Upgrading and shifting remuneration processes into the digital era
Introduction
Westpac has been helping Kiwis find the right financial solutions to suit their lives since 1861. Westpac is also one of the most recognised bank brands in New Zealand and is acknowledged as a leader in measuring and improving its impact in far more ways than just financial performance. For Westpac, this means taking a closer look at the impact on all stakeholders and the environment.
With over 4,000 employees, aiming for continuous improvement in all areas of human resource management and leadership is a key focus to ensure progress towards achieving success with all stakeholders.
Problems Experienced
Westpac operated an in-house designed and managed, web-based tool for managing their remuneration process. Whilst leading edge at the time of implementation, the technology was approaching 6 years old and had had numerous upgrades to it during this time as business needs changed.
Several business risks were identified that needed to be dealt with to ensure the system was viable for the future.
“We were continually requiring technical support from the original developers, which was costly. Our changing needs meant that the developers were always looking for the “quick fix” solution resulting in the base code of the system becoming unstable,” says Westpac’s Head of Remuneration and Performance Management.
“We also found that we would benefit from an external view of how some parts of the process could be managed rather than us having to identify the problem, design the solution and instruct technology developers who did not always have an understanding of the user experience required.”
Solution
Westpac’s Head of Remuneration and Performance Management had utilised Pivot Remuneration solution in a previous role at another organisation and saw the advantages of moving to a commercially available and configurable system. As Pivot Remuneration utilises the latest version of .NET, it was able to be easily
integrated into their existing infrastructure.
A major plus for Westpac is that Pivot Remuneration ensures the product remains up-to-date through upgrades that have been derived from proactively seeking customer feedback. “We now have value-adding features not possible in our own in-house system,” says Westpac’s Head of Remuneration and Performance Management.
The Result
There were high expectations for the new system from the wider business as the technical difficulties faced by the HR team with the in-house version largely went unnoticed. Users gave Pivot Remuneration the “thumbs up”, saying it was very easy to use and delivered to their needs.
Westpac’s Head of Remuneration and Performance Management says the use of Pivot Remuneration has meant that knowledge risk has been eliminated and reliance on technology developers to interpret their needs has dropped. Pivot have an in-house support team to train all users or if they need help.
“Our wider HR team has been able to be involved in a process previously managed centrally within the remuneration team. Everyone is now much more engaged in the process and as a result HR has achieved more credibility with its internal customers – the people managers within our business,” says Westpac’s Head of Remuneration and Performance Management.
