Deloitte transforms workplace technology

World’s first choice for talent
Deloitte is a leading global provider of professional services. With more than 330,000 employees across 150 countries, it aims to be the world’s first choice for talent and to help its customers run their businesses better and more profitably, leading by example with its high standards of excellence.

In the UK, Deloitte’s CEO launched an initiative to help the business prepare for the future.

“To better equip the company to serve our clients, we needed to free ourselves from legacy technology and empower our people to be the best they can be,” explains Sean Pepper, Partner and EMEA Leader at Deloitte. So in late 2018, the team kicked off a project to transform workplace technology and the employee experience.

Creating a ‘digital briefcase’
Deloitte’s transformation began with defining the future of work, and it developed a concept known as a digital briefcase for employees. “The digital briefcase is designed to provide staff with mobile access to all the information and services at their fingertips to help them collaborate, serve clients, and access tools to help them carry out their role,” says Martin Shields, Director of Organizational Transformation at Deloitte.

This one-stop-shop for functionality replaced disparate systems and legacy technology across multiple departments to create a single, standard portal and way of working. One early use case identified was to replace the manual and time-consuming onboarding process, which relied on multiple paper forms and hindered the company’s green initiatives. With 500 offers of employment made and 300 new starters every month, this represented a significant opportunity to increase efficiency within the HR team and eliminate hundreds of thousands of pieces of paper.

Having used ServiceNow technology for its support desk since 2012, Deloitte adopted the Now Value methodology leveraging their Success Architect and the Customer Success team to realize its vision using proven technology and ServiceNow expertise. “We couldn’t have done this without having ServiceNow as a partner,” explains Cindy Olney, Delivery Lead on Deloitte’s Digital Transformation Program. “We were able to reach out and resolve any issues, no matter what time of the day, and they were as invested in our success as we were.”

Step one was finding out what colleagues wanted from their workplace technology. “People told us they wanted a more personalized solution that was easy to navigate and gave them more time to focus on delivering value across the enterprise, rather than on internal administration,” reveals Martin.

A central portal for staff
Deloitte consolidated its legacy environment onto a single ServiceNow portal called MySupport, giving staff a single point of access on their phone, tablet, or laptop to access support services, complete a task, or search for knowledge articles. For example, users can now request holidays, advise that they’re going on parental leave, or book a meeting room from one app.

The ecosystem of apps is underpinned by ServiceNow HR Service Delivery. Taking a platform approach with a central pool of data has unlocked richer reporting, analytics, and dashboarding, which provides data-driven insights on performance, workloads and efficiency of each function, enabling the team to drive continuous improvements and continuous development.

Cindy comments, “Our goal was to remove the little frustrations people faced and create a really seamless user experience. ServiceNow doesn’t just support our customer-facing team, but also the support teams behind them in HR, IT, and finance, all while enhancing quality and security, and reducing risks.”

To encourage user adoption, the team worked closely with each department and nominated champions to support peer learning. Getting buy-in was essential, and multiple proofs of concept were carried out to ensure the new solution would bring value to the people on the front line.

“When people saw our vision, they were chomping at the bit to get more involved in the project and suggest ways to optimize the portal,” adds Cindy.

Piloting the solution
Before launching the platform, it was rolled out to a small pilot group of users to test the functionality and identify areas for improvement. The team began by creating an onboarding app called MyOnboarding with temp employees working over the summer, applying learnings and best practices to improve the user experience. It then rolled it out to 1,400 graduates before the final app went live.

One new starter, Wei Bin, is a Graduate Consulting Analyst. “I want to be in an environment where I can keep improving myself, and Deloitte is the best place to do that because of its focus on best practices,” he reveals. “The virtual onboarding process was great, the technology functioned really smoothly, and the whole experience was new and exciting.”

Wei is one of a generation of employees who was able to onboard virtually from his mobile phone. This not only offers the consumer-like experience that the modern worker demands, it was also crucial for ensuring business continuity during the COVID-19 crisis.

Best-in-class systems for the UK’s top talent
While COVID-19 accelerated transformation, Deloitte was already on a journey to give employees a best-in-class system to empower them to be their best. “Deloitte is a people-centric business, and it’s really important that working for the firm is easy, engaging, fulfilling, and rewarding,” comments Anita Sanderman, Head of HR Services at Deloitte. “ServiceNow has literally transformed the way we work. When I say it’s life-changing I’m not exaggerating. Employees can get anything they need from one portal.”

The level of support was also extended by the pandemic, with MySupport providing access to wellbeing initiatives as well as tech support. “ServiceNow helped us mobilize incredibly quickly and develop a digital solution to support colleagues through the pandemic. In three weeks, we developed a self-serve form for people to let us know how they were. Not just if they had symptoms, but if they needed any kind of support from the HR team,” explains Anita. “It really allowed our people to focus on themselves; to focus on being well which, during a pandemic, is clearly the most important thing.”

The HR team were able to remotely monitor and support staff at scale and to quickly and easily identify staff who tested positive; a task that would previously have been managed via time-consuming manual spreadsheets.

Ultimately, ServiceNow technology underpins a shift in culture. Adopting the Now Value Methodology has allowed Deloitte to accelerate the digital experience for its staff, making work easy, engaging, and rewarding, and helping to retain the best talent to continue to delight its customers.

“The opportunities for the future are endless. Soon new starters will be able to connect to their colleagues and set up their apps before they even start work, meaning they’re primed and ready for success from day one,” concludes Anita.

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