Norconsult aims for HR-professional totality

from September 2007 newsletter

Norconsult, the largest consulting engineering company in Norway, has for the last four years used an in-house developed IT application to support their appraisal talks. In a natural progression to improve the process, they replaced the application with CatalystOne™ Appraisal Manager to better support an overall solution for appraisals and competency management.

The annual process for appraisals in Norconsult has great importance within the organization. The appraisal talk is the foundation of the HR philosophy of the company because it leads to career and competency actions.

”We have a system for career and competence development with which we are very satisfied. However, by implementing CatalystOne™ it will be put into an overall framework and anchored entirely in a HR-professional process.

CatalystOne, as a company consists of a dedicated specialists with its ‘headlights’ focused towards HR trends inside and outside Norway”, says Tom Arild Junge (photo) Vice President Finance, Human Resources and Market in Norconsult. The benefits he expects to see in the first phase will be reflected in the follow-up of the agreed actions in the appraisal talks.

“It will be easier for both managers as well as for the employees to follow-up action plans from the appraisal talks. We are also considering using other solutions from CatalystOne, such as the business goals and objectives module in CatalystOne™ Appraisal Manager. We are now in the process of developing our strategy plan for 2008-2010. The plan will be cascaded down to operative plans for each unit and to use CatalystOne to follow-up in a systematic way is a very interesting concept”, explains Mr. Junge.

“For the time being, approximately 1.000 employees will be using CatalystOne™ Appraisal Manager in Norconsult AS in Norway across all areas, locations and levels in the company. At a later stage it may be relevant to implement CatalystOne™ Appraisal Manager in our subsidiaries outside Norway.

“We have a subsidiary of 200 employees in Sweden where it is relevant to offer CatalystOne™ Appraisal Manager. On principle, the tool is expected to be so valuable that the subsidiaries will wish to start using it themselves. In one year’s time Norconsult will be ready to share their experiences with CatalystOne™ Appraisal Manager”.