


As a part of Etihad's wider HR Transformation Strategy, one goal was to enhance and
professionalise the onboarding, off-boarding and cross-boarding experience
with SAP SuccessFactors Work Zone and Onboarding 2.0
KEY OUTCOMES
THE DRIVE TO DIGITISE HR
PARTNERS IN DESIGN
Rajeev explains how Etihad selected HR technology experts TalenTeam as an SAP implementation partner,
"We invited several organisations to develop some example processes and submit a project plan. TalenTeam's solutions demonstrated flexibility in their approach and were very competitive on cost for the value they provided. In addition, we saw that they were experts in learning and HR solutions and understood industry best-practice."
"As soon as we engaged with TalenTeam, says Rajeev, "we quickly established a strong working relationship with them. Everyone involved committed to the plan and timelines."
The scope included designing a solution for onboarding, off-boarding and cross-boarding for candidates and internal role changes. The implementation team conducted process walkthroughs involving the process owners to ensure the requirements were clearly understood and mapped to new processes using SAP SuccessFactors. In addition, the group jointly developed a user-friendly, intuitive portal for employees with SAP SuccessFactors Work Zone. (4 interfaces for different personas) This enables users to complete online forms and upload required documentation directly to SAP SuccessFactors.
During the implementation, the project team encountered a few system limitations when adapting the product to Etihad's current processes.
"There were some challenges in accommodating our off-boarding processes and integrating the customised portlet with SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central," says Kruti Thakkar. "But TalenTeam were able to respond by helping us rethink what we wanted to achieve and proposed workarounds."
The solution went live after a rapid end-to-end implementation lasting just five months.
CREATING A SEAMLESS CANDIDATE EXPERIENCE
A significant driver for the project was improving the candidate experience with Etihad. Previously the application process and journey through selection and onboarding were fragmented, with largely manual processes and some to-ing and fro-ing to collect master data. The project team designed a bespoke portal to provide candidates with an engaging and professional interface.
To this effect, the onboarding team invested significant time in creating in-depth personas for each of the role types, talking to existing team members to validate the personas and creating the right content for each portal that needed to be formatted and uploaded separately.
Gillian explains, "We designed personas for all of our different categories of roles: pilots, cabin crew, core and outstation staff. Each persona has a different path through the process, with its steps and requirements, simplifying the journey for everyone."
Segmenting the candidate portal for each type of candidate has simplified maintenance, as changes to processes can be applied to the recruitment personas, which then take effect for the relevant applicant type.
While the talent acquisition team still had to manually complete any candidates already in the hiring process when the solution went live, they have already started collecting statistics. Anecdotal feedback suggests that the candidate journey is much more engaging, easier, and quicker to complete.
WORKING WITH TALENTEAM
"We have been very pleased with our strong partnership with TalenTeam. They were able to help us reach the outcomes we were seeking. But, more importantly, they acted as a catalyst for us to bring our legacy processes closer to industry best practice."
Prior to starting, TalenTeam also set up a call for the Etihad team to talk to another customer in the region who was able to share their experience, which was helpful.
TOP ADVICE FROM THE HR TEAM
"We learned that the groundwork is fundamental. You need to start by understanding the types of roles - or personas - you are recruiting and segment your profiles based on those roles. This is essential to getting the best out of the system.
From Gillian’s perspective, it’s also important to ask, “What if...” and do some potential scenario planning. It’s the only way to know up front if the system can support each use case and the impact it will have if it does not. That helps manage expectations about the systems limitations so that you can start to form the best workaround.
You also need to be prepared to be flexible about processes that present challenges to the system and adjust those to new, best-practice models that ultimately will result in a better solution for the business."
To learn more about how SAP SuccessFactors Work Zone and Onboarding 2.0 can enhance your employee lifecycle from recruitment through onboarding, development, retention, and offboarding, talk to TalenTeam!