by Christina Yue, Customer Learning Manager |

With more than 10,000 employees working in 40 countries, XL Catlin knows the importance of a well-designed HR system.

In 2014, XL Group sought out to move from a variety of customized processes into one consolidated system. After careful inspection of their options, the decision-making team selected Oracle HCM Cloud and Taleo. However, a few months into the transition from PeopleSoft to HCM Cloud, XL Group merged with Catlin May. At this point, the newly formed entity had a decision to make—integrate Catlin’s data into the previously chosen consolidated system or operate as separate and multiple systems.

From the CEO’s perspective, an integrated company requires an integrated HR system. With leadership’s stated opinion, XL Catlin set out on a challenging objective to migrate Catlin’s data into one aggregate system.

Although XL Catlin’s quoted timeline for system implementation stated two years, the team set out to complete integration within four months. Now, two years into using the new system, Vice President and IT Executive, Margaret Patrick, reflects on the successes, challenges, and lessons from their journey to one HR.

XL Catlin’s current HR system features include:

• Personal Information
  • Employees update their own details
• Directory
  • Employees have visibility of teams and matrix reporting relationships
• Benefits
  • Employees enroll, change, and view benefits information online
• My Team
  • Managers view all subordinate relationships, including contractors
• Transitions
  • New hires complete on-boarding activities before starting
• Time
  • Employees track and report their own absences
• Workforce Compensation
  • Managers process compensation without HR support
• My Learning
  • Employees access learning through an online portal
• Recruiting/Jobs at XL Catlin
  • Managers monitor applications and employees search for internal postings
• Goals and Performance
  • Managers complete assessments and employees track progress

As XL Catlin made this successful transition, Patrick identifies 10 key lessons for other companies to consider as they build out a consolidated HR system.

1. Refresh training as roles change, particularly the Subject Matter Experts (SMEs)
2. Build a strong network within Oracle
3. Pilot new features with focus groups
4. Keep the security model design simple and revisit regularly
5. Dedicate a team to address reporting from the beginning
6. Minimize data migration
7. Follow best practices and keep up to date with changes
8. Develop a network of champions inside and outside of HR
9. Engage early with owners of related processes and systems (e.g. benefits providers)
10. Ensure a strong support team with extensive product knowledge

Patrick not only looks back on lessons from the journey to HR transformation but also looks forward to what’s next for the company. She prioritizes continuous improvement as small, incremental changes rather than stagnancy and surges of change and is excited about:

• Potential enhancements to mobile capability as HCM Cloud releases new features
• More simplicity in time and labor processes for countries with stricter government-regulated guidelines
• Greater analytics capabilities including combined data from financial systems and predictive analytics.

To get more details on Patrick’s points, watch the video of her presentation at Oracle HCM World.

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