British Council:
A Journey of Transformation for HR Services Around the Globe
The implementation of SuccessFactors at the British Council has increased our efficiency and the visibility of our recruitment activities. We can now easily see who has done what, where and when in the system.
A Fragmented Structure
Like any long-established organisation, the British Council, formed in 1934, has grown organically. The result is a highly fragmented organisational structure. The Human Resources function was no exception with local offices running recruitment, onboarding, staff learning and development activities. Recognising the need to be more efficient, the British Council made a strategic decision to transform its HR function world-wide.
Reliable, Consistent HR Processes
The HR function had to find the best way to deliver HR services, providing an efficient and consistent experience for managers, staff, and job applicants. It needed to be supported by the best processes and technology – and that meant designing reliable, consistent processes. They needed a solution that would enable them to maximise standardisation across the recruitment process while ensuring they met local functional requirements and regulations.
As a first step, the Core HR operational processes were standardised, and SuccessFactors Employee Central implemented to give comprehensive organisational and employee data globally.
Having completed this process largely in-house, the British Council set out to engage an implementation partner with global reach who understood its vision and culture to assist with the next stage of the journey.
Engaging the Right Partner
“TalenTeam stood out as having the best understanding of what we were trying to achieve. Their consultants were confident enough to challenge some of our assumptions about the solution and were prepared to explore ways of making the product work for us. We felt very comfortable with the cultural fit between our organisations. Deadlines were ridiculously tight, but TalenTeam hit the ground running, just six weeks after submitting their proposal!”Janet Huckvale, Programme Manager for HR Transformation.
The Transformation
The recruitment functionality is now fully deployed. Internal and external candidates globally are now coming through the system. Hiring managers have end-to-end visibility of what is going on with their candidates and their vacancies. Every step of the recruitment lifecycle is now transparent, and all data held is compliant with GDPR.
Today, the British Council is already seeing significant benefits from automation, accessibility and consistency of processes.
Read the full article to find out how the partnership has enabled them to:
- Take control of its recruitment pipeline
- Use a single source of truth’ to help make critical business decisions about employees, from hiring and diversity to performance and turnover
- Manage recruitment from anywhere in the world, not just at local offices
- Free up mangers time for more value-added activities