Providing great places to work
What began as a small family business in New York more than 100 years ago, is now a leading global real estate services firm that delivers exceptional value for real estate occupiers and owners.
As one of the largest commercial real estate businesses in the world, the company's 52,000 employees lease, sell and service diverse properties in over 60 countries, generating annual revenues in excess of $10 billion.
From Wilis Tower in hometown Chicago to Silver Court in Shanghai, Cushman & Wakefield's extensive portfolio features iconic business addresses, as well as bespoke niche locations to suit client's needs.
People are more important than ever
As businesses across the global economy come to terms with the seismic shifts caused by the pandemic, and with hybrid working becoming the norm, the commercial real estate sector has experienced some challenges in today's environment.
"It's been an extremely volatile period", says Isis Beirne, Head of People Experience and Adoption at Cushman & Wakefield. "Our focus has been on navigating these uncertain times and addressing those issues that we have control over, starting with supporting our own people".
"In real estate, personal relationships and trust really matter. So, we want our people to feel comfortable, empowered and connected with opportunities to develop, grow and enjoy a healthy work-life balance. The key to retaining our talent, and attracting new people too, is to provide an exceptional employee experience. One way we're doing this is to use ServiceNow HR Service Delivery".
Cushman & Wakefield's commitment to providing a warm welcome for all employees is firmly established, with the company receiving multiple awards for its efforts to ensure equality, diversity and inclusion in the workplace.
"Our culture is one of our biggest selling points", says Isis. "We want everyone to feel safe, that they belong, and are valued members of the organisation, nurtured as individuals". But to deliver one high-quality experience enjoyed by all, from San Francisco to London to Singapore, first Isis had to overcome the challenges inherent in a global business.
Multiple technologies and local customs and practices in 80 countries made achieving a standardised employee experience difficult to achieve. Says Isis: "Our goal was to unify our staff, all using one platform, not just for HR but for support with IT and Finance matters too. It was important that we achieved a consistent global standard, while also providing flexibility to meet local needs and circumstances".
Improving services and cutting costs
As a partner since 2016, beginning with IT Service Management, and with an understanding of Cushman & Wakefield's operational complexity, ServiceNow was quick to understand the situation. It was essential to create a solution that worked for all employees, without resorting to extensive customisation. And it needed to integrate seamlessly with a major global HR restructuring, aiming for maximum effectiveness and efficiency across the entire enterprise.
"We chose ServiceNow Professional Services because their expertise could ensure that we make the most of our platform investment while upholding our commitment to excellence", says Isis. "They steered us towards best practice, to a solution that avoided unnecessary complexity and would work for everyone".
At the heart of Cushman & Wakefield's new employee experience, is HelpHub, powered by ServiceNow Employee Center Pro. HelpHub is a 'first stop shop' employee portal, available to everyone in all departments, on both workstations and mobile devices, providing access to information and support on a huge range of HR, IT and Finance topics.
An AI-enabled search engine is the centrepiece, guiding users to relevant services, catalogue items or a library of 4,000 knowledge articles, to enable staff to self-serve or have their questions intelligently routed to the right resources.
The portal can detect the user's location, automatically personalising its contents into the local language. In total, 11 languages are available, with users able to toggle between languages at will.
Proactive, personalised campaigns
"One feature we really love in ServiceNow is the ability to proactively reach out to colleagues with communications and campaigns addressing specific topics or needs", says Isis. "We can personalise and target messages, about health and wellbeing for example, to a range of audiences, in different business units or specific locations, to show that we understand what's important to our people".
HelpHub is routinely visited by more than 40,000 daily unique visitors every month, with controlled access also extended to its supply chain, such as consultants, other key partners and service providers. Content can be specifically tailored to each group, to meet their specific needs. Knowledge articles are regularly reviewed with the emphasis on quality, not quantity.
"ServiceNow has helped us to clean up our knowledge base, eliminate duplication and achieve consistent content. This enables agents to educate and empower our people to self-serve. They don't need to wait for us to do things for them, they can do it themselves in five minutes". With HelpHub firmly established as the global go-to resource for people services, legacy systems are being decommissioned.
"In our pursuit of excellence, we envisioned a future where our staff experiences seamless collaboration and support. ServiceNow HR Service Delivery was the transformative catalyst that not only unified our teams but also unveiled a new era of employee empowerment. We now stand together on one unified platform, where HR, IT and Finance converge to deliver not just services, but an effective employee experience".
Empowering service centre agents
ServiceNow HR Service Delivery is also supporting the successful launch of the company's new HR operating model, providing the information engine for three new people service centres, located in the US, Asia and Europe.
Previously, people services were provided on a global scale using inconsistent methods, often relying heavily on email and phone communication. This fragmented approach posed significant challenges in assessing and ensuring quality and consistency across global operations.
Says Isis: "SLA compliance has improved and quality has improved. Now we can measure, analyse and report on our performance, see trends and patterns, which articles are most popular, how quickly tickets are closed, and drive decision-making and continuous improvements. We can tailor our reporting in ServiceNow, at a high level for executives and at a granular level for service lines. Compared to what we had before, it's night and day".
By the end of HelpHub's first year, achievement of request fulfilment SLAs had improved overall by 12%, improving as much as 18% for individual SLAs in the payroll space, for example. "As a result, our employee satisfaction scores have improved too, rising by 2 points. And we have achieved these improvements with fewer people, and by utilising out-of-the-box technology. Our ServiceNow upgrades are seamless and fast, with no customisation nightmares".
Isis' project leadership team featured ServiceNow Expert Services and its existing managed service provider. "In my 20-plus years of leading and implementing large-scale technology projects, I have never experienced a more synergetic team.
"Everyone ensures that every conversation and every decision we make has Cushman & Wakefield's best interests at heart. We understand each other's roles and processes, learn from each other and share ideas for changes and improvements. As a result, the outcomes are better.
"With ServiceNow, we have achieved a global standard for people services, one place for everyone to go for help. Everybody has clarity, they know what HelpHub is and use it on a regular basis, for everything from fixing a computer, requesting time off or asking a question about a pay cheque.
"I'm very proud of what we have accomplished with ServiceNow. Next on our roadmap is onboarding, because the employee experience should begin before new recruits even start. We want them to be excited about joining, ready, motivated and equipped to get going on day one".
Cushman & Wakefield's executive sponsor of this project was Matt Noe, former SVP of Global People Experience & Services and now President of Client Services at C&W Services. "ServiceNow was the cornerstone of our recent HR transformation and new operating model at Cushman & Wakefield", explained Matt. "Moving from a decentralised HR team operating solely at country level to a global shared services model required us to place the employee experience at the forefront of our design.
"With the implementation of ServiceNow, we not only reduced HR costs globally by 15%, but we also improved service levels, simplified processes, automated workflows, built a culture of accountability within our People Service Centres, and created a single point of entry for all HR, IT and Finance support. ServiceNow was a trusted thought leader throughout the entire process, from business case development to implementation and continuous improvement".