It鈥檚 common for employees to inquire about HR information such as their personal time off (PTO) balance, their sick-day balance, benefits, pay stubs, and tax withholding. (Heck, I do that all the time.) It鈥檚 also necessary for a company to perform background checks on prospective employees before extending an offer.

When HR staff manages employee information requests and candidate background checks manually, it distracts HR staff from more valuable tasks such as training and upskilling employees and spending the most time possible matching candidates with open positions. Manually replying to employee information requests and performing candidate background checks places a high administrative burden on HR staff, and takes much more time than employees, candidates, and HR staff would like.

It鈥檚 also important to have visibility of employee inquiries and candidate background checks to avoid duplication of efforts, improve processes and efficiency, and distribute work fairly. Without such visibility, it鈥檚 difficult to make informed HR management decisions.

Challenges faced

., a South African global financial services and insurance provider with 12,000 employees, was facing all the above issues. The HR staff fielded employee inquiries by email and phone, didn鈥檛 have an employee inquiry tracking process, and performed candidate background checks by email and phone. That whole universe 鈥� HR staff, employees, and candidates 鈥� felt the processes took too long. This frustrated all parties and left them hoping for a better experience. HR managers felt they could improve overall operations and productivity if they had sufficient visibility of HR staff鈥檚 tasks and status.

Solutions discovered

Fortunately, Discovery improved the HR interface and experience for employees, candidates, and HR staff through digitalization and automation. Working with听麻豆原创 SuccessFactors听solutions, the company created a portal for immediate access to standard HR inquiries, and automated candidate background checks with robotics. Discovery also automated company-wide reporting of HR staff鈥檚 tasks and status, to shed light on operations and help improve employee satisfaction by reducing administrative tasks and duplication, balancing workloads, and repurposing roles.

Elegant portal design

To bring the portal to life, Discovery reimagined 12 processes, automated 37 processes, and created 110 links to 53 employee policies for self-service platforms. In addition to direct access to self-services, Discovery included chat-assisted services and a tool to rate quality of resolution.

Stellar results

The employee portal satisfies employees with immediate responses, and the automated candidate background checks ensure candidates move as quickly as possible through the evaluation process. Both solutions free HR staff to focus on employee development, candidate recruiting, and onboarding.

The results included a 25% reduction in the time to hire candidates, and 45% of HR staff freed from manual tasks to develop the workforce and recruit. With no HR interaction required in many cases, an employee accesses the portal and retrieves the desired information in one session. Service levels for employee request resolution increased from 80% to 93%. Eighty percent of Discovery employees use the portal and rated it with a satisfaction score of 2.5 out of 3.

The results also included saving 10% of budget through centralization, process automation, and redeployment of highly skilled capacity back into the business; and reduction of HR generalist headcount by 32% and HR admin effort by 41% through repurposing roles and reskilling employees.

All these stellar results were accomplished because of Discovery鈥檚 creative solutions 鈥� which earned them a finalist鈥檚 spot in the听2022 麻豆原创 Innovation Awards.

鈥淲orking with 麻豆原创 solutions has enabled HR to create a differentiated shared-services function enabled through digitalization and automation, enhancing the people experience and improving productivity,鈥� said Kammy Sing, Group Head of People Operations, Discovery Ltd.

To learn more about Discovery鈥檚 award-winning solution, check out their 麻豆原创 Innovation Awards听.

This article first appeared on .

The post Discovery Automates and Improves HR Interface for Employees and Candidates appeared first on 麻豆原创 Africa News Center.

But the global health crisis has been challenging for everyone 鈥� including the companies that have been working hard to keep us connected, like Vodafone Group. Vodafone is a multinational technology communications company that serves more than 300 million mobile customers around the world.

Quick Response to Customers and Employees

Ignacio Garcia, CIO of Corporate Information Systems at Vodafone, recently appeared on Getting Real with 麻豆原创. There, he discussed how companies are leveraging technology to manage their business and continue to serve customers in the age of COVID-19.

鈥淵ou can imagine what we were thinking: How much extra demand are we going to have?鈥� says Garcia. 鈥淲e needed to keep our employees safe and make sure we supported our customers in the best possible way.鈥�

Vodafone was able to do both.

In short order, the company developed a to help the communities it serves. Keystones of the plan were a commitment to maintaining the quality of service and providing network capacity and network services for critical government functions.

Vodafone also made sure to quickly address the needs of a global workforce that encompasses more than 100,000 employees. Vodafone offered support for working at home, created richer virtual training opportunities for its people, and adjusted performance goals and objectives to align with new business needs.

The Right Technology Pays Dividends

Vodafone鈥檚 business agility was not merely the result of good luck.

Less than a year ago, Vodafone completed a massive global rollout of 麻豆原创 S/4HANA to help improve operational efficiency in business functions such as finance, supply chain, and IT.

It was an impressive project covering more than 20 countries. And in addition to establishing a single digital core for the company, it included retooling Vodafone鈥檚 worldwide HR systems. 鈥淯sing the power of the technology was fundamental, having a single data model, a single way to optimize and understand the different markets,鈥� says Garcia.

Stay Creative

Vodafone may have been ahead of the curve in its ability to meet the challenges of COVID-19. But many other companies are responding with technology-driven innovation. There has been an incredible degree of creativity in how businesses have reacted.

Staying connected will only be one of the challenges we face in the days ahead. This is a critical time for all of us 鈥� as individuals and as businesses.

Check out to learn more.

The post Will Technology Keep Us Together? Ask Vodafone appeared first on 麻豆原创 Africa News Center.

Physical distancing has been mandated by governments across the globe, consumers are hunkering down in the safety of their homes, rarely venturing out and digital engagement, along with touchless technologies, have exponentially increased. However, it can be argued that in fact, quite the opposite is true; that the Experience Economy, now, is more important than ever before.

And here鈥檚 why. As companies try to connect with their consumers, employees and partners; as they try and meet the unmet and unarticulated needs of their stakeholders, the experiences they deliver, at this critical inflection point of our history, will be more important than ever to their long term success.

As a concept, the Experience Economy is not new. A 1998 article in Harvard Business Review titled 鈥榃elcome to the Experience Economy鈥� highlighted how leading companies understood that 鈥渢he next competitive battleground lies in staging experiences.鈥� Products and services were no longer seen as differentiators.

By 2017, McKinsey had declared 鈥楨xperiences are king鈥� as their research confirmed how consumers had gradually shifted their expenditure from products to experiences. In their report, McKinsey found that personal consumption expenditure on experience-related services had grown 1.5 times faster than total personal consumption spending and nearly four times faster than expenditure on products.

Gartner even declared that 2019 would be the year that experience overtake product and price as the main competitive differentiators for brands and businesses. Positive, hyper-personalised experiences were now required to sweeten the deal for consumers.

Rise of Intelligent Experiences

In line with the rise of exponential technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, Big Data and the Internet of Thing, the concept of the Experience Economy has also evolved over the past few years. Today, successful businesses manage their experiences as a core strategic business capability. They have seen how customers are willing to pay more for experiences. They understand that the value needle has shifted.

This new approach is powered by Intelligence. Intelligent Experience Management leverages the power of exponential technologies 鈥� AI, IoT, advanced analytics 鈥� to drive a more optimal customer, employee, product and brand experiences. This relentless focus on value delivery through enhanced experiences, is what will allow enterprises to win in today鈥檚 market.

And these exponential technologies powering differentiated business capabilities, are vital to the long term success of enterprises, because of the volume and nature of data that informs modern Experience Economy strategies. Traditionally, organisations relied heavily on operational data 鈥� revenue, inventory, suppliers, workforce 鈥� to make decisions, but today they need insights from a different type of data to augment the value their provide to their customers; they need experience data.

Experience data provides insights into the sentiment and emotional aspects that influence a customer, employee, partner or supplier decisions towards a brand. In short, operational data reveals what is happening in an organisation, and experience data reveals why and how it is happening.

An Intelligent Experience Management strategy would measure and track operational data and experience data and use AI in combination with other exponential technologies to construct and augment individualised profiles of customers, employees, brands or products. Predicitve or Prescriptive actions can then be taken in order to optimally drive outcomes that matter.

Put another way, instead of reacting to problems when they occur, increasing the 鈥榚xperience gap鈥�, companies can now get ahead of the curve and address challenges before they have a lasting negative impact on the organisation.

The impact and advantage of this type of capability will be indispensable to organisations as they adapt to changing customer behaviour in the wake of the pandemic. While adoption of digital services has exponentially increased across the globe, the events of 2020 and the resulting shift in consumer behaviour, will put additional pressure on organisations to transform how they engage with customer and employees.

And nowhere is this shift as apparent as in the financial services sector.

Experience Economy transforming banks, insurers

Banks鈥� relationships with their customers have largely been built on the basis of compliance: often a box-ticking exercise that ensures the bank鈥檚 conduct is in line with a robust set of rules and standards and that the consumer adheres to a strict set of principles.

This dynamic prevailed until the emergence of the internet and other digital technologies that created new channels for customer engagement. According to a recent Qualtrics study, of all the time customers spent interacting with their bank, 47% of that time was via online channels, and less than a third of that time in person. The same study found that 鈥楶oor Service鈥� was the second-most important factor in consumers considering leaving their bank for a competitor.

The banking industry is extremely competitive. Most banks generally offer the same types of products and services. The real differentiation lies in the experience that customers have when interacting with the bank. And the cost of a poor experience I this industry has become increasingly significant: a 2018 survey by Forrester Research found that, for every one-point decline in its customer experience score, a multi-channel bank loses $124-million in potential revenue.

Banks, competing with more agile fin-techs and a growing ecosystem of non-traditional financial services providers 鈥� including the powerful telco industry 鈥� have taken note of this and have been making significant investment into their Experience Economy strategies. By 2018, McKinsey found that three out of four of the world鈥檚 50 largest banks were committed to some form of customer experience transformation.

Insurers are also taking note.

Insurance provider Allianz recently leveraged Qualtrics, the experience management platform, to collect experience data from customers in 22 countries. Using the platform to filter and priorities insights by location, and function, Allianz could empower their customer-facing teams with the certainty to know what action to take to deliver a seamless and positive experience at every step of each customers鈥� engagement with the company.

Allianz has also used the experience data to develop entirely new products to help protect businesses from emerging risks, improve its reputation for quality consultations and become integral business partners to its customers, building lasting loyalty.

Financial services companies that have not invested in transforming their customer and employee experiences will be left far behind their competitors in a post-2020 world. Leaving experience management to chance is a recipe for failure.

Instead, organisations should seek ways to improve their collection and processing of experience data and combine that with operational data to make informed decisions over the future of their companies.

The post Manage Experiences Intelligently in a Socially Distant World appeared first on 麻豆原创 Africa News Center.

As a concept, the Experience Economy is not new. A 1998 article in Harvard Business Review titled 鈥樷�� highlighted how leading companies understood that 鈥渢he next competitive battleground lies in staging experiences.鈥澨齈roducts and services were no longer seen as differentiators.

By 2017, McKinsey had declared 鈥樷�� as their research confirmed how consumers had gradually shifted their expenditure from products to experiences. In their report, McKinsey found that personal consumption expenditure on experience-related services had grown 1.5 times faster than total personal consumption spending and nearly four times faster than expenditure on products.

Gartner even declared that 2019 would be the year that as the main competitive differentiators for brands and businesses. Positive, hyper-personalised experiences were now required to sweeten the deal for consumers.

Rise of Intelligent Experiences

In line with the rise of exponential technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, Big Data and the Internet of Thing, the concept of the Experience Economy has also evolved over the past few years. Today, successful businesses manage their experiences as a core strategic business capability. They have seen how customers are willing to pay more for experencies. They understand that the value needle has shifted.

This new approach is powered by Intelligence. Intelligent Experience Management leverages the power of exponential technologies – AI, IoT, advanced analytics – to drive a more optimal customer, employee, product and brand experiences. This relentless focus on value delivery through enhanced experiences, is what will allow enterprises to win in today鈥檚 market.

And these exponential technologies powering differentiated business capabilities, are vital to the long term success of enterprises, because of the volume and nature of data that informs modern Experience Economy strategies. Traditionally, organisations relied heavily on operational data – revenue, inventory, suppliers, workforce – to make decisions, but today they need insights from a different type of data to augment the value their provide to their customers; they need experience data.

Experience data provides insights into the sentiment and emotional aspects that influence a customer, employee, partner or supplier decisions听towards a brand. In short, operational data reveals what is happening in an organisation, and experience data reveals why and how it is happening.

An Intelligent Experience Management strategy would measure and track operational data and experience data and use AI in combination with other exponential technologies to construct and augment individualised profiles of customers, employees, brands or products. Predicitve or Prescriptive actions can then be taken in order to optimally drive outcomes that matter.

Put another way, instead of reacting to problems when they occur, increasing the 鈥榚xperience gap鈥�, companies can now get ahead of the curve and address challenges before they have a lasting negative impact on the organisation.

The impact and advantage of this type of capability will be indispensable to organisations as they adapt to changing customer behaviour in the wake of the pandemic. While adoption of digital services has exponentially increased across the globe, the events of 2020 and the resulting shift in consumer behaviour, will put additional pressure on organisations to transform how they engage with customer and employees.

And nowhere is this shift as apparent as in the financial services sector.

听Experience Economy transforming banks, insurers

Banks鈥� relationships with their customers have largely been built on the basis of compliance: often a box-ticking exercise that ensures the bank鈥檚 conduct is in line with a robust set of rules and standards and that the consumer adheres to a strict set of principles.

This dynamic prevailed until the emergence of the internet and other digital technologies that created new channels for customer engagement. According to a recent Qualtrics study, of all the time customers spent interacting with their bank, . The same study found that 鈥楶oor Service鈥� was the second-most important factor in consumers considering leaving their bank for a competitor.

The banking industry is extremely competitive. Most banks generally offer the same types of products and services. The real differentiation lies in the experience that customers have when interacting with the bank. And the cost of a poor experience I this industry has become increasingly significant: 听a 2018 survey by Forrester Research found that, for every one-point decline in its customer experience score,.

Banks, competing with more agile fin-techs and a growing ecosystem of non-traditional financial services providers – including the powerful telco industry – have taken note of this and have been making significant investment into their Experience Economy strategies. By 2018, McKinsey found that were committed to some form of customer experience transformation.

Insurers are also taking note.

Insurance provider Allianz recently leveraged Qualtrics, the experience management platform, to collect experience data from customers in 22 countries. Using the platform to filter and priorities insights by location, and function, Allianz could empower their customer-facing teams with the certainty to know what action to take to deliver a seamless and positive experience at every step of each customers鈥� engagement with the company.

Allianz has also used the experience data to develop entirely new products to help protect businesses from emerging risks, improve its reputation for quality consultations and become integral business partners to its customers, building lasting loyalty.

Financial services companies that have not invested in transforming their customer and employee experiences will be left far behind their competitors in a post-2020 world. Leaving experience management to chance is a recipe for failure.

Instead, organisations should seek ways to improve their collection and processing of experience data and combine that with operational data to make informed decisions over the future of their companies.

The post Experiences are Even More Important in a Socially Distant World. Manage them Intelligently appeared first on 麻豆原创 Africa News Center.

Leading-edge consumer brands have transformed reactive, legacy service into proactive care-focused experiences, establishing a new consumer expectation benchmark.

Now, this transformation is rewriting the rules for customer experience (CX) in the insurance industry. In the highly competitive industry, delivering best-in-class customer experiences can be a critical differentiator. Combining operational data (O-data) with experience data (X-data) provides the insights that enhance the customer experience offerings and give insurers a competitive edge.

CX Imperative: Why the Insurance Industry Lags Behind

Customers typically have few 鈥� if any 鈥� interactions with their insurance company. In fact, without a claim or policy change, there is often no interaction at all. This means when an interaction does occur, it takes on a greater level of importance. Furthering this challenge, consumers are becoming more discerning and less forgiving. One in three customers will walk away from a brand they love after just a single bad experience, .

How can insurers get a broader picture of the customer journey? The first stop is O-data, which reveals the what. Policy renewal rates are decreasing, attrition rates are increasing, new customer acquisitions are decreasing. This data tells us the insurance company has a problem, but we don鈥檛 know why the problem exists.

This is where X-data comes into play, revealing customer pain points — a difficult claims process, a poor digital experience, a slow reimbursement process — that are causing the problem. Together, this data can help insurers uncover the causes of customer churn and identify actions to best address pain points, such as automating the claims process, reducing call wait times, or optimizing digital channels for claims submission.

Combining O-data and X-data makes it easier for insurers to unlock powerful business outcomes and:

• Improve the claims process, reducing attrition and increasing renewal and revenue
• Deliver a superior digital experience, increasing revenue and acquisitions
• Strengthen insurer-broker relationships, increasing policy renewals, revenue, and acquisitions

Bringing X- and O-Data Together for True Insight

three components critical to customer experience in the insurance industry: effectiveness, ease, and emotion. These components are critical to building a strong customer relationship, shoring up existing market share, and capitalizing on new business opportunities. And they are best assessed through a combination of X- and O-data.

Consider what happens when a customer files an insurance claim. This process can be emotional: Property may have been lost or damaged and a customer鈥檚 day-to-day life is directly impacted. O-data tells us about how the claims process is handled while X-data tells us what the customer feels about the claims process.

The X- and O-data from these interactions must be part of a customer鈥檚 profile. No matter with whom a customer is speaking, this agent or representative is empowered with the background knowledge they need to be as responsive as possible to a customer鈥檚 concern. When insurers have these insights at their fingertips, agents and other front-line employees can provide a better experience, improving engagement and strengthening customer loyalty. These exceptional experiences turn loyal customers into brand advocates, giving insurers a critical competitive edge.

Turning Insights into Business Success

Here鈥檚 how three companies put the power of X and O to work for them.

Allianz: Predictive Power of Democratized Insights
is one of the world鈥檚 largest insurance providers, but despite being a market leader, the company recognized it was operating in a market with excess supply and declining rates. Rather than staying the course and risk falling profits and market share loss, Allianz proactively put customer experience at the heart of its strategy to earn lifelong loyalty from clients who see them as an integral, forward-thinking business partner. Working with Experience Management solutions from 麻豆原创 (Qualtrics), they collected experience data from customers in 22 countries and 16 languages. The company now has a wealth of insights, filtering and prioritizing based on location and function. These insights have led to new products, such as protecting customers from risks like cyber crime; new approaches, such as elevating claims processing from back-office to client-facing function; and new reputation management strategies, such as above-and-beyond consultations.

MetLife: Boosting Brand Engagement
MetLife, Inc. is a leading global provider of insurance, annuities, and employee benefit programs. The company is digging deeper into its data for actionable insights that drive brand engagement. For example, in a recent MetLife-sponsored Earth Week contest, participants needed to answer a series of questions to be eligible for a gift card. From the reporting, MetLife was able to determine three winners and the process sparked significant brand engagement.

SwissRe: End-to-End Customer Experience Ownership
merged all its customer experience, voice of customer, and market data from more than 11,000 clients, 25 markets, and 11 languages onto a single, secure platform. The company now has a Web-based, highly secure insights platform that gives users 24/7 access to data. The intuitive interface makes it easy for all stakeholders to become experts on customer experience. This centralized, in-house approach led to a 90 percent decrease in research costs, a five-times increase in speed and productivity, and a seven-point Net Promoter Score increase.

Next Steps: Enhancing CX with Data-Driven Insights

Experience matters. We live in a world where insurers are disproportionately rewarded when they deliver a great experience and punished when they do not. Experience Management solutions from 麻豆原创 unlock the power of business operations data (O-data) with experience data (X-data) to transform customer experience and drive business success.

As part of the 麻豆原创 C/4HANA suite, 麻豆原创 now makes it easier for insurers to combine X- and O-data and gain actionable insights at every step of the customer journey. .

Toni Tomic is global vice president of Insurance at 麻豆原创.

This article first appeared on the 麻豆原创 News Center.

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