Product Review: Halogen Software’s eAppraisal
I want to start a new type of post on Catapult HR – product
reviews! There are so many products sold
to the HR function. When selecting an HR
product, it can be daunting to know what to choose from background screening
services, applicant tracking systems, HRIS systems, talent management software,
reference checking services and more. I've had the fortunate experience to use several HR products in my
career, and want to share what I've learned.
To start off the product review posts, I want to start on a
positive note, and will be reviewing Halogen Software’s eAppraisal
product. In general, I would recommend
this software to both small and large firms looking for robust appraisal
software.
Background on Halogen Software: I’m unsure when Halogen was founded, but I
believe they have been in business for more than a decade. Halogen is a full talent management suite of
products built from the ground up to work seamlessly together. Halogen is not an HRIS system, and does not
include payroll, time keeping or general HR information modules. However, their offerings include just about
everything else. They are headquartered
in Ontario Canada. The available modules
include:
- eAppraisal
- e360 Multi-rater
- eCompensation
- eLearning Manager
- eSuccession
- Job Description Builder
- eRecruitment
My interactions with products other than eAppraisal is
fairly limited, but I do belong to the Halogen User Group on LinkedIn, and from
the conversations I've seen, the feedback seems to be overwhelmingly positive
for all of the modules, with the exception of eRecruitment. eRecruitment is the newest module, and from
my understanding, there is still some work to be done for it to be on par with
other leading ATS offerings.
Perks: One of
the perks of eAppraisal is that it can be used for processes other than annual
appraisals. It’s actually a pretty
powerful form builder and administrator. I've actually used eAppraisal for a few other HR processes including
onboarding and request forms. Another
perk of using Halogen in general is the efficiencies gained by having your
talent management software full integrated.
The ability to seamlessly tie your appraisal process, compensation
process, succession process, learning and development process, and hiring
processes together gives you full insight into your talent management. You can’t overlook the benefit of truly being
able to calculate HR metrics such as your quality of hire, learning and
training effectiveness on performance (ROI), or if your succession plan is
fully supported by your training, performance and other talent management
initiatives. Halogen is one of the few
pieces of technology that provides such a well-rounded and robust talent management
offering.
Implementation:
I implemented Halogen on a fairly tight timeline – about 4 weeks. Our implementation specialist was very
helpful in ensuring the project adhered to our tight deadlines. Configuration and customization was the most
time consuming part of the implementation.
It was the reason we selected Halogen, but ultimately took almost half
of the implementation schedule to ensure our appraisal forms and process looked
exactly the way we wanted them to be designed.
Part of implementation was having a Halogen trainer come on-sight to
train our HR staff on the system. The
training took the majority of one full work day, but was very
comprehensive. The trainer was not an
employee of Halogen, but rather a retired HR professional who had used the
product for many years, and not trained on it part-time. Our trainer made himself available after the
training for questions. I utilized our
trainer for weeks after the training, and he had a lot of great “insider” tips since
he had been a user and customer of Halogen previously.
Customer Service:
Halogen has multiple methods to receive customer service, three of which
I utilize. First, they have a support
website. From the website you can place
a ticket for technical support. They
respond to tickets you submit via the website very quickly. I usually have a response within about 20
minutes, with the longest I've waited being about 2 hours. They try to fix your issues quickly as well –
only once have I had a ticket open more than 24 hours. They also have a feature on their support
website called the “Knowledge Base”.
This allows you to type in a question, and receive an instant,
pre-determined answer. This is a great
place to go if you forget how to perform a particular function, or if you have
a keyword you can use to search for your question, such as “Third Party
Feedback” or “e-signature”. True
technical problems or questions are better handled by placing a ticket. Lastly, you are assigned an account manager
at Halogen. My account manager rarely
answers questions herself, but does a good job of pointing me in the right
direction, whether it’s to tech support, or to other clients who I can talk to
about best practices.
Halogen User Group (HUG): Halogen has a group on LinkedIn specifically
for Halogen users. It’s an open forum
where you can ask questions of other Halogen users, explain your situation to
see if other companies had similar questions or situations, or peruse to find
ideas for your own processes. They also
hold HUG meetings in larger cities each year for users of the system to come
together and learn from one another. The
HUG meetings are usually a daylong event, where they setup discussions around
topics the participants voted on prior to the meeting. I actually found more learning value from my
HUG meeting in 2013 than I did the annual national SHRM conference. I also gained a network of Halogen users in
my region that I can connect with if I have questions or want to learn further best
practices from.
Configuration and Customization: Halogen is a highly configurable software
product. It seems like there are endless
options to choose from to make your forms look the way you want and to make
your process run the way you want. For
configuration, I give Halogen two thumbs up.
With so many options, I’m sure all of their client’s forms and processes
look entirely different. When it comes
to customization in Halogen, it’s slightly more challenging, but it can be
done. They typically charge a fee if you
require extensive customization beyond the standard eAppraisal offering. I've not been through the process, so I
cannot attest to the price or time frame that such customization requires. The good news is that the product comes with
so many options already, that I think most organization can make their
appraisal process align with the software’s capabilities, and vice versa. The other good news is that your assigned
Account Manager will take requests you have to make updates or changes to the
software, and submit them to the technology team. Not all requests make it onto every release
(which happy 1-2 times per year), but it’s exciting when you see your requests
as part of a future update.
Compatibility with other Software: Halogen offers an “HRIS Connect” product
which helps streamline the data transfer between your HR system and Halogen. To manually update Halogen isn't the worst
thing in the world, but it’s slightly cumbersome as might be expected. I recommend obtaining the “HRIS Connect”
product. The annual fee is pretty
minimal, and if you have a mid to large sized organization, it definitely makes
sense.
Pitfalls: So,
what are the pitfalls? While my review
is generally a glowing one of the eAppraisal product, there are a few pitfalls,
as with any software.
- With so many options for configuration, you have to be incredibly detail oriented when setting up a form or process. It’s easy to overlook one box to check, which can substantially throw off part of your form or process. As someone who has experienced this, and because there are so many details to configure, I cannot emphasize the importance of testing, testing and retesting. And when you’re done testing, test again!
- Software updates typically happen once per year, maybe twice. Each update is fairly significant since they occur infrequently, but when you put in a request, it’s a bit of a bummer when you must wait up to a year to see if it will be implemented.
- I receive LinkedIn and email updates from Halogen. Sometimes I will ask my Account Manager about something I see in my Halogen updates, and she’s not been briefed on the topic yet. For example, I saw a press release that Halogen would be adding a module that facilitates the Myers Briggs type indicator personality assessment. I was interested in it, but my Account Manager did not know the press release had gone out and had zero information on the new product or when information would become available.
Overall, I've been very satisfied with Halogen’s eAppraisal
product, but more importantly, the managers I work with and associates I
support find the software to be easy to use and an asset in managing
performance.
I hope this is helpful to anyone considering appraisal or
talent management software.
Please let
me know if you have questions about my experience with Halogen’s
eAppraisal and if you have used the product, what your experiences have been.
If you like the product review posts, please let me know and I'll be sure to include them more often!
