New Automation Boosts HR Efficiency by 45 Percent, Proving the Exciting Possibilities of itel’s DSI Team 

Manual processes and repetitive administrative tasks can take up valuable staff time and company resources that could be better distributed elsewhere. This can apply to functions carried out by customer support agents, as well as back-end functions that could be made more efficient through robotic process automation (RPA). Find out how our Data Science & Innovation (DSI) team used RPA to transform our employee offboarding process from one that was mostly manual and error-prone, to one that is streamlined, more transparent, and 45% more efficient for our human resources department. Just an example of the time-saving benefits of automation and the exciting possibilities of itel’s DSI team. 

Challenge 

Before automation, itel’s employee offboarding process was mostly manual. If an employee was involuntarily terminated, supervisors would rely on emails between departments to process each offboarding action. In the case of voluntary resignations, they would rely on the employee to send their offboarding request to their support teams, which could be easily misplaced if the employee happened to input the incorrect email address or forgot to put “resignation” in the subject heading.

Our People Resources and Culture (PRC) specialists would have to scour through emails to find each request. They would then have to follow up with several more emails to obtain the information needed to process each termination according to the legal and regulatory requirements of each country, especially if terminations were a result of disciplinary actions. They would also have to send individual tickets to IT to remove each agent’s access to internal systems and to deactivate any access permissions to client platforms or tools.  

It was a time and labor-intensive process that relied on email communications that could easily be lost or have missing or incomplete information. There was no way to track the progression of each offboarding request or built-in redundancies to ensure the accurate completion of each step. This could potentially lead to agents not having their termination processed on time, securely and within each site’s legal framework.   

Solutions 

The automation our DSI team developed was specifically designed to streamline the administrative components of the offboarding process.

Once a manager initiates a request for termination, PRC gets an automatic notification with all the details. An email is triggered, giving PRC all the relevant information that they can then cross check. This also permits them to follow up through a virtual process that allows for seamless back and forth communication with the requester. Once all details are provided, PRC can easily approve the request and initiate an automated process that creates a ticket for IT, notifying them of all the required system deactivations. Upon completion, both PRC and the initial requester (manager) receive an automated confirmation that the final step has been actioned.

In the case of voluntary separation, the offboarded agent is also automatically sent an email with an exit interview form, to gather feedback about their time at the company and any reasons for leaving. All this information is fed into a central dashboard, where PRC teams can have a high-level overview of all terminations and resignations and can track their progress in real time. 

As an added component, every workday, PRC staff receive an automated reminder to update the status of any pending terminations, as well as reactivations for temporary layoffs or leaves of absences where the agent has returned to work. The automation also compiles a daily log of all terminations, by site, so PRC teams can track all offboarding activities per location. This is to create built-in redundancies to ensure that all termination requests have been actioned. 

Outcomes 

Since the automation was implemented, this streamlined process has boosted our offboarding efficiency by at least 45%. No longer do PRC teams have to sort through reams of emails to process a single offboarding request. Error rates have been reduced by more than 80%, as built-in reminders and automated notifications ensure that no termination request is missed or processed without the correct information. The end-to-end process is much faster and allows for better oversight, with a dashboard that gives PRC managers the ability to track all terminations, and pending terminations, across our 14 global sites.

Exit interviews, now automated, ensure that feedback is gathered on all voluntary terminations, so we can use this information to continuously improve the employee experience and our global retention strategy, and refine recruitment programs to maintain our competitive edge in local hiring markets.  

This automation alone saved the company time and money through the more efficient use of staff and resources. It has also enhanced our regulatory compliance according to local labor laws. Furthermore, it has allowed our PRC teams to spend less time on administration and more time connecting with our employees, finding new ways to support team members throughout the day.  

Conclusion 

This new automation has not only made our offboarding process less time-intensive and more accurate, but it has also given our PRC staff more time to spend on employee-facing endeavors.  

“I have to say, it was a pleasure working with our DSI team. They were easy to reach and collaborated with PRC at each stage of development,” explains Todd Hylton, itel’s PRC Business Partner, who was closely involved in the project. “And from a user perspective, I can say this new automated process definitely saves time. With the daily report that is sent, we efficiently process terminations accurately and promptly for every pay period. It also enforces accountability because we have full visibility on who submitted a termination request and when. Now I can spend more time on projects and tasks that are people facing, such as planning fun engagement activities or focus groups, things that enhance the employee experience.” 

The automation also continues to be refined and new functionality is added regularly, based on user feedback – a demonstration of the kind of continuous improvement and efficiency enhancement that we can apply across the CX process or back-end administrative tasks.  

Ask us about our RPA and AI innovations and how you can work with our DSI team to enhance your CX operations.