Origin reduces support tickets by 70%, automates HR processes, and enables teams to focus on work that matters

Origin, one of Australia’s leading energy companies, relies on SuccessFactors for its HR software. But they needed to customize various processes, optimize Origin-specific journeys, and reduce their monthly help-desk ticket volume (originally 7,000 tickets a month for various tasks).

The Origin HR team stepped in and, as part of a larger digital transformation initiative, introduced WalkMe to make SuccessFactors align with their business needs, save money, and reduce manual effort for employees and the HR team. After addressing the biggest pain points, Origin further took advantage of the many tools WalkMe offers, including automation and analytics, to optimize its processes. In the four years since Origin began using WalkMe, employees’ ability to seamlessly self-serve has reduced monthly support ticket volume by 70% and process times from two days to 20 seconds for basic tasks. Employees are spared the frustration of waiting, while the support team and employees alike have gained time to focus on work that matters.

Four years ago, one of the key software systems in Origin’s HR department was (and still is) SuccessFactors. Due to its position in a highly regulated industry, Origin has unique processes that weren’t always easily reflected in the system, so team members would spend longer completing basic tasks – or get stuck halfway through and reach out to HR Support.

“We were getting 7,000 tickets a month,” said Shaun Kenny, Operational Excellence Lead for Origin. “With that volume, it took our HR team two or three days to get back to users, and they would have to walk employees through the journey manually.”

For example, Origin employees are required to complete trainings specific to the oil and gas industry through external providers, then upload a certificate of completion in SuccessFactors. Employees were often unable to find the course they were looking for and reached out to the HR support team for the transactional work of finding the correct course and uploading the attachment. The HR team decided to find a way to make SuccessFactors more people-friendly and reduce manual effort for both HR and employees.

When Origin looked at options to optimize processes and save money, it decided on WalkMe as the best way to enable managers and employees to self-serve tasks. The HR team turned common SuccessFactors processes, such as recruitment, into WalkMe journeys with Smart Walk-Thrus.

Many of Origin’s existing processes were based on how people had always done them, but with new analytics from WalkMe Insights, the company was able to revamp processes and make them more elegant and strategic, optimizing the way people work and proactively mitigating any issues.

With the major issues addressed, Origin went on to improve efficiency and reach for operational excellence based on reliable analytics from WalkMe. With WalkMe’s ActionBot, Origin has simplified previously complex processes, such as reporting completed mandatory trainings for which employees need to attach evidence. The HR team used to upload these attachments, but now ActionBot guides the employee through the process of uploading the attachments themselves – no manual processing or human intervention required.

“Now, employees are uploading their licenses and safety certificates themselves, so we can refocus people’s efforts on higher impact tasks” said Frank Malley, Head of Process & Employee Experience for Origin. “The ActionBot jumps between softwares and walks you through the seven or eight different screens and makes it look seamless.”

In the spirit of constant optimization, Origin continues to identify new ways to use digital adoption across various scenarios, big and small. As a result, Origin stays in compliance with regulatory requirements – plus they save time and frustration for Origin’s 5,000 employees and the HR team. Their goal: remove manual effort and proactively provide just-in-time guidance to enable people to focus on high value work.

Recently, while working on annual bonus payouts, Origin proactively used the ShoutOut feature to direct employees to where they can find out how the annual bonuses are calculated – a common question for which employees historically would need to contact HR to get an answer. “With our digital adoption strategy, team members quickly get answers and offset any inbound tickets,” explained Kenny.

Origin also uses WalkMe to bring users to the right place and connect workflows across systems. In addition to SuccessFactors, Origin has implemented WalkMe Shuttles into the ServiceNow ticketing system, where their knowledge assets and how-to articles are located. “When an employee is in ServiceNow trying to complete a specific task, like getting a confirmation of employment letter, a WalkMe button takes them straight to SuccessFactors and walks them through the process,” Kenny said. “The tool even populates information for the user. What used to take two days can now be self-serviced in 20 seconds. And if they still need assistance, they’re then routed to SuccessFactors or ServiceNow through WalkMe Shuttles.”

In a recent example, when Origin started tracking COVID vaccinations, the HR team was able to set up new content within hours, then continue to add WalkMe SmartTips based on the queries that came in. “With the new WalkMe information in place, the queries dropped away completely,” Kenny said.

Origin also uses WalkMe Surveys to reach users in real times when they need to source qualitative feedback to improve processes, such as annual performance target-setting.

In the four years since Origin began using WalkMe, support tickets have been reduced by 70% and visits to knowledge articles have increased by 30x per month. Employees self-serve whenever possible and avoid waiting days to get help, while the support team has gained time to focus on billing, case management, and everyone at Origin can focus on work that matters.

For example, through one simple tool tip in the sick leave process, 500 people per month are saved from having to contact support. And manual document upload and data enrichment through use of ActionBot has reduced transaction time from 10 minutes to less than 1 minute.

Insights enables Origin to see these successes and find ways to bring more value to the business. “Our frontline teams wouldn’t normally know how effective WalkMe is because they wouldn’t have any idea how many tickets are avoided – but we can show them the analytics. When we work on individual WalkMe content, we look at things like our drop-off rates. Are people getting to a certain point and abandoning it? Why are they abandoning it? Then, based on what we see, we’ll flag it for maintenance and improvement,” Kenny said.

Origin took advantage of WalkMe’s Solution Accelerators, which houses a gallery of pre-built SuccessFactors journeys. “With the latest SuccessFactors homepage release, we modified the Solution Accelerator processes for our own use as part of the onboarding journey to save time,” Kenny said.

Origin also appreciates the quality of WalkMe’s online education and support services. “With online training in the Digital Adoption Institute, we can upskill quickly and build confidence with the platform,” Kenny said. “WalkMe is responsive when it comes to adjusting its support model to meet our needs.”

Based on his work with WalkMe, Kenny is recognized as a leader in the industry – he recently ranked among the Top 100 Digital Adoption Professionals, which is determined by votes from the public. This recognition comes from the cultural change he is driving through his work with COVID vaccination reporting, embedded onboarding tours, deflecting employee queries, and much more. His work enables users and internal clients to think differently about how problems can be solved with technology.

“WalkMe enables us to respond to changes really quickly, as we did when we started tracking COVID vaccinations,” Kenny said. “It’s fast to test and build, so we’re able to stand up content within a matter of hours – and rather than having to do a system configuration that takes weeks to get through a development and approval cycle, we can deploy improvements or fixes in the same day.”

Origin has creatively taken WalkMe beyond onboarding, augmenting their existing software to make it work better for employees and the HR team. Driven by the success the company has already had with WalkMe, they’re planning ways to utilize the software even more in the future. “We’ve made some real inroads,” Malley said, “but we’re always looking for new ways to use digital adoption to enhance the user experience.,”