NSW Department of Education

The HCM Program

Updating practices for managing a workforce of over 130,000 employees.

The NSW public sector is Australia’s largest employer, and the NSW Department of Education (DoE) is their largest agency, responsible for delivering high-quality public education to two-thirds of the NSW student population.

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The NSW DoE HCM Program was created to empower their Human Resources Directorate to operate as a ‘Centre of Excellence’ for HR (Human Resource) services and advice, delivering contemporary talent management practices.

SUMMARY

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1. overview

THE BRIEF

The NSW Government has a licence to use SAP SuccessFactors.

The NSW Department of Education saw an opportunity to modernise its practices and created the 'NSW DoE HCM Program' to transition its 49 independent HCM systems over to SuccessFactors.

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2. my role

THE PROGRAM

The HCM Program employed over 160 DoE employees and external contractors, across 5 different teams.


My role as UI Consultant saw me acting as a conduit between DoE employees and Technical Delivery contractors, overseeing all UI related activities.

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3. scope and constraints

THE LANDSCAPE

I entered the Program during ‘Phase 2’, where I discovered that much of the solution build was underway if not already complete, prior to any UX activities being carried out.

This presented many challenges, as I worked to align the solution with core UX principles, to ensure best practice.

4. analysis

THE QUESTIONS

Why:
The transition to SAP SuccessFactors will enable a reduction in systems, reduced overall complexity and shorter transaction times.

​How:
An in-depth overview of all current state functions and needs, to ascertain what will be retained, reengineered, built or de-commissioned.

What:
A custom product, replicating in SuccessFactors all DoE's current HR functions and needs.

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5. approach

WHAT I DID

Understand:
Overviewed all elements of the HCM Program, to ascertain where I could bring the most value.​

Communicate:
Created the 'DoE HCM UI Standards and Principles' White Paper.
 

Educate:
Shared this White Paper across all teams.
 

Review:
Assessed the agreed standards and principles against existing solutions, to create revised UI designs.

Circulate:
Shared revised designs with relevant stakeholders, demonstrating the impact these applied changes had on the final product. 

Align:
Worked with developers across all teams to retrofit these required changes.

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6. reflections

WHAT I LEARNT ABOUT...

The Client:
The NSW DoE, whilst open to new ways of thinking, is slow to adopt change.

The Industry:
Whilst SAP-Success Factors is aware of the need to update practices to ensure their products deliver consumer-grade experiences, their community is reluctant to prioritise necessary changes to existing processes. 

 

Me:
Working within a waterfall structure, using Agile approaches and practices was at times very challenging, but I found that with a consistent, focussed approach to applying core UX standards and principles, I was able to create a really rewarding cultural shift across all my teams.

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