Mace, an international consultancy and construction company, worked closely with NetDimensions over the last few months to enhance the performance-appraisal functionality of the Enterprise Knowledge Platform (EKP), a system for learning and performance management.


Trina Sollis, Head of Learning and Development at Mace, says, "For the last six years, we have been using an appraisal system developed in-house that consisted of dispersed documents that included an online appraisal form, a spreadsheet listing competencies, and a text document outlining career-development plans."


"It was impossible to track and capture important information such as skills, performance metrics, development needs, and career aspirations of our employees. As our company expanded globally, limited access to the online form and the growing need for localized content became significant problems that had to be addressed immediately."


Addressing the needs of a global, high-performance workforce, Mace needed a performance-appraisal system that would cater to all of its 2,800 employees spread across various disciplines, business areas, sectors, and geographical locations and countries.


The system also had to show a clear connection between corporate development requirements and the technical and professional roles of employees within the business, as well as how they fit together. As an equal-opportunity employer, Mace also needed to ensure that its appraisal process supported multiple languages so that every member of the organisation could take part and ultimately benefit.


"With the current economic climate, it is more important than ever that we can clearly demonstrate to our clients the competence and high performance of our people. We have an extremely experienced and well-qualified workforce", explains Sollis. "Training and developing yourself at Mace is second nature. However, we could not evidence this in a way that we were able to show in areas such as the bidding and winning work process."


By using the performance-appraisal process developed by the learning and development team at Mace as a model, NetDimensions' Engineering and Professional Services teams developed a performance-appraisal editor that enabled users to create a number of appraisal templates that can include elements such as past achievements, competencies, training records, future objectives, career development, and learning paths.


"We will initially rollout the new EKP appraisal system in three areas of our business in the last quarter of 2010. We intend to eventually implement it to the rest of our company in the first quarter of 2011-, adds Sollis.


"Moving forward, we will loo" into further developing the system with NetDimensions, from basic enhancements such as spell checking to more advanced features such as automating the upload of grades against competence."