HR in the Fast Lane at Progressive Insurance

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HR in the Fast Lane at Progressive Insurance
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About Progressive

• Fourth largest writer of private passenger auto
  insurance in the US
• Approximately 20,000 employees
• First auto insurer to sell insurance via the
  Internet
• Progressive leads the industry with innovative
  Internet offerings

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Presentation Overview

• Where We Are
• How We Got Here
• Where Were Headed
• Questions and Answers

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Where We Are
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Current Environment

• Centralized call centers, field claims offices
• Applications accessed via LAN, WAN, and dial-up
  connections
• Robust corporate intranet
• Centralized HR call support in the HR Service
  Center (HRSC)
• In production with PeopleSoft HRMS 7.51

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HR Self Service at Progressive

• HR self service intranet site includes
• Printable HR forms
• Links to HR content sites (compensation, travel
  services, policy manual)
• Transactional applications
• Life event and manager checklists
• Most transactions must be done through self
  service

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Manager Self Service Applications

• Job Requisitions
• Manage Candidates/New Hire
• Employee Requests
• Terminate Employees
• Employee Bonuses
• Salary/Job Changes
• Group Increases

• Performance Reviews
• Supervisor Changes
• Training Registration
• Skills Tracking
• Drill Down
• Delegation
• Manager Checklists

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Manager Self Service Site
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Terminate Employment
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Terminate Employment
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Termination Checklist
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Employee Self Service Applications

• Job Opportunity List
• Transfer Requests
• Work Experience
• Education and Background
• Internal Resume
• Employment Application
• Online Paycheck

• Personal Data/ Emergency Contact
• Federal W4
• Direct Deposit
• New Hire Orientation
• Benefits Enrollment
• Training Registration
• Life Event Changes

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Job Opportunity Listing
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Apply for Jobs
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Internal Resume
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Self Service Usage
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How We Got Here
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HR Strategic Direction

• Support growth
• Simplify HR processes
• Y2k compliance
• Intranet based self service
• Reduce transaction costs
• Reduce calls to HRSC
• Eliminate paper

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Progressive HR Systems

• Mainframe based self service
• Benefits Enrollment Training Registration -
  Early 1990s
• Time entry - 1996
• Lotus Notes based salary changes - 1996
• HRSC created in 1996
• Converted from legacy HR/Payroll system to
  PeopleSoft HRMS in 1998

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Business Case for Self Service

• Identified the following benefits
• Reduction in mainframe support costs
• Reduction in advertising expense, agency fees
• Reduction in mailing costs, overpayments
• Reduction in cycle time
• Savings in recruiter, HRSC, training
  administrator, manager, and employee time

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Business Case for Self Service

• Identified the following costs
• Hardware
• Software
• Licensing
• Programming
• Ongoing support

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Application Definition

• Researched HR best practices
• Consulted internally with all areas of HR
• Identified 40 applications and analyzed
  importance and complexity
• Started small to minimize risk and cost
• Also reviewed business needs and ROI to determine
  deployment schedule

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Team Structure

• Started with small dedicated project team
• Functional project manager and I/T technical
  manager
• Two functional and three technical resources
• Increased size of team in 2000
• Multiple areas participate in production
• Used consulting when appropriate

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Tools Selection

• Factors considered
• Company standards
• Ongoing support
• Upgrades
• Cost
• Development tools include HTML, PeopleTools Web
  Client and Message Agent and Microsoft Active
  Server Pages

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Development Challenges

• Newness of technology made estimating work
  difficult
• Network performance/bandwidth
• Applications must work with various hardware and
  software
• Display resolution settings

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Development Strategy

• Iterative development process most effective
• Creation of prototypes and usability testing
  critical
• Considered the following for all changes
• Usability
• Performance
• Cost/benefit of modifications

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Usability Testing

• Critical step in designing applications for
  casual users
• Users walk through scenarios and observers
  record/analyze their experiences
• Consistent test results
• Site organization very important
• Users often ignore instructions
• Simple labeling most effective

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Deployment Strategy

• Rollout organization in phases
• Begin with pilots
• Minimize performance hit
• Pull back if necessary
• Support multiple processes
• Allow infrastructure to catch up
• Minimize negative impact
• HR role in communication/training

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Rollout Schedule

• April, 1999 - Initial ESS and MSS
• April, 1999 - PeopleSoft upgrade
• April, 2000 - Internal Recruiting
• September, 2000 - External Recruiting, New Hire
  and Terminations
• November, 2000 - New Hire Benefits, Annual
  Enrollment and Training Registration
• September, 2001 - On Line Pay Advices
• December, 2001 - Group Salary Increases

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Return on Investment

• Total projected five year return at net present
  value is 5.6 million
• Initial applications projected to reduce
  transactions costs from 14.23 to 6.23
• Changes in hire process are expected to yield
  savings of 75 per hire
• Processors in the HRSC reduced by 65 despite 60
  growth in headcount

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Keys to Success

• Management support
• Minimizing development costs
• Flexibility, iterative development process and
  usability testing
• Building the necessary infrastructure
• Streamlining processes

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Ongoing Challenges

• Measurement of results
• User reactions are often subjective
• New technology is always more attractive
• Continued support of new processes
• Changes in functionality visible to entire
  organization

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Where Were Headed
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Upgrade

• Conducted comprehensive functional fit/gap
  analysis for self service applications in 2001
• Decision was made to wait for next release
• Functional fit/gap results
• Much of ESS functionality is delivered
• Most of MSS functionality is not delivered
• Recruiting functionality is increased but
  business processes are significantly different

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Upgrade Strategy

• Committed to use delivered self-service where
  possible
• I/T currently estimating hours to reapply
  customizations
• Effort will be significant
• Degree of fit determines upgrade approach
• Where fit is high, apply customizations to base
  pages
• Where fit is low, maintain custom pages

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Key Learnings

• HRMS software changes impact self-service
  regardless of tool
• Self service processes are still new and not
  clearly defined
• Manager functions are more specific to each
  company/industry
• Custom development of self service may require
  maintaining customizations

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Upcoming Projects

• PeopleSoft upgrade
• Intranet based time entry and management
• Web Reporting for Managers
• Personalized content integrated with transactions
• Deploy HR self service over the Internet

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Questions and Answers