Speedy company analysis made easy

Rapid growth in the use of software and automated processes has often been perceived as a threat to traditional work functions. But when people turn technology to their advantage, paranoia can be replaced with empowerment in the workplace.

Dublin-based Simon McRory realised the potential of software for his business before most. In 1989, he started thinking about developing a product that would automate employee and organisational diagnostic surveys. Having worked in the area for many years he had a clear vision of how an automated process would save both time and money for companies. "The day I came up with the product I knew exactly what it would look like in my head, but back then there was only one multimedia expert I met who could visualise it and how it would operate," says Mr McRory.

It took him another eight years to bring his product, HRMaster ODP (organisational diagnostic profiler) to market. Having always worked in the field of human resource consultancy and analysis, he wanted to develop something that was an improvement on existing paper-based surveys. He came up with a user friendly, visually attractive, company analysis tool. Traditional surveys have provided management with an imperfect means of gaining access to valuable employee and company information. The processes tend to be time consuming and based on single item development, where the company is trying to find out something specific and all the questions are geared in that direction. They tend to provide poor snapshots of a company's general health at a particular point in time. HRMaster ODP will allow human resource managers to undertake their own employee surveys and analyse the results immediately, without requiring the constant costly services of a consultant. Where typical response rates to employee satisfaction or attitude surveys tend to range from 30 to 70 per cent, HRMaster ODP is clocking response rates in excess of 90 per cent. If a product is as good as its last contract, then the recent announcement that Microsoft Ireland is going to adopt HRMaster ODP bodes well for Mr McRory's company, Graphite HRM. Graphite already has installed its product in a number of high profile companies since it launched last October. These include First National, Irish Life, Lotus Development, Trintech, Celestica, Xilinx and CPC Foods.

Last week, it made its first foray into the US market, securing the worldwide global distribution rights on HRMaster for a multinational advertising agency. As the contract has not been finalised, Mr McRory declined to name the company, but he says the product will now have to be adapted for 23 locations worldwide.

What sets HRMaster apart from other organisational diagnostic methods is that it is based on a standard organisational model devised by Mr McRory over a fiveyear period. Basing his model on the conclusions of a leading behavioural science theorist, Mr Marvin Weisbord, Mr McRory worked on the premise that there are six starting points common to all organisations. These are goals, structure, relationships, climate, leadership and process.

Mr McRory then set about devising an end point for each of the areas. He developed an ideal for every area, and gave each three criteria. Against each criteria he came up with five mission statements extrapolated from the work of leading behavioural scientists in each of the six areas. Based on personality test thinking, the process took him five years to apply to a company model in a workable way.

The result is capable of extremely powerful analysis. It is possible to view up to 175,000 analysis profiles of any organisation, or section within an organisation, within minutes. An additional benefit is that the ODP model will not only identify issues within an organisation, but pinpoint their exact location and underlying cause. For example, after employees have completed the survey, a specific breakdown such as the overall responses of males, under 25, working in the marketing area of a company, can be available within minutes.

The HRMaster also addresses the long-term employee survey problem of inconsistency of response. The software will recognise an inconsistent pattern of responses as it emerges, and warn the user. If it continues, the user will be eliminated. Eliminated surveys can then be looked at separately, and traced to specific parts of organisations, though not to individuals.

Companies that choose to use HRMaster also have their own input. A company employee, generally from the human resource area, completes an intensive five-day training course with Graphite, where they learn to analyse the survey and extrapolate the results according to their own, or the company's, criteria.

"This way it combines the company's depth of employee experience, with our breadth of knowledge of the organisational model. The organisation ends up owning the diagnosis, and not the consultant," says Mr McRory.

All of the funding behind the development of HRMaster has come from within Graphite. Mr Ron Downey, founding director of Kindle Banking Systems, recently took a significant shareholding in the company prior to the launch of HRMaster. The company is now making profits after two years of losses, and with a minimum product take-up charge of £21,000, Mr McRory predicts revenues in excess of £1 million in the coming year. Long-term revenues are ensured as the product incurs a recurring licence fee for continued customer usage.

The workforce of 15 is expected to grow significantly over this period as Graphite plans to develop every area of its core consultancy business. Mr McRory cites the company mantra as the driver behind Graphite's future: "Innovation is seeing what everyone else sees but thinking what nobody else has thought."