Robert Half eases the transition to Salesforce®, streamlines HR workflows, and empowers team members

Robert Half is the world’s leading talent solutions and business consulting firm. The company empowers its 19,000 global employees with the best tools and resources to effectively communicate, collaborate, and do their jobs. One of these core systems is their Salesforce® CRM platform, which is central to Robert Half’s daily operations. When they chose to migrate certain modules from Salesforce® Classic over to Lightning, Robert Half partnered with WalkMe to ensure the transition was seamless, efficient, and frustration-free – and continues to use digital adoption solutions to help focus on revenue-generating activities.

Based on successes in their revenue operations ecosystem, Robert Half leveraged WalkMe to centralize numerous HR and financial workflows in one HCM. Robert Half’s digital adoption strategy focused on simplifying business-critical tasks, automating up to 90% of core tasks and improving data integrity.

On a foundational level, WalkMe’s in-app guidance lets employees learn the flow of work, with little downtime, and enables them to complete business processes efficiently and accurately. On a strategic level, WalkMe is much more than just a training for technology features. It allows Robert Half to provide employees with effective strategies, best practices, and customized guidance to empower each employee to be more successful.

Robert Half made the business decision to enable Salesforce® Lightning for certain modules to take advantage of the enhanced functionality and better user experience. Because the look and feel of Lightning is very different from that of Classic, Kim Clark, Senior Manager of the Technology Learning Programs team, wanted to offer an innovative and streamlined change management strategy that created a “work happy” experience for each employee.

“Our goal with upgrading modules to Lightning was to empower employees, not distract employees. Traditional training methods, like classroom sessions or job aids, can sometimes cause disruption or distraction,” said Clark. “We needed to provide quick access to bits and pieces of learning that could be applied right in the CRM.”

In addition to supporting existing users as they transition to new processes in Lightning, the organization also had to consider new user onboarding. “We want to empower our new hires to get up to speed quickly so that they can hit the ground running,” Clark said.

The team implemented the WalkMe Digital Adoption Platform across Salesforce® Classic and Lightning. “Allowing employees to get accustomed to seeing and using in-app guidance set up a really consistent experience,” said Clark.

Initially, the goal was to familiarize employees with the new layout and features. “We leveraged several components of WalkMe, including a ShoutOut to aid in navigation,” Clark said. “And once there, additional guidance would pop up to introduce the new functionality and provide access to additional resources.”

When an employee is ready to perform certain tasks, employees can activate a Smart Walk-Thru to take them through a process. Users learn while they work, inputting information as they follow the guidance, without ever having to leave the system. Whenever and wherever users have a question while using the app, the answer is available in real-time.

The Learning team takes their digital transformation to the next level – by not only focusing on the tools and technologies, but also on the skills and readiness of each employee. They are able to offer a personalized and contextual learning experience that meets the needs of different employees.

Their digital adoption strategy doesn’t just enable technology adoption; it empowers each employee with “on the spot” coaching to help each individual think strategically. The Learning & Development team uses WalkMe to give employees timely reminders about best practices, word tracks, and paths for objection handling.

“Our team focuses on tools and techniques that support operating and transforming our business, and WalkMe is used to help accelerate that goal,” explained Clark. “WalkMe helps us increase user adoption and engagement of our tools and supports our overall digital transformation strategy.”

The traditional model of training is expensive – the headcount, the travel, plus the time spent by employees away from their daily responsibilities. But the most expensive part about it is that employees often forget what they learn during these training sessions.

With WalkMe, training and internal communication is now simpler and more effective. ShoutOuts, Smart Walk-Thrus and SmartTips have been used to replace emails and job aids. “Already we see less people calling in asking how to do this or do that in the system,” Clark said.

In a world of SaaS software, change is now a constant. “WalkMe gives us the ability to move at the speed of change – we can be responsive, flexible, and instantaneous. Now users can just log in and the information is right before their eyes. We’re able to communicate with our people in a way that really works” Clark said.

WalkMe’s Insights platform provides Kim with the user engagement data she needs to optimize her WalkMe content and decide what to build next. This ensures that the solutions they create are meeting the needs of their employees and helping to achieve their learning goals.

Providing employees with the training they need to properly use their tools is only one part of the job. More importantly, Clark’s team strives to enable each employee with the skillsets and resources they need to succeed at their job. “Giving employees the power to find answers and solve problems also frees up my team for more strategic tasks, like creating content that empowers employees to better service our clients.”

WalkMe helps Clark’s team to provide real-time coaching to 10,000+ across 18 countries in a way that was never previously possible. By offering tips for success throughout the flow of work, the employee can easily put them into practice and see immediate benefit. For example, by placing word tracks and objection handling paths directly at the time of need, more employees are aware of the resource and use its guidance to navigate situations and improve outcomes.

Robert Half launched a company-wide initiative to keep recruiters up to speed with current market conditions.

Within Salesforce®, they built contextual ShoutOuts that triggered based on specific actions taken. These notifications remind the users what is happening in the market for their specific line of business, and provided word tracks, to help navigate conversations with the clients in order to meet these strategic goals.

Despite comprehensive training and enablement around this initiative, Clark’s team knows that sometimes employees still forget. These reminders allow them to catch recruiters at the perfect vantage to remind them of the initiative and give them the resources they need, to help them reach their overall goals.

“As with most initiatives, it is our company’s goal to stay current and to increase overall market share. Giving our teams the tools to stay competitive, while still placing our candidates in high paying jobs is the best ROI we could ask for” Clark emphasized.

Robert Half consolidated numerous HR and finance processes in one HCM and required a change management approach that would empower its global workforce while addressing various languages, policies, and ways of using the platform. Employees primarily use the system as needed, making it crucial to simplify business tasks and ensure team members could complete workflows accurately and quickly.

One common concern was the submission of one-line expense reports, which required rework and resulted in extended timelines and delayed reimbursements. Employees also faced challenges updating their veteran and disability status due to two separate input fields requiring this information. This resulted in support team assistance, as updates to one field didn’t automatically reflect in the other, leading to discrepancies in records and requiring manual intervention to identify a solution. Keeping accurate and consistent information in these fields is vital for data integrity and regulatory compliance.

Another critical area was the contingent workforce contract workflow. If an employee has a contractor on staff, they must review and confirm contract status every 90 days. Errors in this process could lead to hundreds of hours of rework to reactivate systems.

“Complexities in the user interface and the nuances of the processes themselves often led to rework or required support intervention,” explained Amber McQuinn, Digital Experience Implementation Specialist at Robert Half. “This was especially true for critical updates such as the veteran and disability status forms, which requires consistent and accurate information due to regulatory demands.”

With WalkMe improving sales workflows, the team set out to apply the same digital adoption approach to streamline the transition to the new system, enhance processes, and solve future challenges.

Robert Half integrated WalkMe into nearly all areas of its HCM, including DEI and corporate initiative campaigns, administrative tasks, recruiting, talent and performance management, expense submissions, supplier payments, procurement and purchasing, benefits, payroll-related tasks, and onboarding new hires. Its digital adoption strategy focuses on three key areas: automation, data integrity and minimizing discrepancies, and enhancing the UI to improve the employee experience.

“Many of our team members use the system infrequently or for tasks they don’t regularly perform. Our goal is to automate significant parts of the workflow and offer guidance throughout the process, ensuring they can quickly access the right resources and complete tasks more efficiently,” said McQuinn.

Robert Half’s digital adoption team created numerous creative solutions that appear when needed throughout various workflows. The team uses WalkMe’s segmentation capabilities to offer tailored guidance based on criteria such as language, employment type (e.g., hourly or salaried), and region. Built-in logic auto-detects the language on the page and provides the correct translation for the end user. Additionally, all content is available through a persistent menu, enabling employees to search for specific processes at any point and switch between multiple languages.

“WalkMe provides us with the flexibility to tailor what our employees see, which is essential for HR, given the complexity and variability of our policies and processes. Our only limitation is our imagination; the capabilities at our disposal are extensive, making this a significant differentiator for us,” said Ashley DeMott, Digital Experience Manager at Robert Half.

To prevent employees from ending a contract in error, they utilize digital adoption content to hide the default system buttons, clarify how to extend or cancel contracts, outline the implications of each choice, and prompt employees to confirm their choice. If employees opt to extend the contract, they’re automatically guided through the necessary steps. “With WalkMe, I can quickly build a solution that will have an immediate impact for thousands of employees and for our business as a whole,” said McQuinn.

To prevent incomplete or one-line expense reports, Robert Half prompts the user after submission asking if they’d like to add more items or proceed. This one-click interference prevents errors but doesn’t add friction to the process. “The beauty of WalkMe is that we can address known pain points without being intrusive,” said DeMott.

Robert Half also uses digital adoption solutions to support regulatory compliance needs. This includes ensuring employees update their veteran and disability status or populate salary ranges in job requisitions. To simplify the veteran and disability status update process, the team automated over 90% of the workflow, seamlessly guiding employees to complete it quickly and accurately. When individuals create job requisitions, they’re redirected to add the relevant salary details and confirm completion.

“As a recruiting firm, our teams post thousands of roles and WalkMe provided a simple and effective way to ensure regulation compliance without impeding workflows,” said McQuinn.

By adopting a robust digital adoption strategy, Robert Half has significantly improved HR workflows and operational and employee efficiency. The company has reduced support tickets and increased data integrity, enabling employees to focus on high priority, impactful work. Through data validation and automation, Robert Half mitigates potential errors, saving teams thousands of hours and making it easier for employees to navigate complex tasks. For example, by automating the veteran and disability status update process, they saved employees over 1,400 total hours and the expense report intervention prevented over 650 inaccurate expense reports a quarter. Additionally, they’ve averted contract termination errors and reduced contingent workforce help tickets by 90%, saving an estimated 2,300 employee hours per year.

“Our automated digital adoption solutions enhance data integrity for the organization, help us meet regulatory requirements, and empower our employees to quickly find and complete tasks. This allows them to focus more on their day-to-day responsibilities,” said McQuinn.

Employees also use WalkMe for performance milestones, like goal setting, and to promote key initiatives, such as annual employee feedback surveys and DEI programs and educational sessions. “We’ve created significant efficiencies in business processes and a mechanism for our business partners to disseminate important information, “ said DeMott.

Going forward, the team will continue to expand their digital adoption solutions to further streamline HR processes with automation, as well as enhance other systems in their digital ecosystem – ultimately fostering a more productive and empowered workforce.