Case Management Solutions as Enablers of Global HRSS

When implementing global HR or Employee Shared Services, the importance of careful process design, people management, and leveraging of available technologies are all important factors to achieving a successful outcome.   Ensuring the delivery of “world-class people services” ^[1] when process delivery moves from onsite and face-to-face to remote delivery with no personal relationship between the employee and service provider (either person or machine) becomes complicated unless the points of interaction between the employee and the Employee Services organization are friendly, efficient, and effective. 

Regarding the role of technology, achieving success is more involved than simply changing settings on your SAP or Oracle ERP system ^[2], or properly configuring your newly implemented Workday solution.   For the majority of companies that have a call center or help desk customer support structure, a robust case management solution is critical to enabling the remote delivery of HR services consistently and accurately, using a range of interfaces that meet the varying needs of your employees.

A recent HR Shared Services Peercast^TM featured a global company with 20,000 employees worldwide sharing their experiences with implementing a case management solution as part of a larger implementation of Global HR Shared Services ^[3].  The mission of the new organization was to “deliver world-class people services that fuel growth and drive amazing results”.  The following work processes were included:

• Compensation Services
• Benefit Services
• HR Technology
• HR Contract Centers
• Payroll
• Portfolio and Project Management

Using a case management solution as an integral part of their design, HR Shared Services included delivery via self-service ^[4], a contact center, and HR Business Services for more complex transactions and exception processing.  Separate, smaller centers of excellence and HR business partner resources that operate outside of the scope of HR Shared Services were available as a final step to address cases that weren’t otherwise resolved. 

Components of the case management solution Included:

• Case tracking
• Service level agreement management
• Metric reporting and analytics
• Customer service surveys
• Notifications and approvals
• Self-service capabilities
• Case routing
• HRIS integration
• Request forms
• IVR integration
• Knowledgebase system
• Portal technology
• Workflow capabilities

Our feature company completed a careful evaluation of available solutions using a formal RFP process.  Some of the solutions evaluated were developed by software providers including ServiceNow, Remedy, Infor, Dovetail Software, and Neocase Software.  When selecting a solution the following factors were carefully considered:

• SAAS or on-premise hosting
• Integration with HRIS
• Security capabilities
• Language capabilities
• Chat capabilities
• Workflow needs

Lessons learned during the project included:

• Integrate with HRIS
• Create SLAs to measure success
• Careful and frequent involvement of the end user
• Don’t launch without a knowledgebase in place
• Don’t underestimate the importance and resource requirements for change management
• Don’t build the solution “for HR”, which can allow other areas to leverage the same technology and implement a solution with a similar look and feel

The benefits identified from implementing the Case Management Solution included:

• Full visibility to all open requests in HR
• The ability of users to use electronic forms to submit requests
• Integration with phone technology and with e-mail
• Providing the necessary infrastructure for a tiered service delivery model
• The system’s ability to report on status and issue alerts as needed
• Self-service capabilities

Making the transition from local onsite support to a service delivery model where support is provided remotely is an undertaking that you want to get right the first time since it directly impacts your company’s most critical resource – your employees.  As that transition takes place, the proper design and implementation of a robust case management solution can be a critical success factor.

What HR case management solution is being used at your company?  How is it designed and implemented, and what level of integration exists with your ERP or other HR systems?

Who are your peers and how are you collaborating with them?

“Peercasts^TM” are private, professionally facilitated webcasts that feature leading member company experiences on specific topics as a catalyst for broader discussion.  Access is available exclusively to Peeriosity member company employees, with consultants or vendors prohibited from attending or accessing discussion content.  Members can see who is registered to attend in advance, with discussion recordings, supporting polls, and presentation materials online and available whenever convenient for the member.  Using Peeriosity’s integrated email system, Peer Mail^TM, attendees can easily communicate at any time with other attending peers by selecting them from the list of registered attendees.