The Calgary Catholic School District (CCSD) educates and empowers students from kindergarten to grade 12 through its mission of living and learning in Catholic faith, so that students, centered in Christ, realize their full potential. Located in Alberta, Canada, it is one of the largest Catholic school districts in Calgary, serving over 63,000 students in 118 schools across five municipalities that include metro, urban, and rural areas. Rapid population increases in Calgary have led the school district to experience 3-4 percent year-over-year growth. Continuing to promote student success and well-being in the face of this growth means maximizing resources to better enable teachers to spend as much time as possible directly with students in the classroom, rather than having to spend more time on admin.
Paper-based processes fail to keep up with growth
Previously, all CCSD’s People Services (PS) (formerly Human Resources) processes were manual and paper-based. CCSD’s PS team, overwhelmed by manual tasks and increasing volumes of requests, struggled with delays on critical tasks. “If an employee wanted to get a mortgage or a loan for a car, their proof of employment request could take up to two months,” says John Schutte, Director of IT at Calgary Catholic School District. “It resulted in a lot of stress for those employees and a high turnover rate for PS professionals.”
Not only was the employee experience affected, but cracks were forming that created the potential for compliance issues. “The risks of us missing a pay period or divulging personal information to the wrong individual were increasing,” says John.
With student enrolment increasing by about 2,000 per year, and staff focusing on serving student needs, they simply didn’t have the time to waste on manual HR processes.
Hiring more employees was no longer enough to keep up with the increase in demand. More efficient processes were needed to scale and streamline operations. “We knew that hiring more people wasn’t going to solve our problems,” says John. “We needed a completely new digital-first strategy.”
Choosing a modern, unified solution
The Calgary Catholic School District had already experienced success with ServiceNow IT Service Management (ITSM) and found adoption of HR Service Delivery (HRSD) to be smooth. The implementation began with overhauling processes that had been bogged down by legacy practices. “We learned that it wasn’t actually hard for us to get started,” says John. “There was a clear path to make things better, and we just needed to start walking.
“The majority of the work was updating business processes that had been in place for 30 years or more. The actual implementation of HRSD was the easiest part.”
Streamlining operations
The school district took on the most important, time-consuming tasks first, automating high-volume processes, such as payroll, leave applications, and employment verification. This shift aimed to improve efficiency and empower teachers and staff to self-serve using a knowledge base containing thousands of articles.
“Some employees were nervous about the change,” says John. “But when they discovered that a task that used to take half a day now only took 20 minutes, and they could help 10 more people in the same amount of time, they quickly got on board.”
Self-service through automation
Before HRSD, weekly time sheets for hourly employees had been a completely manual process - a physical form was filled out and signed, then faxed or mailed to the payroll department. Now, employees simply log into a single, unified portal and enter the number of hours worked, which are then approved by their supervisors.
Updating employee name changes was another process that previously took up thousands of hours. Employees were unsure of the documentation they needed to provide, so the process could take a long time. With HRSD, the employee fills out an online form, provides the requested documentation, and then their name is automatically updated across the system.
“Common requests like these are in our knowledge base, where employees can self-serve,” says John. “The workflows can now be completed in less than a minute.”
Simplified cross-department processes
HRSD was further applied to address the complex issues and blind spots that arose from departmental silos. This included onboarding processes, which involve multiple departments across the district. Previously, departments didn’t have clear workflows and responsibilities in place, and new employees would often arrive for their first day of work to find there was no account or phone set up for them. Now, these tasks are automatically routed to the right departments at the right time. That way, when a new employee arrives for their first day, their onboarding experience is a positive one, with an account, a laptop, and a swipe card always ready for them.
“Simplifying the complex problems that come with onboarding so many new hires has freed up a ton of time and money over the years,” says John. “I’m really proud of that.”
A focus on students
The Calgary Catholic School District implemented HRSD with the goal of reducing the administrative burden teachers faced. With more than 90 percent of PS processes now digital and 30 percent of requests managed without manual intervention, the school district has achieved this goal and seen dramatic improvements.
Employees have experienced a 75 percent reduction in time spent on administrative tasks and appreciate that the knowledge base enables them to self-serve, so they don’t need to make time-consuming phone calls or send emails. “Every week, employees tell me how much they love HRSD,” says John. “A teacher’s time is very, very precious. To solve a problem in three minutes and not have to invest personal time is extremely valuable to them.”
By reducing administrative burdens and streamlining processes, teachers can focus on the classroom experience and their students’ well-being. “With ServiceNow, our teachers spend more time teaching and less time on admin,” says John. “It’s a game-changer.”
Self-service the GenAI way
Calgary Catholic continues to explore opportunities with HRSD to keep up with the district’s rapid growth. By taking advantage of automation, the district can apply precious resources where it matters most: the well-being of its students and staff.
The school district will soon take advantage of ServiceNow’s AI-enhanced self-service options, NowAssist, for an increasingly efficient operation. Employees will use the search bar to explain what they’re trying to achieve using natural language, and AI will help them find the solution. On the back-end, the process will be quicker for developers who won’t have to guess every possible way a question might be asked, and employees will be able to find their solution right away.
“Time is our most important commodity,” says John. “We want to respect that and minimize the time people spend doing busy work that isn’t valuable to students and their parents.”
The district also aims to go completely paperless by 2025, which will keep important records secure and ensure that important data is readily accessible.
“Every benefit we’ve sought from HRSD has been fulfilled,” says John. “The platform fills the gap between supply and demand for us. It’s the only way to move forward.”