HR Tech Advisor Success Profile

Learn how the Jefferson HRIT team consolidated their HR Service Delivery by integrating PeopleSoft HRMS with best of breed Oracle and 3rd Party HR Technology modules.

Q: What is your overall HR Tech strategy?

Wherever possible, we use our core HRMS (PeopleSoft) and related tools, however, when there is a gap we go out to the market to find a solution. These third party tools have to be  pre-integrated with PeopleSoft or we won’t consider them.

Q: On what sort of HR Technologies have you been working?

When I joined Jefferson 1.5 years ago, we were behind the curve in technology. We were on an old version of PeopleSoft, we had a lot of paper based processes and were not leveraging tech at all. My mission, and the reason they hired me, was to bring Jefferson’s HRIT up to the best in class standards. The real transformation started when we implemented an HR Shared Service Center. HR tech projects that spun out of that have included: setting up an online life events portal, a new hire benefit enrollment system, a rewards and recognition solution, an automated onboarding solution, a new manager self-service platform and an automated call distribution (ACD) system for our new call center. We have just now started to migrate our case management tools from Excel to a dedicated tool inside PeopleSoft.

Q: For the HR Service Center (HRSC), what were your goals?

Our key goals were to increase efficiency, effectiveness, responsiveness and to deliver more transparency for HR. We did this by collapsing all the business processes into one central HR service delivery function. To create a solid plan we first reviewed, standardized and documented all our procedures.

Another goal of the the HRSC project was to use it to help discover key pain points in the organization; from that we realized onboarding and manager self-service were top candidates. We’re always looking for ways to improve the experience for our employees and managers, and to also improve the data integrity in our systems. Another top candidate was our paper based benefits enrollment. The key goal of the HRSC was to eliminate administrative burdens for our HR Biz Partners so they had more time to focus on being strategic. To be more efficient we plugged in a lot of technology to eliminate paper.

Q: Eliminating paper has been a goal for HR for many years, what was one key solution you implemented to help with that goal?

Onboarding was a huge “paper” target for us. Since Silkroad’s RedCarpet onboarding solution had a pre-built integration with PeopleSoft’s Enterprise Candidate Gateway (ATS), their offering was a natural to consider.

We considered other solutions that were pre-integrated with PeopleSoft but after a detailed review we felt RedCarpet best matched our objectives. For the candidate it’s easy, intuitive and slick – it has the wow factor we wanted for our new hires! It also has a nice rules engine to tailor the experience based on the job role and other variables. We got it up and running in only 8 weeks! All their personal data flows straight into PeopleSoft: direct deposit, taxes, name, address, legal disclosures for signature, etc.

Q: What is the Onboarding ROI for Jefferson?

For the hard cost benefit it freed up two HR FTE’s to do other stuff and about 10% of every recruiter’s time. For the soft benefit, one of our key HR pillars is to make Jefferson a career destination, so with the new onboarding solution the applicant has a better experience, is more engaged with the automation and they can call the HRSC with questions.

Q: What other HR tech projects delivered a strong ROI?

We outsourced part of the HRSC to Equifax: unemployment, verifications and ACA compliance – these things and other elements saved at least 3 FTEs and also delivered a quicker turnaround for employees and applicants. We looked at a few vendors but Equifax had a pre-built PeopleSoft integration and that helped us get set up in only 10 weeks. Since Equifax is a PeopleSoft partner, they upgrade their interfaces with PeopleSoft so when upgrading Jefferson’s HRMS there is very little for us to do to ensure the integrations continue to work as expected.

Q: What HR Tech projects are next?

We’re getting ready to implement PeopleSoft’s HR CRM (Help Desk). It integrates with our phone system so the employee’s data is pre-loaded before the call center agent picks up the phone! It also shows call history notes which helps combat employees calling back hoping to get a different answer from a different rep. The software can route escalated cases to the HR Business Partners as needed. We will be collecting data on questions asked, escalations and will use this data to build out FAQs for a full employee self-service portal. If the employee can’t find an answer on the FAQ portal they can then reach out to the HRSC for help.

The CRM will give us the ability to be more proactive, identify issues and do trending analysis, e.g. better market benefits program or find issues trending in certain departments.

Q: How can these tools help with Retention?

Once we get you, we want you to stay. Some of the tech will drive career plans, career paths and strategic succession plans. We are also partnering with IBM Kenexa to build out job profiles via competency based job descriptions from their job and competency catalogues. We’ll build our performance management around redesigned job descriptions. We will also use competency based behavioral interview questions so recruiting can pull the job descriptions based on the job profile. Lastly, all of this will integrate with the LMS. I did this same thing at my previous job and it worked really nice. Jefferson leaders can identify HIPOs, facilitate process improvement, drive performance and accountability – all based on each employee knowing what their job is and the expectations of them in that role.

Q: Buy vs. Build – why not build these modules within PeopleSoft? 

Our CIO, Praveen Chopra, agrees we are not a software development company and to let our vendors handle it. Some of the PeopleSoft solutions we looked at in the past were not robust enough for our needs, but that’s changing, so we’ll be migrating from third party apps to those PeopleSoft modules, such as ePerformance, in the near future.

Q: How does your HRIT team run these projects?

Our HRIT team is tasked with system configuration and setting up all the business rules. Our internal partner on the IT side manages the HR applications and custom development work, if needed. They help do technical due diligence during external partner evaluations and if it’s an Oracle partner it’s usually a slam dunk. If a solution partner has something custom or unique to Jefferson’s environment, I give our IT team the business spec and logic and they code it, then my team tests it and approves it.

Q: Besides an integration with PeopleSoft, what does a vendor need to qualify for your business?

The vendor must be SSAE 15 or 17 certified (replaces SAS 70) or we can’t work with them. We’re also very strict about our employee data to ensure it is protected properly. Our internal IT team validates all integration tools are properly secured.

Q: What is your HR Tech shopping process?

A lot of the vendor evaluations we’ll take on ourselves; we’ll do the research on our own through Gartner or Saratoga reports and evaluate them on our own. In certain areas we’ll use consultants but we have a lot of expertise on our staff that came from the market and know what is currently trending. We also partner with niche consulting firms such as CedarCrestone and BTRG to ensure our strategy and execution are fully optimized.

Q: What is your core HR Strategy to support the organization?

Pam Teufel, Jefferson’s EVP & CHRO, has a strategic workforce plan and four major pillars defining how we manage the organization:

1. Innovation
2. Performance and accountability
3. Process improvement
4. Career destinations

All HR projects funnel into one of these pillars. The field employees will share issues with our HR Business Partners who then take them to the HRSC team for review/consideration. We have a large backlog but focus on issues which will help the employee and get the most ROI.

During our department retreats, we also align our projects with Jefferson’s Blueprint for Strategic Action, developed by our CEO and President, Dr. Stephen K. Klasko and the Jefferson Leadership Group.

Q: Advice to others looking to optimize their HR tech systems?

You’ll first need leadership commitment or you’re not going anywhere. You must have a good strategic plan in HR that aligns with the overall enterprise strategic plan. Our four HR pillars plug into some of our corporate level pillars such as accountability, process improvement, innovation, etc. Also, you’ll need to build a good team around you who understands the technology. Our shared service manager and HRIT manager know the industry and built really solid teams that can move quickly. Lastly, developing good partnerships with internal development teams and third parties will ensure optimum results.

Q: What would you have done differently?

I’d give myself this advice: slow down the pace and don’t bite off more than you can chew. We did a lot of great things but it’s hard for the enterprise to absorb all the new stuff we delivered in just one year. We rolled out voluntary benefits, a wellness program, online rewards and recognition and more. Also, I’d strive to better communicate more of why we were doing what we we’re doing. A lot of the changes were to directly address employee concerns and issues but we needed to do more to tie it back directly to the employee surveys etc. and show those ties to everyone.

Q: What’s next on your plate?

We have been collapsing all the various Jefferson business units to move everyone to standardized HR technologies. We still need to rope in the LMS and Time management, but are planning to address them soon. Next fiscal year we’re starting up our workforce optimization project which will look at managing our time and attendance processes, leave requests and labor forecasting. The LMS will likely be a single platform integrated with PeopleSoft. We will roll out PeopleSoft’s ePerformance to Jefferson University in June, and we plan to consolidate the business units currently on Halogen onto the PeopleSoft platform next year.

Q: Do you have a future vision for your HR Tech strategy?

Soon employees will be able to see how they can progress from one job to another based on skills and competency matching and apply to a job in any of the Jefferson business units. Employees will be able to lay their profile over a job profile to see what skills and competencies they are missing, then can easily find training in the LMS to help them close those gaps to qualify for their next role in the organization.

Joseph DeMaio is currently the Director of HRIT & HR Shared Services at Thomas Jefferson University and Hospitals where he is responsible for developing HR technology solutions and services to support the strategic HR goals of Thomas Jefferson University and Hospitals.  The HRIT team implements and supports innovative technology across the organization to serve employees including defining technologies for staff communications, outreach, and engagement. In addition, he ensures the HR Service Center’s service offerings align with the overall strategic vision of the organization and HR through the development of goals, objectives, and measurements. This results in improved efficiencies, establishing procedures for documenting and updating HRSC processes and procedures, and providing the necessary tools and technology for the defined services.

Joseph has over 20 years of diversified experience in Human Resources including labor relations, Shared Services, HR Consulting, talent management and HRIT. He received his B.S. degree in Labor Relations from Drexel University in Philadelphia, PA and an M.B.A in Management from the University of Phoenix in Philadelphia, PA.

Jefferson University Hospitals and Thomas Jefferson University are partners in providing excellent clinical and compassionate care for our patients in the Philadelphia region, educating the health professionals of tomorrow in a variety of disciplines and discovering new knowledge that will define the future of clinical care.

Jefferson has been named on U.S.News & World Report’s prestigious Best Hospitals Honor Roll. Ranked for 2013-14 as the 17th Best Hospital in the country (from nearly 5,000 hospitals).

Thomas Jefferson University Hospitals have 969 licensed acute care beds, with major programs in a wide range of clinical specialties. Services are provided at five primary locations — Thomas Jefferson University Hospital (the main hospital facility, which was established in 1825) and Jefferson Hospital for Neuroscience, both in Center City Philadelphia; Jefferson’s Methodist Hospital and Jefferson at the Navy Yard, both in South Philadelphia; and Jefferson at Voorhees in South Jersey.