Making Your People Ops Platform Work for You: Q&A with Jaclyn Swergold from Aksia and Kim Mason from Alkami

When it comes to making instrumental people decisions, do you make them with ease? Or, come decision-time, do you feel like you’re juggling a hundred glass balls?

We’re here to tell you it can almost always be the former. When you use a people operations platform, your people data is centralized in one spot, so you can make headcount plans, manage your compensation cycle, and collaborate with other leaders within a single platform.

But we also know that organizations are complicated, which is why it’s even more important to choose a solution that’s configurable to your team’s needs.

That’s why we sat down with People leaders Jaclyn Swergold, Director of Human Resources at Aksia, and Kim Mason, Talent & Organizational Development Principal at Alkami. Below, they share how they've enhanced their platform and empowered their teams to act on important people decisions using ChartHop.

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You’ve both said that ChartHop has solved quite a few pain points and filled gaps in your processes. What have your organizations done to make your people operations platform your own?

Kim Mason: ChartHop was originally purchased because our organization was growing exponentially. We had a lot of manual processes that were being completed in docs and spreadsheets which were not scalable. We were looking for a solution that would let us tailor and customize processes to meet our needs.

ChartHop solved a variety of different pain points for us. One quick example: The first thing we implemented was the org chart. We had one giant slide deck that one person was editing every time we hired people. Just being able to get people into the system, and then adding in goal setting, merit compensation, the full performance management cycle…it’s been a really big asset for us.

Jaclyn Swergold: We also started with the org chart. The next biggest priority for us was PTO tracking because we didn’t have an efficient system. We had different offices tracking it in spreadsheets, and we were looking to systemize the whole process. We went through a very iterative process working with the ChartHop team to figure out how to leverage the platform to make it work for our PTO tracking, which has really been amazing.

A dynamic org chart allows you to spend less time updating tiny boxes and more time supporting your people.

How has choosing a platform that allows extended configurability been instrumental for your organization?

Mason: We had quite a few complicated equations built into the back end because we manage all of the performance management, compensation, merit, and promotion processes in ChartHop. We have tailored ChartHop to accommodate both bonus and non bonus eligible employees to have a seamless goal setting experience. When our Alkamists go into the platform to enter their goals, they select the weight for that particular goal. If they are bonus eligible, this weight feeds into the bonus calculation. The great part of this for our Alkamists is everyone experiences a seamless process. Employees have full visibility and transparency into their pay structure and how their goals are impacted. All of that is custom-built.

At the end of the year, ChartHop is able to provide the calculations needed for our end of year merit and compensation process. It works seamlessly between our Performance Management and Compensation modules.

How have your processes been streamlined with ChartHop?

Swergold: Before moving to ChartHop, our performance review process was entirely manual, which meant that all managers would send me an email with a document for each employee. So I had close to 400 documents – each in a different format – that I had to open individually.. It was an administrative nightmare. Moving to a people ops platform where performance management is part of the system is amazing. It’s been great for our employees and managers as well, because they get reminders, can enter everything into the platform, view feedback submitted from throughout the year, and reference it while they’re writing performance reviews. It’s transformed our process and has helped elevate HR as a function within the organization as well.

With the right people operations platform, you can send out performance review templates (and reminders to complete them) in the same space you house your people data. Hello, seamless communication and decision-making.

Alkami just came out of a performance cycle. Can you speak to your experience of having centralized data and how it helped your team overcome the normal compensation planning hurdles?

Mason: We have an HRIS, but we turned off our compensation portion of that tool when we implemented ChartHop. We actually have two separate compensation cycles: one for our Sales team and then one for the rest of the organization. We’ll be running both of those throughout the year. The ability to run two separate cycles in one year is a really important customizable feature, making the process easier since we are able to run both of these processes simultaneously.

Talking about centralizing the information, I can speak about that from a manager’s perspective. The platform allows them to see promotions, promotion compensation, and standard merit for their employees on a singular dashboard, which lets them manage that information more effectively. And because the information rolls up, the leader’s leader and leader’s leader’s leader are all able to see their dashboard and the entire org chart holistically so they can manage the budget appropriately.

With approval workflows right inside the platform, you can communicate and approve a plan efficiently and effectively.

Make the Most of Your People Operations Platform

Interested in reading other cases of how a people operations platform helps organizations tackle specific needs?

Discover how ChartHop helped Wistia consolidate their headcount planning, align with Finance, and eliminate manual tasks — all in one place.