Ryder connects workforce on unified employee portal

Delivering innovative solutions

Ryder System, Inc. is a leading logistics and transportation company that provides supply chain, dedicated transportation and fleet management solutions―including full-service vehicle leasing, rental, and maintenance―to some of the world’s most recognised brands.

The company has more than 45,000 customers and operates throughout the United States, Mexico and Canada. Ryder’s mission is to deliver innovative supply chain and transportation solutions that are reliable, safe and efficient, enabling its customers to deliver on their own promises.

Across the transportation market, rapid change is underway; processes are becoming increasingly automated and digitised, customer preferences are evolving, competition is growing, and the focus on the environment and sustainability is becoming ever sharper given the mounting pressure of climate change.

In a time of such accelerated transformation―affecting shippers, carriers, suppliers, and consumers―it’s critical for transportation companies to have a strategic approach to prioritising and piloting digital solutions that reduce costs, improve service levels, and increase operational efficiency.

Driving towards transformation

An existing ServiceNow customer, Ryder had already successfully introduced IT Service Management (ITSM) to streamline its IT service experiences and operations. Ambitious to ultimately bring multiple departments together under one unified portal and having had first-hand experience of the power of automation using ServiceNow, the company began to look at expanding its use of the ServiceNow platform to provide automated HR services to its more than 48,000 employees―a workforce that was operational 24/7, largely deskless and had varying degrees of computer literacy. For example, Ryder’s previous intranet site that provided some very limited employee services was accessible only to office-based staff who represented less than a third of the overall workforce. The company’s reliance on antiquated systems made it difficult to access data, execute basic transactions, and optimise processes. Even the simplest services, like updating an employee’s address, were challenging and time-consuming.

“It was time to separate from those legacy operations because they were becoming cumbersome”, recalls Galyna Kruglov, Group Director of Employee Services Operations, Ryder. “Given the shared foundational aspects of IT, HR and finance, it made sense to combine them―that was a big driver behind the decision to embark on a journey of transformation”.

Sharing knowledge and providing information access

Ryder chose ServiceNow HR Service Delivery, ITSM, and its unified portal, Employee Center Pro, to create MyRyder, the company’s first employee services portal. Implementation was straightforward and required light-touch support from ServiceNow. Ryder wanted to automate HR services with the aim of improving employee experience and boosting productivity for both office-based and field staff. Ryder is operational 24/7, therefore mobile access to on-the-road employees has been a particular gamechanger. Where once an employee taking a 2am break would have had no recourse to submit an HR enquiry, now they have a tool to access information, pose a question or flag an issue with zero requirement for colleague availability or intervention. The technology meets that need.

“Here we had an actual cloud solution”, says Galyna, “so the opportunity to share knowledge and provide access to information across not just HR, but IT and finance, was very compelling”.

Immediate and straightforward access to information for all employees, plus the ability to share knowledge, has been of major benefit. Getting data insight into such things as staff priorities when it comes to HR is driving next-step solutions in virtual agent implementation and additional employee resources. Some of the most common inquiries across the workforce concern checking holiday balance, requesting leave, accessing and updating tax information and resetting passwords. Now armed with that knowledge, Ryder is adding a feature on the homepage that alleviates the need to search for relevant information on these common queries, and instead presents staff with immediate guidance on each topic that walks them through everything they need to know.

The portal has also provided a gateway to other systems. Implementation for finance came after IT and HR and was comparatively straightforward since they were able to benefit both from seeing the results and relying on the experience and assistance of their partner departments.

Support from the board and executive leadership was robust with top-down communication emphasising the importance of the project for Ryder and the need for a joined-up approach to what would become recognised as a paradigm-shift for the company.

Increased uptake and usability by the workforce have been noticeable especially with mobile access to the portal; users can now find information in the field, often when they need it most. Cases opened via direct access (self-service) on MyRyder consistently bring the highest volume of inquiries and requests. Overall, in the last two quarters of 2022, for example, the case volume rose by approximately 10% and reached over 60,000 cases (not including COE cases such as leave, employee relations and other specialised areas) characterised by more direct intent and greater understanding than in the earlier go-live phase. In turn, agents are now 80% more efficient, with the wait time for chats reduced from 10 minutes to just two minutes.

Upwards trends in direct access to knowledge content on the portal have been reported; from July 2020 to January 2023 access to knowledge content increased 91%.

Supporting the company mission by simplifying HR admin  

Access to personal data and information is now streamlined and simplified. Previously when an employee needed HR help, they had to manually reach out to their HR Manager to receive an answer. Now they can self-serve inquiries from MyRyder. Minimising the HR administrative burden for employees means that employees can stay focused on their core roles and support the company mission of enabling customers to deliver on their promises. Equally impactful are the time and resource implications for HR service agents. Where previously these staff would be called upon to answer the same questions regarding pay, benefits or annual leave, multiple times in a day, employees are now able to quickly and straightforwardly access this information themselves―meaning HR staff have greater time and space to focus on more strategic initiatives and improving employee experience.

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