emPerform Helps The Federation of Canadian Municipalities Automate Employee Performance Management

FCM logo

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.

“emPerform gave us the flexibility to automate our existing process and forms, as we wanted. We were not constrained by the software.”

Lynn Firkins, Director of Human Resources, FCM

Reporting

With emPerform, FCM is able to monitor and report on the progress of the appraisals throughout the process. More importantly, the HR department can report on the content of the appraisals. FCM is able to report on the data through the different appraisal activities – annual appraisals, goal setting and objective setting. The information is used for a variety of purposes, including aligning corporate and individual goals and ensuring personal objectives are set and met. emPerform replicates and replaces the existing reports and it allows HR to create custom reports using Report Builder.

Automation & Personalization

Prior to implementing emPerform, FCM had developed its own Excel-based employee performance management system. With emPerform, FCM is able to automate their existing employee performance management system, as is, using the content and forms that it had already created. Additionally, FCM is able to create unique rating scales for each position within the organisation. FCM employees greatly appreciate the similarity to the existing system. It makes emPerform that much easier to use.

“emPerform is working really well for FCM and its employees. We are very excited about using the additional features, such as 360° multi-rater feedback and online surveys, that come included with the software.”
– Helen McCaskill, HR Coordinator

Increased Efficiency

Automating the employee performance management system with emPerform increases the efficiency of all employees and benefits FCM in a number of ways:

  • HR employees are able to make changes to the appraisals and the calculations, without having to rely on the “Excel” expert.
  • Integrating directly with Microsoft Dynamics GP and reduces the amount of data entry time and the data already exists.
  • A performance history is now created for each employee that is accessible on demand.
  • The data within emPerform is available to all employees. Not only can employees access their historical data, but they can enter information throughout the year to make the appraisal process easier and more efficient.
  • emPerform allows FCM to fulfill its Sustainable Organization mandate, the employee appraisal process uses less paper than in the past

The Federation of Canadian Municipalities continues to refine and build out their reviews and performance management processes with emPerform.

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Federation of Canadian Municipalities

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