emPerform Helps The Federation of Canadian Municipalities Automate Employee Performance Management

The Federation of Canadian Municipalities – Overview

The Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) is a not-for-profit organisation that represents the interests of Canadian municipalities on Federal policy and program matters. Members include Canada’s largest cities, small urban and rural communities, and 18 provincial and territorial municipal associations. With 125 employees, FCM manages a number of programs that fulfill its advocacy mandate. FCM was looking for a solution that would automate its employee performance management system and provide robust reporting.

FCM selected emPerform to automate its employee performance management system. Since implementing emPerform, FCM has improved efficiency, personalized the appraisal process, reduced the amount of paper used, and improved reporting. FCM was also able to take advantage of a number of the additional features that come included with emPerform: Report Builder, online surveys, and 360° multi-rater reviews.

About FCM

The Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) has been the national voice of municipal government since 1901. Members include Canada’s largest cities, small urban and rural communities, and 21 provincial and territorial municipal associations. Municipal leaders from all parts of Canada assemble annually to establish FCM policy on key issues. Today, FCM carries on the tradition of actively advocating to have the needs of municipalities – and their citizens – reflected in federal policies and programs. Year after year, FCM’s work has benefitted each and every municipal government and taxpayer in Canada.

Before emPerform

1. Objective setting
2. Ongoing management 
3. Evaluation

Employees completed their performance evaluations using a Word document; once completed, it was sent to human resources (HR). The HR department, which is responsible for the appraisal process, developed, with the assistance of another non-HR employee, a complex Excel spreadsheet to record and calculate performance related information for each employee.

The different worksheets (introduction and summary, set-track your objectives, additional activities, core values, mid-year reviews, comments, sign-offs) in the spreadsheet related directly to the stages in the evaluation process (objective setting, ongoing management, and evaluation). HR used the spreadsheet to calculate ratings and salary increases for every employee and it was used as a data source for employee communications.

Using Excel worked for a number of years; however, the HR department was becoming dependent on a single employee which posed challenges when changes to the spreadsheet were required. Even though the information was being recorded in an electronic format, the reporting capabilities were limited and the data entry from the completed appraisals was still a manual process.

The employee performance appraisal process resulted in large quantities of paper being produced. Employees made multiple copies while they worked on their appraisals, including the copy that was brought to the annual review meeting. Additionally, at the end of the evaluation cycle, two final copies were made—one for the employee, the other for his or her file. As FCM is committed to becoming a sustainable organisation, the amount of paper used had to be reduced. Overall, the entire appraisal system was labor intensive and inefficient.

The Solution

FCM was looking for a solution that would automate their existing employee performance appraisal process. The new solution had to:

• • Automate the current appraisal process
  • Incorporate more functionality
  • Provide reporting and analytical capabilities

As a user of Microsoft Dynamics™ GP, FCM was also looking for an employee performance management solution that integrated with GP Human Resources. After a search and evaluation of the solutions available, FCM selected emPerform. Not only did emPerform meet all of their current requirements, it can provide FCM with the functionality required for future initiatives.