How ivision Transformed Its Compensation and Benefits with Lattice

TL;DR: ivision, a technology integration and management firm, transformed its HR processes and built a transparent, people-first culture with Lattice. It standardized performance reviews, structured one-on-ones, and implemented equitable compensation. Here’s how.

‍

ivision is a technology integration and management firm that serves mid-sized and enterprise-level businesses. “We use technology to solve our clients' business problems through consulting, managed services, and everything in between,” shares Senior Manager, Employee Engagement Ashley Tocci. 

With a team of 300 employees across the US, ivision is a certified Great Place to Work. Its people-centered culture focuses on continuously making its employees' lives better. “Especially being a services organization, people are everything to us and the reason we can deliver great technology solutions. Our people really do matter,” she adds. 

But a people-first culture is more than handing out gift cards. It’s also about giving people a sense of purpose through clear job expectations, fair performance calibrations, equitable salaries, and aspirational leaders. ivision needed to strengthen and standardize some of these processes.

So, to truly put people at the center, adopt strategic spending, and champion organizational support, ivision redefined its internal processes with Lattice. Here’s how Ashley leveraged the tool to improve and standardize HR processes: 

Performance Reviews: From a Black Box to Clear People Calibration

Before Lattice, the performance review process at ivision was manual. Managers evaluated their teams and calculated compensation bonuses on a spreadsheet. “Despite our ability to implement unique technology solutions for our clients, a large portion of our internal people processes depended on Excel,” says Ashley. 

This made it hard for HR to track completion across the organization or have an equitable review process for all employees. “Our review cycles would stretch out several months or they wouldn’t happen at all because there was nobody following up,” she adds. 

Lattice Performance enabled Ashley to offer a unified performance and compensation management experience. “We're now all doing things in a similar way and timeframe. All employees are getting similar opportunities, timely feedback, and a formal performance review,” she adds. This helped managers  complete review cycles in weeks instead of months.

ivision’s team also benefited from introducing one-on-ones. This Lattice feature guides the conversation and allows employees to align and commit to goals, and complete reviews faster. “Instead of tracking all of these details in email, we have all notes from one-on-ones for all our people in one place,” says Ashley. 

Since ivision also uses Lattice to manage compensation, managers could see all their team’s pay information on a single screen. Mixing performance and compensation data allowed team leads to follow a standard process, reward high performance, and encourage salary transparency.

Ashley believes being open, transparent, and honest about compensation shows people that you care and are willing to grow with them. “People can work anywhere. Why should they work here? Because we care — let us show you how we do that,” she closes. Lattice empowers managers to give this level of transparency.

Transparent and Equitable Salaries and Bonuses

Previously at ivision, there was no benchmarking, or salary grades, a scenario which tends to be common in smaller companies. 

Lattice Compensation has allowed Ashley to rethink total rewards and tie it to performance. “It’s the kind of foundation we need to go from a 300-person to a 900-person company, and beyond,” she says. 

She believes Lattice is a game changer as managers can see a salary range for their team and adjust pay for performance by accessing the right data. HR also introduced compensation cycles along with implementing salary bands, and allowing managers to see benchmarks and available budgets. 

This feature shows how leaders are managing compensation and empowers better decision-making and efficiency across the team. “I can see if a leader hasn't submitted anything, reach out, and ask if they need help. Or, if a person is requesting higher than anticipated, I can double down and see what's going on,” she adds. 

Using Lattice for compensation management also allows for better budgeting and data-based projections, which makes the CFO “very happy.” Additionally, it helps HR make informed decisions, such as knowing if there’s room to retain someone based on salary bands. 

Why Lattice: Empowered Managers and People Teams

Being a part of a small team, the leaders at ivision needed extra help to comply with all people processes. “We ask them to do so much, but we gave them no help. Lattice was a big life preserver we threw to them,” says Ashley. 

To get the most out of Lattice, Ashley hosts monthly workshops to explain different aspects of the tool with real-life use cases. “These sessions have empowered our managers to use the tool in the best way. We evangelize Lattice and empower our leaders to use it in a way that best serves them and makes them most effective,” she adds.

She believes the beauty of Lattice is its flexibility. It allows you to adapt the tool to your processes — not the other way around. “It gives you freedom within a framework,” says Ashley. 

When Ashley first joined ivision, she discovered that the company had purchased Lattice as a performance management tool. “But it's so much more than that, it really has come to weave itself into the fiber of each one of our strategic company goals,” she closes.

For instance, Ashley has experienced collateral benefits to Lattice, like having regular one-on-ones and setting clear expectations that improve team communication. “I’ve noticed that teams who use one-on-ones frequently have fewer complaints, fewer communication issues, and faster reviews within said team,” she says.