Increased Efficiencies and Engagement with Modern Workflows and a Custom, Integrated Web Solution
Gap Inc.
THE PROBLEM
Gap Inc.’s employee development team, Gap Retail Academy (GRA), was responsible for on-boarding new hires and providing ongoing employee development programs across all Gap brands including Gap, Banana Republic, Old Navy, and Athleta.
They came to CyberSense with a challenge. As the company had grown, they had been forced to cobble together a number of manual tools and processes (offline forms, spreadsheets, event calendars) to support their global operation. And, after significant research, they had failed to find an off-the-shelf system to manage the brands’ diverse onboarding and continuing education needs.
THE SOLUTION
A custom web portal, with integrated digital workflows, to support onboarding and employee development unique to each brand and department.
- Workflow Consulting
- Web Development
- Integration Services
- Web Design
- UI/UX
- Branding
CyberSense partnered with GRA to create an intuitive and compelling system that streamlined and modernized their approach to support for employees across the globe. The solution was designed to create operational efficiencies by automating key business processes, while providing an improved user experience and journey for employees at every stage of their career lifecycle.
Onboarding
The onboarding portion of the system needed to expedite the collection of human resource documentation, provide key information to new hires prior to start, and accelerate the onboarding process. While each brand had specific requirements, in general CyberSense designed a comprehensive onboarding solution to incorporate three key elements:
- Interactive, digital onboarding forms to replace printed / PDF packets – increasing HR’s reach, and the speed with which they could request and accept new hire documentation. These forms were designed to include the highest level of encryption and security, as well as built-in workflows and alerts across departments.
- Custom workflows to automatically alert required departments to a new employee’s start date and work requirements – designed to facilitate activities such as badge and computer orders, and office space setup, with the goal of reducing employee downtime from day 1.
- Employee portal with login-based customization provided new hires a single location to find detailed descriptions of brand- and division-based onboarding processes, rules and guidelines, expectations, educational opportunities, and career advancement opportunities.
Employee Development
The most critical aspect of the employee development portal was providing simple, intuitive access to hundreds of virtual and in-person training courses for employees around the world.
CyberSense developed a custom, internal development portal that was flexible enough to manage courses ranging from one-time improvement classes, to 4-5 month-long, comprehensive advancement programs leveraging 40+ classes.
- Custom program development workflows allowed GRA administrators to create individual courses, and group new and existing classes into longer programs.
- Employee portals provided login-based access to those classes and programs available to each employee based on their brand and department, and allowed them to view available courses in list or calendar view.
- Full integration to Gap’s internal calendar system automated calendar invites for any course a given employee signed up for – including 40+ course invites when signing up for a comprehensive advancement program. This removed human error in copying over course dates and times, improving pre-planning and attendance. In addition, the system would automatically update each course on an educator’s calendar with a list of attendees as employees signed up – minimizing ongoing outreach requirements on the part of the educator, and ensuring the right assets were in place on training days.
- A waitlist function was designed to allow employees to sign up for courses that were already full, and automatically accept and send meeting invites to employees in waitlist order if a spot became available.
- Custom dashboards gave Administrators at-a-glance program information, and allowed them to easily look up programs and employees within the system, and adjust class times and schedules. New built-in workflows automatically sent event cancellations, updates, or new invitations based on admin actions.
THE BENEFITS
The new web portal accomplished two goals. First and foremost, automated workflows significantly cut down manual administration requirements, enhancing the efficiency of the HR team and allowing the training staff to focus on promotion and execution of courses. Second, improved UX/UI created a more interesting and fulfilling experience across the employee lifecycle, improving internal brand perception and increasing employee engagement numbers across brands and divisions.
WHY CYBERSENSE
CyberSense had both the technical chops and business acumen to both redefine workflows in the context of a digital environment and design and develop a 100% custom, integrated web-based tool to facilitate the new business process.
