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Deliver the HR Service experience your employees deserve - Part 9

Patrick Bolger -
Deliver the HR Service experience your employees deserve - Part 9

Celebrate success and prepare for continual improvement

The final blog post in this series provides some ideas on how to measure early success and the things you need to consider to keep momentum going, because implementing a new HR Service Management tool does not signal the end of your journey, it is just the start.

A key determinant of early success is how quickly, and how well, your employees adopt the new solution. An effective HR Service Management tool will provide instant access to all the data and metrics you need to understand; how many employees have accessed the HR Service Portal, the volume and types of service request being raised, how quickly requests are being dealt with and resolved, performance against SLA’s, and so much more. Although it is important to understand at the outset, which metrics you will need to demonstrate improvement of HR Services over time, focus your initial metrics on employee adoption once the system goes live. This will enable you to demonstrate how User Stories have been met and will highlight areas that can be further improved, enabling you to gather new feedback.

In my experience, HR teams that rely on manual processes, forms and email to manage their requests, typically have little or no data that can be used to baseline their performance prior to adopting HR Service Management. Occasionally, HR teams use spreadsheets to track workload and if this data is available, it can be used to establish a baseline around the volume and types of requests received, the channels they come through (email, phone, walk-in etc.) and how quickly they have been processed from receipt to fulfilment. If this data is available, it can easily be compared with the metrics from your HR Service Management tool to demonstrate value early-on. If these metrics are not available, there are other important measures, which can easily be obtained to enable you to demonstrate value quickly.

Your Project Brief and User Stories should provide a good source of inspiration and guidance when establishing the metrics that matter. Although you will be capturing data from day one, it will take a few months to gather enough data for trend analysis. Some examples of the comparisons you can use to quickly show improvements to HR Service Delivery are:

  • Number of days to recruit, from request to advertise to employee start date
  • Number of manual forms replaced by online forms for each process
  • Reducing duplication of the information a recruiting manager needs to provide
  • Replacing paper-based new starter packs with online access for new employees
  • Historic vs current metrics of employee satisfaction with HR

Earlier, we alluded to the importance of Continual Improvement and explained that reviewing and improving HR services and the processes that support them is not a one-time event. This is particularly important in the early life of your new HR Service Management solution, as you’ll need to respond quickly to feedback to maintain and improve employee adoption. As speed and momentum are important, aim for self-sufficiency and appoint HR staff that can step in when you need to design services or tweak processes. Some HR Service Management tools make this easy, with drag and drop designers and point-and-click tools, which allow you to configure processes and tweak workflow without having to rely on technical gurus.

Once the new HR Service Management tool has gained traction and your employees are readily adopting it, you are likely to see the greatest step change in terms of improvement. Here are a few comments from employees of public sector organizations that I have engaged with recently to help roll out a new HR Service Management solution:

  • “All I can say is, this is brilliant!”
  • “The online forms are so user-friendly and straightforward.”
  • “Such a massive improvement to the previous (incredibly challenging) procedures.”
  • “This has made life so much easier for everyone in Business Support.”
  • “This has revolutionized the recruitment process.”

Persistence is key, so you will need to keep channels open and actively encourage people to provide feedback, suggestion and ideas for on-going improvement. Talk to employees and managers to get their perspective on how easy it is for them to consume your services and interact with your processes. Service improvement needs to happen at a steady pace, and if you keep going, you will be able to deliver similar results to the ones below, which were achieved within six months of a successful HR Service Management implementation:

  • Customer satisfaction increased by 22%
  • Customer dissatisfaction decreased by 29%
  • Time to recruit reduced by 36%
  • Information duplication reduced by 47%
  • Forms required for recruitment reduced by 72%

Conclusion

In any productive workplace, where employees are engaged and energized, you will find an effective HR department driving the employee experience. They bring effective working practices into the organization to attract and retain the best talent. They recommend strategies to help employees further the organizations goals, monitor the culture, oversee company activities and events, research and implement employee benefits and so much more. More importantly, they understand, and can market, the services they provide to communicate the value that HR brings to the business.

Stay on course and don’t give up, because once HR Service Management is up and running, your employees and managers will thank you. Furthermore, it is incredibly rewarding to liberate busy HR teams and see them thrive as they deliver exceptional employee service experiences.

Download the Smart Guide now to help your organization - Deliver the HR Service Experience your employees deserve.

Hornbill ESM

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