Big Updates: Goal Decomposition, Company Store, and Planning of Learning

We entered the new year with powerful updates in the Goal Setting, Gamification and Learning modules for SMART HCM & LMS.

Firstly, now users of the system will be able to distribute any goals from a manager to subordinates.

What was implemented? 

  • decomposition of the manager’s individual goals to subordinates, including mass distribution;
  • checking whether an employee has a goal to avoid its duplication, as well as notifications of distribution statuses;
  • visual identification for distributed goals.

Secondly, we’ve added a tool for boosting employee engagement, a Corporate Store where employees can exchange their performance points as part of the Gamification module.

What was implemented? 

  • a mechanism for accruing points to an employee in case of assigning badges,
  • functionality for managing items in the system and displaying them on the portal,
  • a mechanism for an employee to order items on the portal and deduct points,
  • a mechanism for returning points in case of cancellation of the order,
  • a page for employees, where they can view all the items available to them, the status of orders, view the history of accrual and deduction of points from the account, view the balance of points as of the current date,
  • a system of automatic messages to the employee and the responsible HR manager as part of the order process and order confirmation.

Thirdly, we have developed a functionality for short- and long-term planning of employee learning within the company by month, quarter and year. Such functionality will be especially handy for companies with a large staff count.

What was implemented? 

  • functionality of planning the entry (adaptation) learning for a new employee and when transferring from position to position at the level of the organization, department, and position profile,
  • functionality of planning periodic learning at the level of the organization, department, and position profile,
  • a mechanism for automatic appointment of entry and periodic learning,
  • a mechanism for automatic updating of learning plans assigned at the level of the organization, department, and position profile,
  • a page for the manager, where they can view all learning plans, set a start date for learning, change the list of job profiles in the learning plan, reject or approve the learning plan.

Let’s look into each update in more detail.

Goal decomposition from a manager to executors

Each manager understands how important it is for teams to adhere to the chosen strategy and comply with the global goal of the company when setting goals. But when it comes to, for example, the distribution of goals among several project teams, and then to each participant, certain difficulties arise, including with tracking and evaluating progress.

We have implemented a functionality that allows you to automatically distribute goals between executors: from the CEO to an ordinary employee.

How does it work? 

Suppose you are the head of the company and your priority is to optimize the employee learning processes, since over the past period the number of staff has grown significantly.

Step 1. On the portal, you select an individual goal from your own list and click Distribute.

The system will prompt you to select one or several team members at once.

Step 2. You select responsible employees and assign the individual goal to them. That is, now your goal is added to the list of goals of selected employees. The system will check if a duplicate isn’t being created.

Step 3. An icon is added to your individual goal indicating that the goal has been decomposed. If necessary, you can go to the employee page and change the goal settings.

Now you just have to monitor the progress of the goal.

Important. The employee can adjust the priority depending on the scope of goals assigned, but cannot delete the distributed record.

Corporate Store to Boost Employee Engagement

Constant interaction with our customers gives us an understanding of what tools they need to solve a particular HR task.

Today, there is a demand among Ukrainian companies for the introduction of motivational programs as part of employee development. Therefore, our Gamification module has acquired new functionality: as part of the process of obtaining badges, an employee is awarded points, and in a corporate store, an employee exchanges accumulated points for items from the store.

How does it work?

First of all, you need to fill out an item guide for your future store. This can be done on the HCM portal: Gamification – Store.

We have implemented the ability to add several item images that can be sorted by fixing their display sequence on the portal.

The shop page has three sections: Catalogue, Orders and Transactions with Points. Find more details about each one below.

In the catalog, you can filter the items by category or find the item you need by name in the Search field, sort the items by price, place an order by clicking on the appropriate icon or by going to the item page.

How can an employee order from the store?  

To order any item from the store, an employee must be an active participant in the gamification program and obtain badges for achievements, on the basis of which points are automatically awarded.

To view your achievements and choose an item in accordance with the points accrued, go to the store page.

Check the number of available points at the top of the catalog page.

Now select the item to order, taking into account the available number of points.

Having opened the page of any item, we see the description, view the image using the forward and backward arrows on the image or by clicking on the image itself to expand it.

To order the selected item, just click Order, if necessary, add information in the Comment field and click Submit.

For convenience, we have added the ability to save orders as drafts. Points will not be deducted from the account while the order is in the Draft status.

What happens to an order after it has been placed?

You need to assign a responsible HR manager to process store orders. After the employee submits the order, the responsible HR manager will receive a notification about the new order with the name of the item, the name of the customer, the comment and the order status. Lists of all orders is available in the Gamification – Store – Orders section.

Overall, each order acquires the corresponding status during its processing: New, Accepted, Cancelled, Submitted, Received, Completed.

It is very convenient that when the status changes, the customer receives automatic notifications and can track the progress of the order.

How can an employee view the order and transactions with points?

On the store page, go to the Orders section: here employees can view the list of all their orders.

To view order details, just click its name on the list.

We have created a points deduction calculator, which can be viewed on the Transactions with Points page. Here the user’s balance is displayed: how many points were accrued, deducted and are available. For convenient management of points, we have added a list of all accrual and deduction transactions, as well as filters that simplify the search by transactions.

We plan to further develop the functionality of the Corporate Store, so the following improvements will be included in the next releases:

  • automation of the order confirmation process,
  • development of functionality for canceling an order by a user on the portal,
  • finalization of the notification system for process participants.

In addition, similar functionality will be integrated into other modules, which will allow customers to implement their own game mechanics.

Learning planning strategy by month, quarter, year

Constantly communicating with our customers, we understand that modern companies are increasingly communicating a request to create their own centers of competencies.

So far, there has been an increasing emphasis on the skill-based approach, when companies focus on developing skills within the organization. Therefore, companies choose the path of building a systematic and continuous learning of employees that meets their needs for hard skills and soft skills of employees at a strategic level.

Thus, the e-learning module now has new functionality – Planning of Learning – with the help of which learning can be assigned in mass to a large number of employees.

This functionality will help to fully customize and automate the processes of assigning onboarding and periodic learning at the level of the organization, departments and job profiles. And also significantly reduce the workload of the L&D manager when filling out learning plans and assigning them to departments or individual employees.

How does it work? 

Imagine a situation where you hire several employees at the same time for different job profiles, for example, in a banking institution. Banks always regulate information security and privacy, so as an HR manager, you need to plan appropriate learning for all newcomers. In addition, there are mandatory learning plans for each job profile.

You log into SMART HCM & LMS and create a Learning List related to a specific type of learning – in our case, Entry Learning, that is onboarding.

In the Learning List card, you add mandatory learning plans, courses, and modules that form a list of activities for employees to complete. For each activity, you select from the general list of employees who need certain measures during the onboarding period.

As a result, each new employee receives an individual learning plan with a fixed start date and a list of activities.

Let’s imagine another situation where you need to plan mass learning at the level of the organization, departments and individual employees.

As an HR manager, you collect data from top managers and heads of various departments about the required and desired activities during the year to be entered into the Learning List card. In this case, select the Periodical type of training. Then follow the same path as in the first scenario, adding information to Learning Plans, Learning Courses and Learning Modules.

If the course is general and recommended for all employees of the company, select the Organizations section, and the event will be added to the learning plans of each employee. A course like Negotiating Effectively will be relevant to the sales team, and by using the Departments section, you will only assign it to the relevant department.

Learning for the development of certain skills and competencies corresponding to job profiles is planned in the Job Profiles section.

After saving the entered data in the Learning List, learning plans are automatically generated for each position profile separately.

Thus, an HR manager creates a year-by-year employee learning plan for the entire company.

Now let’s talk about the manager’s role in periodic learning planning.

How can a manager handle learning plans?

Heads of departments independently manage the learning plans of their subordinates, choose the start date of learning, a list of job profiles for participating in a particular learning.

On the Learning page, in the Planning section, the manager views a list of learning plans.

Also, for managers, the functionality of declining the proposed learning has been implemented if it was mistakenly entered into the database by the HR manager or is irrelevant for their department and subordinates.

To get the details of the learning plan, expand the record.

To enter the learning start date, the manager selects the required start date in the calendar.

Important: The scheduled start time should not be earlier than the next month from the current month.

Managers can edit the list of job profiles for planning of learning at their own discretion. For example, if for an individual team member this course is not relevant at a certain stage of his or her development.

After editing the learning activities for their team, the manager approves the plan.

Approved learning plans get the Planned status.

As soon as the scheduled start date arrives, the learning plan gets the Assigned status. The employee will receive a notification about the start of learning.

It is important that when creating learning plans, you do not need to immediately fill the courses and modules with content. After the plans are approved by the manager, the HR manager plans to work on the course programs in a convenient mode.

All changes in the learning list or a specific learning plan are made using the Update Learning Plans button.

In subsequent releases, improvements are planned to automate the process of cyclic employee learning.

For example, you have a mandatory course, which is regulated to be passed by employees every three months. With the cyclic scheduling function, the system will automatically assign learning that will be repeated within the specified period.

Follow our updates on the website and social networks. Check the updates included in the previous release here.

Want to learn more about the update? Submit a demo request to sales@smart-it.com.

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