REFERENCE No one wants to do without EASY HR now.

IHK Würzburg, the Würzburg branch of the Chamber of Commerce, manages employee appraisal using a solution from EASY SOFTWARE AG About IHK Würzburg-Schweinfurt

HK Würzburg-Schweinfurt represents the The voice of IHK Würzburg-Schweinfurt, that district‘s overall interest of commercial business in branch of the Chamber of Commerce, carries weight Lower Franconia. The Chamber of Commerce in Lower Franconia: With its staff of nearly 130, the district covers the cities of Würzburg and Economic Chamber represents the interests of its Schweinfurt, as well as the rural districts of members. It recognized the importance of digitization Rhön-Grabfeld, Bad Kissingen, Main-Spes- as a topic with site relevance very early on, setting a CLIENT sart, Schweinfurt, Haßberger, Kitzingen, and good example: in the HR department, it is using a digi- IHK Würzburg-Schweinfurt Würzburg. Large enterprises such as auto and tal appraisal management system based on EASY HR. Mainaustraße 33 - 35 industry supplier Schaeffler and manufactu- Performance dependent remuneration models have 97082 Würzburg rer of construction materials Knauf are based long been a commonplace in enterprises, as has con- Tel. 0931 4194-0 in this region. sistent employee development. Correct use of these www.wuerzburg.ihk.de promotes the enterprise‘s efficiency, as well as emplo- The Chamber of Commerce‘s mission statem- yee commitment and satisfaction with their employer. ent and strategy are summarized in the stra- It is exactly for this reason that these personnel tools INDUSTRY tegy paper „Mainfranken 2025“ as visions and have already been in use with IHK Würzburg-Schwein- Special interest group for targets for a major location. In it, the Cham- furt for many years. In 2003, the Chamber implemen- trading companies ber of Commerce signs up, among others, for ted an employee appraisal system for the first time. „promoting digitization of business and admi- The respective executive has been assessing the per- nistration“ under the headword „Digital Lower formance of his or her employees once every year ever SOLUTION Franconia“: „We promote the development of since. Two interviews take place for this purpose: an EASY HR (ratings management) digitized processes in business (Industrie 4.0), interim interview, more often than not in June, and and demand reducing bureaucracy through in- an interview for final evaluation from December 15 formation and reporting duties by enterprises to February 12. Based on that second discussion, the to the administration (optimized interfaces).“ Chamber of Commerce distributes boons and plans HR development.

Reference - IHK Würzburg-Schweinfurt 2 Signed up for digitization

The old is system is hardly workable time collection. Since then we have represented appraisal management within From the start, there was „digital“ support for executives, remembers Christian the portal.“ Maurer, head of IT: „Initially we represented appraisal management using Micro- The problem is that while salary sheets, requests and time collection were soft Word, and later using Microsoft Excel. In 2007, we implemented a portal in working to plan, the portal for various reasons turned out to be of little use to which employees found salary sheets, service and vacation requests, as well as appraisal management.

Reference - IHK Würzburg-Schweinfurt 3 Looking for a feasible solution the system multiple times during such an interview,“ A drawback was that the portal released the appraisal comments Mr. Maurer. sheets only within the appraisal period, i.e. between December 15 and February 12. If an executive wanted EASY: easy-to-use, and can be used without time to take important notes for appraisal reviews during limits the remaining nine months of the year, this had to be After a year‘s use of the old system, it was clear that done outside the portal. So the executives kept Word or a substitute for the existing portal solution had to be Excel lists in auxiliary applications: lists of promotion found. On one hand, the fact that EASY was already needs, training concepts, special performance, or indi- known to the Chamber of Commerce militated for vidual misbehavior. Prior to this appraisal interview, selecting EASY as the implementation partner. On the the information had to be found again for preparations. other hand, there were no bureaucratic hurdles to be This was not enough, though: user experience also left overcome with such collaboration. Because EASY is a lot to be desired. Says Christian Maurer: „Previously, framework contractual partner of IHK Gesellschaft ”The users were passionate about 25 evaluation points had to be processed for employee für Informationsverarbeitung (IHK-GfI), i.e. the inter- the self-explanatory interface and appraisal. In the old system this was a never-ending nal service provider of all Chambers of Commerce, task because you had to scroll all individual entries this eliminated the need for advertising in order to get ease of use of the application from top to bottom. And this on a page that was not the project started with EASY. „So we were able to get right from the start.“ really that transparent. That‘s why support requests together immediately and work out the ideal solution,“ kept being submitted to us by the executives.“ And says Mr. Maurer. Thus a new portal solution emer- Christian Maurer finally, there was another important reason for us to ged, based on EASY HR. It had to be self-explanatory IHK Würzburg, Division Manager, IT Service look for a new solution: The old system had a security and easy-to-use for any executive. „We reduced the restriction. You were automatically logged out after evaluation points to twelve, clustering them by topic three minutes without user action. „This is absolutely and separating them through different colorization,“ useful when you are working with time collection or adds Mr. Maurer. „In addition, we abolished time limits, requests. But in an appraisal interview where you go so executives can now also revise the appraisal sheet through and discuss the individual evaluation points throughout the year and are no longer automatically with the respective employee, three minutes are logged out during an interview.“ Unlike the origin of quickly over. As a consequence, you had to log in to the initial portal, the executives were involved early

Reference - IHK Würzburg-Schweinfurt 4 on while developing the EASY solution. They were able to express special wis- technical implementation. Introduction was very easy,“ comments Mr. Maurer. hes already while creating the To-do list. The first version was then put to the „Collaboration with the EASY Consultant and the developers is very good and acid test by the IT experts in collaboration with four executives. In June 2015, effective.“ appraisal management was able to go online as planned – in time for the routine preliminary interviews with the employees. Training courses or special training For all its simplicity, the solution does not compromise security at all. Because for the 16 appraising executives were not necessary. IHK Würzburg-Schweinfurt had, of course, to consider data protection. For appraisal management, the previous system automatically inherited the Data security meets sustainability absence management rules from request management. For example, in theory „Based on a standard EASY solution we succeeded, after a project phase of just the delegates of executives had access to the corresponding appraisal sheets four months, in replacing the old system with a bespoke tool. The users were during the latter‘s absence, e.g. in case of sickness or vacation. This is different passionate about the self-explanatory interface and the application‘s simpli- with the new system: In the current appraisal period, only the appraising execu- city right from the start. By the way, the same applies to all those in charge of tive has access; after the appraisal is complete, the employee can also access it.

Reference - IHK Würzburg-Schweinfurt 5 For all this, the new system is future-proof. After all, the HR depart- ment is facing extensive digitization. It will have to become more effi- cient in the coming years: automated workflows play an increasingly important role in this, not only as far as business is concerned, but also with the chambers. „That‘s why we will have a complete HR suite,“ explains Mr. Maurer. „In any event, our new EASY solution can be easily upgraded at a later time and be extended with workflows, a digital personnel file, and much more. The people working with the corresponding solu- tions will benefit from this because the new tools will ease their workload. You can see this with our appraisal management team: no one wants to do without the system now.“

Reference - IHK Würzburg-Schweinfurt 6 EASY SOFTWARE AG, headquartered in Mülheim an der Ruhr, Germany, has been developing intuitive, UK customized software products for customers for the digitalization of business processes since 1990. EASY SOFTWARE (UK) LTD These products integrate seamlessly into existing systems and automate, mobilize, and optimize their Reflection House, The Anderson Centre, Olding Road, customers‘ workflows world-wide. EASY provides these solutions on-premises, in the cloud and mobile. Bury St. Edmunds | Suffolk, IP33 3TA +44 1284 727870 [email protected] | easy-software.com/uk

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