IBM motivates staff at Union Bank

Union Bank following their acquisition of a majority share in TPG Capital in 2014 has engaged IBM to improve on its employee performance appraisal system in a bid to motivate staff to meet the new changing goals.

This meant that the bank needed to undergo a complete change to rapidly expand and acquire new clients that would require a highly motivated staff, Union Bank Human Resources Vice President Ravi Jayasekera said during a teleconference interview with the Business Times on Friday.

In a bid to ensure internal communications at the bank ‘come to life’ that would be captured in employee performance records the bank required to link up with a highly capable and recognised platform for performance management, he explained.

In this respect, the bank deployed SAP SuccessFactors Performance and Goals as their new Performance Management Solution provided by IBM Global Business Services that would strengthen the performance culture, create a more conducive environment for managing and measuring performance.

In fact, Mr. Jayasekera noted that data already entered into the previous employee performance system was seamlessly shifted to the new IBM based system within a short period of time to enable the new system to go live from December 15 and ensured that all staff completes appraisals by January 20 this year.

SAP SuccessFactors for the bank will provide a structure for the employee performance management process ensuring that employees receive timely direction, feedback and recognition needed to maintain high levels of performance. The solution combines strategic thinking, analytics and leading-edge technology tools to help the bank make more informed decisions and optimise the benefits of the performance management process. This will help Union Bank of Colombo enable a digital HR strategy and engage people across the organization.

The user-friendliness of the system with new features in place for line managers to comment on employee performance in addition to a 360 degree evaluation that would gain feedback from bosses, colleagues and the director board on the level of employee performance. This latter system ensures that employee leadership competencies would also be evaluated. Moreover, a calibration process highlights the impact of the employee performance on the bank’s overall performance.

Due to the customisation possibilities on the new system, employees at the bank have reacted well to it, Mr. Jayasekera explained adding that staff could make notes on it themselves and by others in addition to a dashboard made available on how employee ratings were coming around that could be made by line managers.

The engagement level has also been moved to a higher level, he noted adding that it has helped to improve on a culture change as well at the bank.

IBM Country General Manager Chrishan Fernando said by adopting the new system Union Bank has literally walked the talk by bringing in the necessary tools to ensure the staff knows their performance.

In working out a system suitable for Union Bank, IBM has been obtaining services from their local and international experts on the subject that would ensure a quick implementation as well, he said.

This system is a complete end to end life cycle of the employee that is being assessed in detail, Mr. Fernando explained adding that IBM is currently working with its other customers in the area of HR in detail.

Mr. Fernando noted that this system allows the employee to gain a reassurance that they are being looked after and there is a value proposition as well.