TUI Group streamlines transition to new HR system for 37K employees and drives continuous improvement and self-sufficiency

TUI Group had to enable 35,000 employees to use SAP SuccessFactors, its new human capital management software. With a pressing need to streamline the onboarding process and a desire to continuously improve the employee experience, TUI turned to WalkMe’s Digital Adoption Platform. Since implementing WalkMe, TUI has achieved the following results:

• 70% reduction in training time, resources, and costs
• 80% increase in employee self-sufficiency
• 50% decrease in support calls and tickets
• Increased adoption of SAP SuccessFactors and completion of tasks

TUI is one of the world’s leading tourism groups, covering the entire tourism value chain under one roof. With the launch of its new HR platform, SAP SuccessFactors, TUI needed a comprehensive change management plan for its 35,000 employees – and to mitigate and minimize repetitive support tickets from employees, so all team members could focus on high-value work.

As part of a broader digital transformation strategy, TUI implemented WalkMe as its Digital Adoption Platform. As a result, they quickly saw a reduction in support queries and overall costs – while increasing employee productivity and user satisfaction. In the years since the launch, WalkMe and digital adoption have become a central piece of TUI’s change management strategy, enabling the organization to continually improve the employee experience, streamline workflows, and reduce friction for employees, managers, and supporting teams.

As TUI prepared to launch its new HR software, SAP SuccessFactors, the company knew it would be a big shift for its large, distributed employee base. The HRIT team initially adopted a cascading approach, creating numerous enablement materials and training a key user from each business under TUI’s umbrella, who would then share with the rest of their team. But this approach quickly proved challenging, and they knew it wouldn’t scale.

“In the middle of our rollout, we were doing a lot of face-to-face delivery and we were producing huge amounts of documentation, not just for new users but to support SuccessFactors’ quarterly updates. Traveling to enable teams, in addition to keeping up with all that documentation and updating the business so frequently, was just hugely resource intensive,” said Matthew Buckland, Head of Global HR Systems, TUI.

Additionally, TUI’s support teams frequently saw the same systems-related questions from employees. As a company committed to employee experience, the HRIT team realized that TUI needed a better solution—one that would ensure the successful adoption of SAP SuccessFactors and enable TUI to augment the underlying system to suit employees’ needs and unique business processes.

As a global company, TUI adheres to the best practices prescribed by its German Works Council to protect employees from unfair or biased practices, as well as ensure that employee data is secure. Thus, it was critical that they selected a platform that would enable TUI to keep employees’ identities confidential – while still enabling the HRIT team to understand trends so they could make improvements. After evaluating options, TUI selected WalkMe as its Digital Adoption Platform.

“With WalkMe, we have 24/7 support. We have contextual guidance tips, notifications for important news, automation, and error alerts – and by providing that to our end users, it means when they do log in to do a core process, we’re enabling them to complete that process relatively quickly, without error and without needing the support from other team members,” explained Laura Dean, HRIT Digital Adoption Training Lead at TUI. “WalkMe gives us a way to help employees use our technology to its fullest and, by doing that, we increase their productivity and efficiency.”

TUI’s employees are now empowered to take learning into their own hands. As they make their way through SAP SuccessFactors’ various modules, WalkMe gives them the additional support they need with in-app guidance, covering everything from onboarding for new employees to company-wide performance processes. The HRIT team uses TUI branding in their WalkMe content to drive engagement, as well as advanced tooltips and data validation to help employees understand unfamiliar fields and ensure they’re inputting accurate information.

“As a team, WalkMe allows us to be ahead of the game when it comes to the digitalization strategy within TUI. We are considered forward-thinking and acting in how we can use WalkMe for high-quality, data-based decision making. Within our own team, we use it for all new projects connected with SuccessFactors and the immediate collection of data allows us to quickly see adoption of new processes,” said Dean.

TUI is constantly looking for ways to enhance their digital adoption strategy, including using capabilities like UI Intelligence to understand aggregate user engagement with forms and to identify areas for improvement. For example, as they evaluated their performance process, they used UI Intelligence to uncover when employees were accessing the performance modules and how they navigated the performance evaluation forms – something that was never before possible.

“UI Intelligence is a massive game changer for people who use forms in their systems. Being able to see how users are going through processes – on average, without any personal identifiable information – enables us to be very data-driven in how we approach our processes and training, all with the ultimate goal of improving employees’ experiences,” said Dean. “If we know where forms, like our performance reviews, are getting stuck in the cycle or where employees are receiving errors, we can thoughtfully rebuild that process, using actual data to guide our decisions.”

In a recent example, Dean and team used UI Intelligence to see that, on average, people add the desired number of objectives in their performance review and that it takes them less time to complete than expected, which was encouraging – but they uncovered that users were starting the process very early in the year. To address this, they can now work with leaders and other teams to adjust their review communications and training cycles based on employees’ actual behavior.

Additionally, they’re able to analyze how users complete various form fields, so they can recommend ways to reduce friction and unnecessary work. For example, if a form field is frequently skipped or takes employees a lot of time to complete, Dean and team can build WalkMe solutions to help users along the way, or evaluate removing or modifying the field.

Dean explained, “Performance is about having that conversation with your manager and getting the development you need to move up in the business. It shouldn’t be an administrative task – and that’s where UI Intelligence can really help us to see trends in a comprehensive, safe, and secure way, so we can drive improvements that enable those conversations.”

Since partnering with WalkMe and implementing its digital adoption strategy, TUI has seen numerous benefits, including significant savings in time and travel costs associated with enablement—an overall reduction of 70% –, a 50% decrease in support tickets, and a 40% increase in task completion rates. But, even more importantly, TUI’s digital adoption approach has unlocked new opportunities to enhance employees’ experience, automate work, and get the maximum value out of their systems.

“Whether it’s a small enhancement to SuccessFactors or a big launch of a new module, WalkMe is there to act like a change manager for us. When you’re in a lean team and a lean project and a strict deadline and budget, WalkMe can handle much of the change management for you, so you can focus on the people aspect,” said Dean.

In addition to the data they receive from UI Intelligence, TUI also benefits from the data and analytics available through WalkMe Insights, which has given them critical, anonymized analytics on how users are navigating the system and adopting new HR processes. Having this vital information enables Dean and team to jump in with WalkMe support before tickets start to come in from employees.

Beyond benefits to end users, TUI’s HRIT team no longer needs to spend time traveling to conduct training on basic functionalities, so they can think strategically about how to improve users’ experience and spend time connecting with their key users. “One massive benefit of WalkMe is that I have time to connect with people on complex processes where they still need a human touch; the time that I have back from traveling and training means that I can speak to teams, understand more about their needs, and how we can better serve them,” said Dean.

Based on her work, Dean was recognized as a Top 100 Digital Adoption Professional and remains active in the digital adoption community. “What’s wonderful about the WalkMe Community is that we can all learn from each other, even if we’re working on completely different systems. Someone is always there to help brainstorm solutions and share what’s worked for them,” said Dean.

TUI’s digital adoption approach has received positive reviews from TUI’s HR department and end users, and Dean and team are looking ahead at potential usage throughout the rest of the company. WalkMe has become part of the vernacular of TUI’s teams, with different leaders and product owners often reaching out to Dean to learn how they can use WalkMe to solve needs in their systems.

Looking ahead, TUI is eager to continue using the latest WalkMe capabilities to future-proof HR processes and simplify tasks for employees around the world, so they can focus on serving customers and driving the business forward.