City of Raleigh’s Human Resources Department recently implemented Fluid User Interface and ePerformance to help them:

• Replace PeopleSoft Portal (Interaction Hub)
• Make PeopleSoft HCM the gateway (homepage) for users
• Create separate homepages based on users’ roles
• Transform paper performance evaluation forms
• Manage the performance management cycle
• Manage the annual evaluation and approval process
• Integrate with eCompensation Manager Desktop

About City of Raleigh

The City of Raleigh organization is made up of 20+ departments that serve over 470,000 citizens. There are 4,000 full-time employees and over 3,000 part-time employees.

The City of Raleigh runs:

• PeopleSoft HCM 9.2 PUM Image 20
• PeopleSoft FSCM 9.2 PUM Image 29
• PeopleTools 8.56
• Several interfaces with both internal and external systems

Within HCM, the City of Raleigh runs Core HR, Position Management, Benefits, Compensation, ePerformance, Payroll, Time and Labor, Absence Management, and ESS/MSS.

For FSCM, the City of Raleigh utilizes General Ledger, Accounts Payable, Expenses, Inventory, Asset Management, Commitment Control, Purchasing, Procurement, Supplier Contract, and ESS/MSS.

Other Oracle products at the City of Raleigh include Budget Management System (Hyperion) and iLearn (Taleo Learn).

ePerformance Project Overview

The City of Raleigh wanted to transform its three paper performance evaluation forms into Performance Document Templates in ePerformance:

1. General Employees
2. Supervisor/Technical Employees
3. Executive Employees

ePerformance was also used to manage the Performance Management Cycle that ran from July 1^st to June 30^th. From July to August, the focus was on goal development. The mid-year review happened from January to February, and the year-end evaluation was from July to August.

The City of Raleigh’s annual evaluation and approval process consisted of the following steps:

• Supervisor submits employee’s performance document to reviewer
• Reviewer approves and adds comments
• Supervisor shares with employee

Planning for the ePerformance project started in October 2018 and ran through May 2019. Design began over the next few months, and the build was complete by Fall 2019. After testing, City of Raleigh deployed ePerformance in January 2020. Training swiftly began in February 2020, and post-production support began after that.

Fluid UI Project Overview

The City of Raleigh wanted to replace PeopleSoft Portal (Interaction Hub) with Fluid, make PeopleSoft HCM the gateway (homepage) for users, and create separate homepages based on users’ roles.

User roles:

• HCM
  • HR Administrator
  • Benefits Administrator
  • Compensation Administrator
  • Safety & Health, Worker’s Comp
  • Payroll Tasks
• FSCM
  • Accounts Payable
  • Asset Management
  • Buyer Homepage
  • General Ledger
  • Inventory
  • Requester

Planning began in March 2019 and ran through early Summer 2019. Design and build were complete by November 2019, and testing was complete by January 2020. After training, deployment and post-production support ran through February and March 2020.

Challenges Faced

The City of Raleigh identified several issues throughout their Fluid and ePerformance implementations:

• Resource Management
  • Resource constraint: The same functional resource was heavily involved with both projects
  • Lack of resource: Both projects had to be on hold for a while as there were several vacant positions
• Timeline
  • Both projects were overwrapped
• Documentation
  • Business/Functional Requirement Document for ePerformance Project was not created at the beginning of the project
  • There was not a standard to review the deliverables
• Stakeholders’ Involvement
  • Only limited stakeholders were involved with requirements gathering and design
• Training
  • Some confusions were caused as PeopleSoft terminology is different from the City’s terminology
  • Employee skill level and computer literacy varies
  • Some of the training materials for ePerformance needed to be recreated after Fluid UI was implemented
• Change/Enhancement Requests
  • Change and enhancement requests continued to be identified during and after the Production Support phase

Tips & Tricks

To help resolve some of the issues identified above, the City of Raleigh put together recommendations for others:

• Resource Management
  • Allocate enough resources before starting a project
• Timeline
  • Manage multiple projects properly that have impacts on other project(s)
• Documentation
  • Identify deliverables at the beginning of the project and create standards of the documentation and QA process for the deliverables
• Stakeholders’ Involvement
  • Involve stakeholders from different departments with the requirements gathering for any new functionality that has major impacts to end users
• Training
  • Create training materials to meet employee’s skill level
  • Involve training managers from the planning phase of a project to create appropriate training plans and materials, especially if a project has an impact on other project(s)
• Change/Enhancement Requests
  • Involve stakeholders from different departments with the requirements gathering for any new functionality that has major impacts to end users

To learn more, check out the City of Raleigh’s presentation and the 2021 PeopleSoft Community Insight attached below.