CLICK TO DOWNLOAD
Howard Energy Partners Finds Right Compensation Management Solution in CompLogix
San Antonio-based Howard Midstream Energy Partners, LLC d/b/a Howard Energy Partners (HEP) is a diversified, growth-oriented energy company focused on providing innovative midstream solutions to its customers. Howard Energy Partners owns and operates natural gas and crude oil pipelines, natural gas processing plants, refined products storage terminals, deep-water dock and rail facilities, fractionation facilities, hydrogen production facilities, renewable diesel logistics facilities, and other related midstream assets in Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, and Mexico. The company has corporate offices in San Antonio and Houston, Texas and Monterrey, Mexico (www.howardenergypartners.com)
Senior Human Resources Manager Emily Herring, MS-HRM, SPHR is one of four HR professionals supporting the nearly ten-year-old company and its 370 employees. In the middle of bonus season, with payouts pending and business leaders needing accurate budget calculations to complete distributions, it became painfully obvious that their existing out-of-the-box compensation management solution was falling short.
“It was extremely frustrating,” said Herring. “Not only did our existing system not have the functionality we needed, and some executives wanted, but we were also in the midst of this deadline-sensitive process and budgets weren’t calculating correctly.”
HEP was using a separate system for budgeting and had been working to merge data with their compensation management solution so executive leaders could more easily assess and calculate merit distributions. Repeated calls, emails, and even live working sessions with their solution partner didn’t bring any meaningful resolution to the problem at hand.
“Here we were in the middle of bonus season, and I couldn’t get anyone there to figure out why calculations weren’t working.” In fact, Herring said she found it difficult to even get someone to answer the phone or respond to an email in a timely manner.
With this challenge looming, HEP’s HR team decided it was time to look for a new solution. The team initially evaluated CompLogix’s compensation management solution because it looked easy to use. They were pleasantly surprised when they took a deeper look.
“When we first started looking at solutions, I wasn’t even sure if there was one out there that could do what we needed to do,” said Herring. HEP wanted to be able to include budgets alongside compensation data so business leaders could manage increases, cost-of-living adjustments, and other incentives all from one platform.
“Many compensation management solutions aren’t configurable. What you see is what you get. That’s the position we were in with our existing solution,” said Herring.
Herring thought CompLogix looked straight forward, and as it turned out, it “definitely was all that and more.” She added that the interface is familiar, resembling the spreadsheet format many were accustomed to using. This made initial adoption and acceptance far less intimidating for new users. Once in the system, the underlying features are robust, which make it so easy for HR teams to manage compensation-related data, minimize errors, and generate reports from the system with ease.
For HEP’s leadership, the familiar look and ease of use was especially important. “Our teams are mostly engineers and ‘numbers people’ who need to be able to both import and export data how and when they need it.” In fact, Herring said the ease of use is one of the best features of the CompLogix system. “For busy teams like ours, the fact that we didn’t have to carve out hours to learn a new system is really important,” she said.
When Herring reached out to those users who may have missed the initial introduction to CompLogix training, offering to help if they needed it to get up to speed, most said it wasn’t necessary. “The typical response I received was ‘I’ve got this!’ which made my job so much easier,” she said.
Herring said the team’s initial plan was to test the CompLogix system running in parallel with a manual spreadsheet process to make sure the new platform was working as intended and calculations were being done correctly. After turning on CompLogix and seeing how seamlessly and accurately data was being managed, HEP decided there really was no need to keep the backup spreadsheets in place.
As easy as the onboarding process was, Herring said she also appreciated having someone she could call when she did have questions.
“It was just what I needed at the time,” she said. “There were moments when I was in panic mode given the situation we were in and a quick call to CompLogix was not only answered, but there was always a calm voice with immediate answers. It put me instantly at ease.”
Since making the change to CompLogix, the HEP team has reflected on this decision and feels grateful that the move to a new system worked out so well. Not only did they find a solution that solved the problem of merging merit and budget information, but they also found a responsive partner they can rely on when they need it most.
“In this situation, I really feel like we made the absolute right decision to change to CompLogix,” said Herring. “I know my boss and my teammates would say the same positive things” she added.
If your organization would like to know more about CompLogix or its compensation management solutions, contact us for a no obligation demo.