Case History: Allianz

INTRODUCTION

FLEXIBLE WORKING AND THE "EBB AND FLOW" OF WORK:

.

In common with many organisations operating in the insurance sector, Allianz need to manage it's workflow as it changes throughtout each year. In addition, being one of Europes most progressive employers, the company constantly strives to adopt and oftern lead with workplace principles that are modern and employee friendly.

It was in this spirit that Allianz first had dealings with FlexTime, europoes leading proponants of flexible working concepts and systems.

Indeed the driving advantages of flexible working hours are it's ablity to allow Staff and Management work more seamlessly with it's workflow while simultaneously offering a solution to the challenges of balancing work and the commitments of the employees outside life.

Apart from provding state of the art technology to aid the management of flexible working, FlexTime has also supported Allianz in the provision of academic backed research on the subject. The most recent study involved Allianz' own Staff, in a wider grouping of 10 other leading organisations in Ireland and the UK. Amogst the main findings was that flexible working, and by extension the use of our system, offers employees a greater control over their working environment. Research shows that this "control" leads to an increased employee satisfaction in their workplace, which in turn offers management many positives. Ask for more information on this study at 00353 1 2609680.

FLEXIBLE WORKING AND THE VISIONTIME SYSTEM AT ALLIANZ :

FlexTime’s experience and reputation for the delivery of quality systems since the early 1980’s, at the outset we were asked to show the detail of how our VISIONTIME system worked.

Before a full installation, our VisionTime system then was brought internally through a strenuous UAT (User Acceptance Test). This was led by the company’s IT Division and involving HR, Security and selected users from some operational divisions.

VisionTimeWeb passed this phase with flying colours.

INSTALLATION PHASE:

The next step was the installation phase.

Having already had the benefit of the test phase, the first step in terms of a full installation, was for the team at Allianz to make a final agreement on what features should be made available to Staff and Supervisors.

As subjects, Flexible Working and Time Recording, in general, are very much linked to the working culture of each user organisation. Therefore, in order to cater for the diversity of what organisations need, FlexTime, has built up a massive knowledge of the subject since 1983, which is reflected in what the VisionTime system is now capable of doing.

Therefore, to meet the challenge of ensuring that a customer specific solution is provided, for example, FlexTime designed the VisionTime system so that individual features are given “software switches”. This means that even the most minute feature can be either provided or suppressed.

So part of our proven installation method is to tease out with the customer what aspects of the system are specifically relevant to their needs. Once that process was completed with the HR division at Allianz, the system software was installed in just one day. This speed of the actuall installation often surprises our customers!

Allianz decided to opt for a phasing in on a Departmental basis over a period of 12 weeks. So within that time up to 1,000 staff in all offices in the Republic and Northern Ireland were using the system.

Training:

A “Train the Trainer” approach was chosen by Allianz. Thus, FlexTime trained the Managers within each Department. Paul Byrne of FlexTime explains “this way the managers would then train their staff on the usage of the system. All Training was provided to staff in the days leading up to start their “go live” date. This delegated approach made it somewhat simpler for the HR section and for example, Jean Carroll, HR Manager, then just needed to sit in on sessions to answer the larger queries”.

The Training programme was supported by FlexTime’s eTraining tutorial. The employee or supervisor could then connect on line from their own desk to virtual version of the system. The eTraining module has hints and prompts to guide the user in dealing with each system screen and the various aspects of VisionTimeWeb. This is the perfect Training support tool, to assist the busy HR office faced with having to implement a time system for hundreds even thousands of Staff across multiple nationwide locations.

SYSTEM DESCRIPTION :

This is a truly Web oriented project, using FlexTime’s innovative VisionTime System. The system sits on a server in the company’s HQ in Dublin. Staff and supervisors access VisionTime from 3 Centres in Dublin and also from Belfast.

• Most of the 1,000 staff in Allianz now key in/out at their own PC’s
• Staff call up their own clocking activity reports.
• Staff call up their own holiday reports and we can make further absence records available when required.

“Self Service” method of Managing Time:

• Staff handle their own time corrections “electronically” via the intranet.
• Staff input holiday records and also input other absences.
• Supervisors authorise or reject such requests electronically also via the Intranet.

Real Time Notification of activity for Supervisors and Staff

• Supervisors are informed of important activity by real time emails e.g. if an employee is looking for time off
• Employees are equally informed by email if say a supervisor has accepted an electronic request for time off
• If an employee requests something he/she is not entitled to e.g. excess over the holiday limit – the system will not allow the electronic request to proceed and will provide a message.

Overall a basic principle is to cut down on administration and to improve communications around this vital subject of working time.

Ease of Scheduling Staff :

As with any flexible working hours scenario, staff will look to change their schedules or time arrangements from time to time. Perhaps someone will want to opt for job sharing, an eight day forthnight or maybe “term time” (whereby an employee opts to work longer hours during the time schools are open so as to take time off during school holidays to be with their children). Therefore with the very flexible VT Scheduler within VisionTimeWeb, it makes it easy for HR departments to implement such new arrangements. Having been trained on its use, Allianz are therefore and thereafter, quite independent of FlexTime in this respect. Within VisionTimeWeb, Allianz can themselves create whatever working time arrangements are needed, as they arise.

Web Oriented Features :

VisionTimeWeb has many state of the art features which can be implemented on an “as you go” basis. For example, recently Allianz have been using the “Notice Board” feature on the VisionTimeWeb clocking screens.

Therefore, as employees need to go to the Clocking Screen four times per day or more – now they can see essential notices.

Examples:

• When the company moved to new premises on Merrion Road in Dublin 4 – the clocking screen displayed a countdown to the move.
• When FlexTime carried out research with the Staff at Allianz - the research questionaire was accessible at the clocking screen for respondents, during the study .

The company is also considering other new features – more on this later.