Lifebanc – Overview
Organ, eye, and tissue donations bring help, hope, and healing to thousands of people and families each year, changing lives forever. Serving as Northeast Ohio’s only nonprofit organ and tissue recovery organization, Lifebanc began more than 30 years ago as one of the original seven independent organ procurement organizations in the United States. Lifebanc now serves over four million people and works with 80 hospitals in a 20-county area of Northeast Ohio.
With a workforce of 145 highly specialized staff, Lifebanc’s mission is to save and heal lives through its core values: service, teamwork, integrity, commitment, innovation, and quality. In Lifebanc’s field, employees need many core skills to be effective in their role, such as a highly specialized, comprehensive medical knowledge or excellent interpersonal skills to interact and engage with people facing very stressful situations – or often both. This means that it is critical to be able to align staff’s competencies and consistently monitor performance goals and employee development.
For Lifebanc’s HR team, performance reviews are an essential tool for ensuring that every member of the organization realizes their full potential and has the skills and direction needed to deliver on the organization’s critical objectives.
Performance Management Challenges
Prior to emPerform, Lifebanc had been using their payroll system for managing staff performance reviews. The system was not user friendly and did not offer the support or configurability that Lifebanc needed to develop their performance review forms and processes in a way that they wanted. It also had a timeout feature that was very problematic for staff; many users would lose data after entering comments or writing feedback and have to start over from scratch when entering comments or writing their feedback. The system was so frustrating for users that Lifebanc reverted to using paper for performance reviews.
Lifebanc’s HR team knew that there had to be a better way and began their search for a new performance management system.
The Search for a New Performance Management
Lifebanc’s team needed a performance management system that would meet their exact requirements surrounding usability and flexibility:
• Ease of use
• Eliminating loss of data
• Flexibility in designing forms
• The ability to track and coach performance in real-time
• An easy way to assign unique, role-specific goals and competencies
• A way to centralize notes and performance discussions
• Comprehensive, responsive vendor support
In the end, for its ease of use, configurability, and facilitation of year-round communication between managers and staff, Lifebanc selected emPerform as their performance management system.
Getting Started with emPerform at Lifebanc
Lifebanc was assigned a dedicated Implementation Specialist and Account Manager to oversee the planning and setup of emPerform, and to work one-on-one with the Lifebanc team to ensure staff had the proper training and that the launch of their new performance management program would go as smoothly as possible. The implementation process included:
• Detailed requirements and needs assessment
• System setup and data integration with ADP®
• On-site HR/Administrator training and testing
• Change-management communication planning & guidance
• Custom end-user training videos and guides
• Pilot testing & launch
• Post-implementation review and adjustments
• Ongoing personal account management & support
At every stage of the process, the emPerform support team was in close communication with the Lifebanc staff, helping to clarify questions and eliminate any pain points whenever issues arose, facilitating ease of rollout and minimizing any disruption to Lifebanc’s important, life-changing work.
“The emPerform support team went above and beyond to ensure we felt comfortable using the system,” said Jennifer. “Our Implementation Consultant was great and very patient in training us and answering our many questions. Even beyond our initial implementation, the emPerform team has been wonderful, helping to resolve any issues with developing a new appraisal or any other questions that may come up. They are prompt and thorough and greatly appreciated,” continued Jennifer.
“emPerform has greatly exceeded my expectations.”
Since adopting emPerform and putting it to use in the performance review process, Lifebanc has seen many significant results.
“emPerform has completely eliminated any loss of data and has given our entire organization the ability to track goals, reviews, and progress like never before,” said Jennifer. “Our staff truly enjoys using emPerform. They love the ease-of-use of the tool and ability to document real-time notes and feedback.” – Jennifer Butler, Lifebanc
“We evaluated almost every system out there and there was no question that emPerform was the best choice for us. Not only did it deliver on configurability, but the system offered incredible functionality for the price. It was also clear from the first interaction with the sales team that long-term customer care and success was a priority.”
Jennifer Butler, Human Resources Coordinator, Lifebanc
Reduced Time to Complete Reviews & Increased On-Time Completion of Reviews
Using emPerform, Lifebanc was able to cut the number of performance reviews still open past their due date by over 50 percent – in just the first year of use. Lifebanc expects this to only improve as emPerform becomes more integrated into the team’s culture.
Real-Time Tracking of Position-Specific Goals & Job Duties
With emPerform’s features that support real-time feedback, notes, and journals, both managers and staff members are now able to achieve clear communication without delay, ensuring the whole team remains on the same page.
Increased Visibility of Staff Performance & Development
Thanks to the aforementioned real-time documentation, emPerform helped Lifebanc track staff members’ development in a visible, actionable manner.
Centralization of Performance Notes
Using emPerform, managers & staff are able to keep performance notes in a central location where they can be accessed anytime.
Just-In-Time Feedback for Staff
Using emPerform, staff can now receive feedback immediately when it is needed, letting them quickly and more easily see where they are excelling and where there are opportunities for development.
Side-By-Side Comparison of Manager & Employee Ratings
The central nature of emPerform’s information means it is easy to compare manager and employee ratings side by side, increasing visibility for times when assessments might differ, making it easier for both parties to get on the same page and address potential gaps in expectations.
“emPerform gives our organization a better overall picture of employee progress and development,” said Jennifer. “emPerform’s reporting lets us track status, overall rating, and it’s great to see both the manager and employee rating side-by-side for easy comparison.”
Lifebanc is committed to ensuring their specialized workforce is given the best chance of success. Lifebanc plans to keep updating their evaluation forms and processes to ensure their performance management strategy is always aligned with the needs of their workforce. Lifebanc intends to leverage emPerform’s full suite of performance management tools to ensure effective alignment, development, and identification of talent opportunities.
“We look forward to growing our processes and incorporating other modules to keep developing our performance management program with emPerform.”
Gain real-time visibility into staff performance, goals and development with emPerform. Intuitive, complete & flexible employee performance management software.
