Marquie Lazaro

We’ve always known that our systems training needed to be improved upon. Our CRM is Bullhorn and we hadn’t ever used it to its full capabilities. Our Learning and Development team has always had an emphasis on coaching and soft skills, so they never had time to upskill themselves in Bullhorn.

Our organization had also always been in-person, so we lost the learning through osmosis and in-person help when we went remote. Pair this with our hypergrowth, and it was clear that we needed a scalable solution. We wanted to free our trainers from systems training, we wanted to help ease the burden on back office and support due to system usage errors, and most of all, we wanted all of our learners to have on-demand, in platform help whenever and wherever they needed it.

We also wanted all new hires to develop good habits from Day One. One challenge faced with systems training is that each manager has their own way of using the system, for better or for worse – and we wanted to make sure all new hires were compliant and using the system the right way!

We chose a digital strategy for a few reasons:

• The first was the scalability. For every 30 employees, we have one L&D manager. While that is a good ratio, our L&D managers are focused on employee ramp, coaching, and soft skills.
  • For L&D managers to take time away from their usual responsibilities to provide 1:1 systems training was too high an opportunity cost. As we continue to grow, that would mean more and more new hires for each L&D manager to train on systems, which isn’t as high value as sales coaching.
• The second reason for choosing a digital solution is reach. We are a global business with people in London, Sydney, and 35+ US States.
  • We needed something that was universally accessible regardless of their location, division, or working situation (remote, hybrid, in-office). Because we are so spread out, we needed a centralized program to provide up to date training. We wanted to meet the learner where they are, in the system they use daily!
• Next, we needed to improve our onboarding processes. Study after study tells us how important the first few months of an employee’s experience is when it comes to success and retention. Ensuring people could have a solid foundation in their systems’ use would be key to getting them ramped up. We didn’t have much hard data when it came to systems training knowledge, other than support tickets raised and time spent training, we needed something to track each stage of the funnel.
  • We use funnel analytics daily when it comes to coaching and performance management; we don’t think systems training should be any different, and a scalable digital solution with analytics was in line with our overall business strategy.
• Finally, we knew that our solution needed to match the landscape of 2020 and beyond. Almost everything we do in our day to day lives is high tech. People nowadays expect instant and accessible solutions; to stay competitive, we needed to match what was happening around us.

WalkMe was the perfect solution for us because we have been building out a few other platforms and technologies to be “on-demand” and “self-service” For example, we have done a complete rebranding of our Learning Management System. We made sure each division has bespoke content and beefed up the library to have more on-demand courses that we knew were immediately relevant to our learners.

We made sure that WalkMe was also introduced as a platform that was on-demand (not in your face or aggressive) and “self-service”, as well as bespoke – each learner needed to feel as if these solutions were in fact applicable to them and not just “generalized” topics that aren’t relevant for them.

In 2021 we also introduced a platform for contract management called IntelAgree – this was a huge step for us to ensure our staff felt a sense of ownership and autonomy in their contract and client management. IntelAgree is all self-service and allows for our end users to own each part of the process. We wanted a digital adoption platform that would echo the sentiment of autonomy and ownership.

We also worked closely with the Learning & Development managers who look after on-boarding. Instead of presenting WalkMe as an additional tool, we wanted people to integrate this into their day to day.

We built out time in their training program for “systems training” where they were tasked to complete certain tasks (Smart WalkThrus) in Bullhorn. We also created a “teach-back framework” where learners were graded on their ability to access and execute certain things in Bullhorn.

There are so many benefits to the end users it almost feels impossible to list them all! F

First and foremost, our end-users are now spending less time waiting for help. Instead of raising a support ticket or finding time to work with L&D to figure something out in Bullhorn, they have help right away in WalkMe.

They also now have the benefit of auto-steps. We have some “repetitive” workflows in Bullhorn that can now be automated. Time saved, even minutes, has been a benefit to the end user by simply bypassing some of these mundane tasks.

Next, our CRM has over 1 million candidate profiles. The average end user won’t scratch the surface when it comes to utilizing information already in the system. By leveraging the Smart WalkThrus, they are adding in layers, filters, and features they’ve never used before in order to access information and profiles that would otherwise remain totally untouched.

Lastly, the end-users have seen actual financial gain. In our healthcare practice, there are several steps that must be taken in Bullhorn in order for a deal to come to fruition. More often than not, those deals are delayed or missed due to improper information. With WalkMe validation, people no longer make the same mistakes and therefore don’t lose out on deals.

(For context, we staff registered nurses and the information needed in Bullhorn allows these nurses to be credentialed and signed off to start on a job site. In the past, end-users enter incorrect information that would lead to the nurse not being cleared to work. This can happen in any division, but our healthcare practice is the most intense when it comes to clearing a candidate to work.)

Our digital strategy has been beneficial to our team and the leadership team in a few ways.

For the L&D team, it’s been a wonderful tool to free up their time to focus on more high impact items. It’s allowed the team to have measurable results through the insights tab. It’s also helped the team when it comes to system changes and managing that communication and training since it can be centralized in WalkMe.

For the leadership team as a whole, the financial benefits can be seen through the mitigation of risk and loss. We are in the human capital space and deal with sensitive information, and WalkMe has helped to keep best practices top of mind.

We also know that the faster someone gets up and running in our business, they are more likely to stay in the business, therefore it has indirectly helped increase retention. It’s also allowed the L&D team to increase their selling points and points of differentiation when it comes to candidate attraction.

Our digital adoption strategy, and WalkMe, has helped us to reach and surpass our headcount growth. With a robust digital learning strategy, we feel confident hiring all across the globe, we know that regardless of physical location, our learners will have great training. Because we have surpassed our headcount goals, we have of course passed our revenue goals.

Our company values focus on autonomy, innovation, and ambition – from earlier questions, we know that autonomy was a core reason for selecting and adding WalkMe to our digital strategy. Innovation, ensuring that we are constantly looking for ways to improve and succeed, we knew that WalkMe was the way to do that.

I think the success of our WalkMe implementation has shown our stakeholders that L&D is in fact very strategic and that we can have a huge global impact. It’s also made them more open to our ideas and suggestions.

It’s shown how innovative and commercially minded we can be and helped them to see behind the scenes a bit of just how much L&D do to make our learners/end-users successful.

WalkMe was the biggest investment that the L&D team has ever asked for and it’s been a huge success, so it was a risk that has paid dividends and it has completely elevated the ‘personal brand’ of the Learning & Development team in our leadership’s eyes!

As the main and only person managing WalkMe, I could not be prouder of this success.

I have been doing L&D for 5 years and my background is in sales. This was a hugely technical project (iframes within iframes and endless jquery), and I have zero technical training or knowledge. For me to pull this off, with the help of GuideMe and a very patient Customer Success Manager at WalkMe, was a huge feat.

I not only learned WalkMe, but I learned jquery, iframes, built hundreds of solutions, and launched all in a matter of months! This was all pre-Deep UI as well!

I am also incredibly proud of our early success. The usage is great, the feedback from L&D, Managers, and end-users has been really positive! It was a HUGE undertaking, and we didn’t know how technical it would turn out to be, but we pulled it off!

The results?

• We have seen a 50% decrease in support tickets in the past 90 days compared to the 90 days prior.
• We have seen 3000 validations in just 90 days (this has saved endless issues for back office credentialing, which has led to more nurses onsite in a timely manner).
• We have seen a 75% improvement in our Bullhorn systems teach backs.
• We are seeing L&D save around 2 hours per week per user when it comes to systems help and/or re-training.

Because of this success and positive feedback, we have made a successful business case to add WalkMe to an additional platform. Being able to successfully launch WalkMe was instrumental in my success in my new-ish role as Digital Learning Manager. Creating a scalable solution for a notoriously difficult topic for our business (systems training) was a turning point in my career at GQR and in the path to a more robust digital learning strategy overall.

GQR is a global talent acquisition and advisory firm specialized in matching uniquely talented individuals with the world’s most innovative organizations. We are highly specialized in sectors that define the next phase of innovation: capital, natural resources, time and life. By specializing in Banking, Finance & Legal, Energy & Engineering, Technology, Life Sciences and Healthcare, GQR adds value to the world by identifying talent that transcends boundaries.
Our globalization objective offers international relationships to increase market penetration and allows us to dip into an infinitely diverse pool of talent and resources. Internal and external talent mobility enhances our ability to take on projects with more complexity and size.
Our people collaborate across teams, divisions, offices and the world to discover and deliver top talent to the most prestigious institutions.