Talent 2

Background and Client Objectives
CQUniversity Australia (CQU) is focused on making higher education and research more accessible and relevant to all people, especially those who live and work in Central Queensland. Although a relatively young university they were among the first Australian universities to provide distance education and are rated as one of the best in Australia for the overall education experience and graduate starting salaries.

Talent2's association with CQU goes back to March 1993 when they implemented a Human Resources Information System (HRIS). At that time they primarily used the Personnel Administration, Payroll Management, Leave Administration and Applicant Tracking modules.

A review commissioned by CQU in 2004 identified the university's human resources systems and processes were a major impediment to their ability to operate at the required strategic or tactical levels. Particularly, data consistency and timeliness within the system were in question. They made the discovery that their software was out of date and had since become unsupported by the vendor.

What We Did
In 2006, CQU approved a business case to: upgrade the infrastructure; update their systems to the latest available versions; and perform a health check and data cleanse on both the human resources data and the associated processes. By the end of that year in November the required infrastructure changes were made and the software application was upgraded to the most current available version.

Given the existing relationship with Talent2's HRIS, CQU then implemented the Web Self Service module known within CQU as the 'Employee Self Service Online' module.

By 2008 CQU tested a major Talent2 software upgrade and became the first university outside of the pilot groups to adopt the new version. CQU subsequently rolled out all modules of Talent2's HRIS with no customisations and completed the Beta testing for the product on behalf of the other users. They are now a long way from where they were in 2004.

The Results
The changes made to CQU's core application and the Employee Self Service Online module realised significant benefits by way of time and cost savings in data entry and workflow approval processes.

The introduction of the Performance Management module enabled CQU managers to schedule and track meetings and removed a significant manual paper based system. This was also the case with the implementation of online leave processing, it resulted in the removal of 12,000 manual leave forms over a 12 month period and an impressive 85% of all leave being booked and approved on the same day.

The printing of payslips and payment summaries are now a thing of the past thanks to the introduction of Payslips Online. This resulted in a direct full-time equivalent saving of one day per fortnight and employees now receive their payroll details in a timely manner.  CQU employees can now also update online details relating to their bank account, status, address and emergency contacts.

The increased visibility of the Talent2 HRIS and the available data via the web kiosk has lead more proactive work around the organisational structures and position management within the system. The HRIS is recognised as an integral part of the CQU's core business systems and the single authoritative source of employee information.

Throughout this process, CQU has received encouragement and support from Talent2 to ensure the relationship continues to grow and strengthen. CQU continues to use the HRIS to its full potential and take on extra functionality as and when they need it.