Although Fifth Third's original agreement with Convergys was scheduled to run through 2008, both companies agreed to extend the service agreement two years early as a result of Convergys' successful execution of the program.

Under the terms of the early renewal, Convergys will continue to provide Fifth Third Bank with advanced payroll administration and processing, compensation administration and planning, benefits administration, HR administration (including data management and strategic services), recruiting and resourcing (including hiring, on boarding and specialized staffing), and employee and manager self-service.

"Convergys has helped us alleviate our back-end administration concerns and enabled us to move our HR focus to more strategic activities, such as talent management, compensation, and benefits," said Thomas Neltner, vice president, HR Operations, Fifth Third Bank.

With a workforce of 21,000, Fifth Third Bancorp is a diversified financial services company with $99.8 billion in assets, operating 18 affiliates with 1,161 full-service banking centers. Fifth Third is headquartered in Cincinnati.

Prior to the Convergys HR outsourcing implementation, more than 70 percent of Fifth Third's HR responsibilities involved the handling of administrative transactions. Realizing that the HR function could be better used to accomplish strategic company initiatives and goals, Fifth Third Bank implemented a service delivery model that created consistency using a common platform, provided scalability for growth, and enabled HR to be more strategic.

Neltner added, "Using the manager self-service delivery tool, we have been able to create a paperless environment and re-align resources. With more than 10,000 transactions each quarter, our move to this online solution provides us significant cost and time savings."

"The fact that Fifth Third Bank rewarded us with an early contract renewal demonstrates their confidence in our ability to deliver business impacting services and solutions, based on the results of our HR BPO service delivery model and successful ongoing management of their HR functions," said Karen Bowman, president, Employee Care, Convergys. "During our discussions, Fifth Third acknowledged its excellent working relationship with Convergys and the benefits it has realized as among the reasons for early renewal."

Convergys designs, implements, and manages HR BPO solutions for all facets of the employment life cycle: recruiting and resourcing, compensation, HR administration, payroll, benefits, performance management, learning, and workforce intelligence.

Clients using Convergys' outsourced HR services improve their business performance through improved efficiency, reduced administrative costs, and better utilization of strategic workforce information. For more than 20 years, Convergys has provided outsourced HR solutions to the worlds leading organizations. Convergys is Outthinking and Outdoing on behalf of its clients every day.