The pair laid out the approach Abbott used to develop a highly successful on-line portal that offers candidates and employees one-stop total compensation information.
Senner is Division VP, Compensation, and Johansen, CBP, CCP, is Director International Compensation & Global Programs. They offered their tips at WorldatWork”s Total Rewards Conference and Exhibition, held recently in San Diego.
Abbott’s Total Compensation Statement
Abbott, a market-leading pharmaceuticals organization offering advanced medical products and trusted nutritional products has over 100 facilities and nearly 90,000 employees, and operates in 130 countries. The company was concerned that it was not doing a good job at communicating total rewards to its employees and to potential employees.
Where they started:
The starting point for the development of a new statement was the old paper statements that were distributed every two to three years. However, they were not complete and not very helpful to employee, because there were:
- Many different programs and plan descriptions
- Numerous websites
- Various communication vehicles
Where Abbott wanted to end up
The objective was simple sounding—Abbott wanted to end up with online, on demand Total Compensation Statements that showed an up-to-date and complete picture of total compensation for each employee (and modeled the same for candidates).
More specifically, Johansen says, Abbott wanted to:
- Increase employees’ understanding and appreciation of their total compensation
- Increase employees’ utilization of certain programs
- Increase candidates’ understanding and appreciation of total compensation package
- Compare candidates’ total compensation package from Abbott with other offers
- Model future value as employees’ careers grow
A particularly interesting feature of the program is the availability to candidates. Abbot found that sometimes candidates were turning them down for a competitor’s compensation package that appeared better, but, in fact, was not as good. They wanted their system to demonstrate the full value of what they offered to candidates, and actually help candidates to compare offers.
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Required Deliverables
The deliverables that Abbott outlined for the program were:
- Personalized
- Up-to-date
- Confidential and secure
- Unique features
Key Features
Johansen discussed the key features related to the experience users would have:
- Simple and intuitive
- Customized and personalized
- Graphical and visually interesting
- Easy to navigate
- 365/24/7 availability with access from home and work
- Single sign-on from portal
- Interactive modeling tools
- Employee, executive and candidate tool
And the key features of the output of the program were:
- Simplified and consolidated
- Online and printable
- Meaningful elements
- Current information
- Appropriate timing for data updates
- Targeted messaging to change behavior
Implementation Plan
The implementation plan for Abbott’s Total Compensation Statement was as follows:
Planning Phase (3 months)
Vendor Selection
- RFP
- Finalist meetings
- Executive approval
Project Planning
- Team kickoff
- Funding, charter and scope
- Stakeholder management
Design Phase (6 months)
Analyze
- Vendors and contracts
- Data mapping, feeds & layouts
- Business requirements
- Budget estimates & projections
Design and Build
- Data feeds
- Prototype build
- “Voice of Customer”
- UAT and data validation
- Systems requirements and testing
- Pilot
- Communications and training
Launch Phase
Launch
- Communications
- Meetings
- Sponsor reviews
Site Management
- Data management
- Systems requirements
- Enhancements
- Metrics
- Archive and annual rollover
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Critical Success Factors
Senner and Johansen point to several critical factors that they think made a big difference in the success of the project:
Project Planning and Analysis
- Defined scope and cross-functional team
- Dedicated project manager
- Single point project coordination
- Sponsorship commitment
- Design meetings with program vendors
- Consistent file/data layouts
Build and Launch
- “Fast build” prototype
- Voice of customer sessions
- Design firm
- Content — “less is more”
- UAT and data validation
- HR Pilot
- HR Branding
- Communications — flash tour and teaser
- Feedback and survey
Biggest Challenge?
What’s the biggest challenge the team faced? Interfacing and integrating data from many outside sources.
In tomorrow’s Advisor, what employees, recruiters, and candidates have to say about Abbott’s statements, plus an introduction to the all-comp-in-one website, Compensation.BLR.com.