An HRIS Right Out of the Box

No two companies are exactly alike. Each has its own processes and priorities. So when a human resource information system (HRIS) can meet an organization’s needs right out of the box, it’s quite an accomplishment. Which is what Spectrum’s iVantage^® did for LifeCare Assurance Company.

Since 1988, Woodland Hills, California–based LifeCare Assurance Company has provided major insurers with specialized Long Term Care Insurance programs. In 2005, the company decided to implement a new HR system because its previous system lacked manager and employee self–service.

After evaluating needs, LifeCare decided on a system with self–service based on Microsoft^® SQL Server^®–iVantage. LifeCare liked that iVantage had self–service capabilities and could connect to other LifeCare applications. It also enabled the company to host and maintain its own data.

Up and Running

With iVantage, LifeCare was able to streamline very time–consuming processes–such as eliminating the huge amount of paperwork generated during open enrollment and changing performance–review procedures.

“Once the system is up and running, you know that every minute was worth it,” said LifeCare HRIS Administrator Iris Breeze. “It makes life for HR so much easier.”

Out of the Box

LifeCare made only a few minor customizations to the system to create special benefit calculations and comply with overtime rules specific to the state of California. Now, LifeCare uses the iVantage TimeSheets^™ module to calculate California overtime.

“We always tried to have the system work for us out of the box,” said Breeze.

Self–Service

Two of the functional areas of iVantage that LifeCare benefits from the most are Manager Self–Service and Employee Self–Service—the areas that prompted the company’s search for a new HRIS in the first place. With self–service, the flow of information between HR and managers and HR and employees is smoother. Managers and employees now have information at their fingertips, and HR can route information to specific people depending on the needs of their different departments.

Manager Self–Service has empowered LifeCare’s 58 manager users with easily accessible information, enabling HR to streamline performance reviews and provide managers with the ability to run the reports they need when they need them. With access to information on their direct employees, managers have become more responsible for employee maintenance, thus reducing some of the workload for HR.

With Employee Self–Service, the benefit open enrollment process and timesheets are now directly in the hands of the employees. Not only can they do some of the data entry for themselves, they can manage their own information—freeing up HR’s time to focus on other things.

Reporting

iVantage’s reporting suite provides benefits to the entire company. Staff can use the iVantage report writer combined with the TimeSheets module to create client billing reports. Senior management, via Manager Self–Service, can analyze specific reports for salary planning and absence tracking—to track low sick accruals and high vacation accruals.

With iVantage’s ability to interface with other applications, LifeCare can also create organizational charts and pull reports of employee information from iVantage and put it on the company’s intranet site.

One System, One Source of Information

The fact that LifeCare now has all employee information in one place, accessible to authorized users at any time, has made HR’s life much easier. According to Breeze, “iVantage is a one–stop shop.”