Launched in January 1997 Hastings Direct is the UK’s 5th largest personal lines insurance provider. The addition of Peoples Choice in July 2003, strengthened the Company’s position in the motor insurance market, and Hastings Direct now has over 800,000 policyholders. The Company’s Head Office is located in Bexhill, East Sussex, and two further sites operate in Leicester and Manchester. With approximately 1,400 staff, the Company handles in excess of three million enquiries each year.

Improving internal processes & supporting future growth

While Hastings Direct was experiencing rapid sales growth, internal processes, and in particular HR processes, were in need of improvement.

The acquisition of Peoples Choice, in 2003, created a number of challenges for the Company’s HR function: separate HR systems in operation at the two organisations meant that data could not be stored and managed in one place, while Company wide-reporting was also difficult. A system was required that would allow consistent HR management across both Hastings Direct and the newly acquired Peoples Choice, as well as to support future growth.

General Insurance Regulation

January 2005 marked the introduction of FSA General Insurance Regulation, requiring the Company to, amongst other things, provide evidence that each member of staff is competent to perform their role. Evidence that the competency of staff is reviewed regularly, and appropriate action is taken to fill any gaps in competency identified, was also a requirement.

Why HR.net?

In 2004, whilst facing this impending regulation, and with more than one HR system in operation, it was clear to Hastings Direct that internal processes required both standardisation and automation. In response to the challenge, the Company installed HR.net, a powerful web-enabled HR system, developed by Vizual Business Tools plc.

Using the latest .Net technology, HR.net allows any manual HR process to be replicated in electronic form, enabling a wide variety of tasks to be carried out by employees on a 24/7, self-service basis (e.g. requesting holiday leave). HR.net offers a number of standard workflows, designed to automate processes such as recruitment or fleet management. At the same time, the system’s workflow engine is highly flexible, enabling organisations to either customise the standard modules or automate other administrative procedures, including non-HR specific business processes.

Benefits: efficient data management

As a result of the implementation, all HR data can now be stored and managed in one location. Information is valid and correct, while records can be kept easily up to date. Importantly, with all HR data across the Company maintained in a single location, an accurate view of the organisation is now possible. Precise reports can be generated, either in text or graphical form, at very short notice (e.g. headcount). In addition, HR.net’s self-service technology enables employee data to be kept accurately up-to-date; with all HR data across the Company maintained in a single location, an accurate view of the organisation is now possible. Precise reports can be generated at very short notice. Importantly, HR.net enables Hastings Direct to remain confident that Training and Competency (T&C) information is up to date, should the FSA wish to carry out an inspection or demand to see the Company’s records.

Each individual can access the system to check their data via specific web pages, and update his/her own details or submit certain requests. Employees “own their data” and therefore take greater responsibility for ensuring that it is current and correct. At the same time, HR.net acts as a Company message board, allowing information to be posted by the HR department (e.g.telephone lists, employment policies, Company announcements).

Training & Competency

With a large number of employees performing customer-facing functions via the Company’s call centres, the ability to maintain and monitor T&C data is absolutely essential. Training courses can be booked through the HR.net system and once completed, the employee’s Training History is automatically updated. As a result, team leaders and managers can easily review records for the employees who report to them. Pre and post course evaluation of training is also automated by HR.net so the Company can show that any training provided has achieved the objectives intended by the selection of the course.

Sarah Pickup, Group HR manager, Hastings Direct, commented:

“Team leaders and managers can now look much more easily at the details of staff reporting to them, allowing them to effectively manage their teams from an HR perspective-we’ve had some very positive feed back from Team Leaders”.

Reduction of administrative burden: managing absence

As well as improving the efficiency with which Training and Competency data is managed, HR.net has allowed a number of other HR processes to be automated and streamlined, reducing the amount of administrative work carried out by the Company’s HR function. One area in which efficiency gains are already resulting is the management of sickness leave.

Sarah Pickup, Group HR manager, Hastings Direct commented:

“Absence management was previously very “admin-rich”. Thanks to HR.net, the amount of administrative work has been reduced. The new technology is also allowing HR staff to use their time more productively: once parallel running is complete, the member of staff previously dealing solely with this absence management will be redeployed to also help the recruitment team”.

Payroll

The payroll mechanism previously in use at Hastings Direct obliged payroll staff to re-key data: a considerable administrative burden, the task grew incrementally as the Company increased in size. The implementation of HR.net has now enabled the link between HR and the payroll solution to be integrated. When a new member of staff is recruited, all the employee details are entered into HR.net. These, in turn, are fed directly into the payroll system via an extract file, avoiding the need to re-enter information. Any contractual changes are also recorded in HR.net and fed automatically into the payroll system in the same way. Risk of error and administrative effort are consequently also reduced.