Commonwealth Of Massachusetts Teams With SuccessFactors

San Mateo, CA - SuccessFactors, Inc., the market and Web business application provider in on-demand workforce performance management, today announced that the Commonwealth of Massachusettsí (Commonwealth) Human Resources Division (HRD) has implemented SuccessFactors technology to develop a state-of-the-art employee evaluation system and implement the first pay-for-performance program for 3,000 state managers. The new SuccessFactors-based system now allows the Commonwealth to align the organizationís management goals with the overall goals of the administration as well as recognize and reward higher performing managers more generously than those who are just meeting job requirements.



The Commonwealthís Human Resources Division developed and began implementing this revised performance evaluation process in an effort to reduce the costs of managing the stateís workforce. HRDís goal in implementing SuccessFactors was to achieve measurable progress in halting the ratings creep the Commonwealth had been experiencing in recent years, where the vast majority of managers were rated above average. In addition, HRD wanted to move away from a system that treated all managers the same in terms of wage increases and did now allow for any recognition of those who went above and beyond what was expected in their position. In addition to achieving these desired outcomes, in less than eight months, the Commonwealth has also successfully trained employees on preparing performance management evaluations, tailored management appraisals to actual job and outcomes, streamlined the performance evaluation form and process, and overall, aligned managementís objectives with administration priorities.

SuccessFactors technology has enabled the Commonwealth to measure true performance differentiation, challenging managers to be more motivated to perform at a level above the average/acceptable threshold, said Ruth Bramson, Chief Human Resources Officer, Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Commonwealth managers are now more motivated to deliver that discretionary level of effort as their pay is based on performance and salary quartile rather than the traditional across-the-board step increases which were awarded under the previous system.

Continued Bramson, SuccessFactors technology helped change the Commonwealth culture to place a high priority on evaluating performance, providing us with the power to recognize, reward and retain our best performers.

The Commonwealth chose to work with SuccessFactors after an initial pilot for 150 users in 5 different agencies resulted in high levels of employee satisfaction and higher quality reviews. The Commonwealth chose SuccessFactors over other proposed alternatives based on the complete functionality of the product, the companyís ASP business model which enabled the solution to be turned on immediately upon configuring to the Commonwealthís specifications, as well as the technologyís unrivaled overall ease of use. The SuccessFactors reporting tool was also cited as one of the key advantages to the web-based system as aggregate and individual data including ratings, milestones, comments, and form status were instantly available to both HRD and the HR directors in the Secretariats. HRD is now able to track completion dates of review forms, enforce compliance with rating distribution guidelines, and access other valuable information such as development objectives to help conduct statewide training needs assessments.

The Commonwealthís vision and execution combined with SuccessFactors technology has resulted in an organization that is now more focused on how well they can do their job versus how long they have been at their job, said Lars Dalgaard, SuccessFactors CEO. I am very impressed with how thoroughly and efficiently the Commonwealth of Massachusetts has used SuccessFactors technology to achievable measurable results for their organization.