provide each employee with a letter outlining the outcome of their annual salary review, with details on remuneration, bonuses and share options. Finally, AIB Group wanted to include a means of providing statements to senior employees. Statements provide more information than offered in the standard payslip. In addition to salary details, they outline benefits such as health insurance and educational support.

The solution

"We went to lots of different companies, even as far as the United States," explains Deborah Brady. "We couldn't find anyone who offered a solution that fit the requirement. When we then approached Strandum, we spent several lengthy sessions teasing through all that was needed. This involved not only discussing technical capabilities, but also the look and feel. In addition to this, we also had to outline what the new system shouldn't do. As a bank we have numerous security and regulatory requirements."

Strandum's previous experience with AIB Capital Markets meant that it already had a head start on developing what was needed. "We extensively modified the existing solution to cater for a dozen different times of review, while adding a browser based front end," says Brady. A client/server based solution was also installed to take care of maintenance of the back end of the system.

The benefits

When launched Brady explains they received tremendous feedback from users introduced the new solution. "It was intuitive and provided a very comprehensive amount of information without overloading the user," says Brady. For the first year ever, the firm could provide complete statements and issue letters after reviews. "We finally had one solution that catered for the full duration of the review. We had a greater degree of control since it gave us the ability to change reward parameters during the review process, without the need to call in the IT department for hard coding."

Moving the ownership of the system from IT to HR meant new cost savings in terms of manpower in addition to a lower level of revenue required to perform the process. As Deborah Brady sums up, "In terms of service, Strandum went far beyond any other supplier in the degree of support they offered. They gave us intelligent analysis which not only focussed on immediate requirements, but also looked ahead to potential issues in the future. This led to a secure, stable and superior solution."

Note **When the AIB Group recently implemented a new SAP HR System they asked Strandum to re-engineer their system to work seamlessly with this new backend. AIB Group was so happy with Strandum's solution that it was the one tool they did not want to lose in upgrading to SAP.