When more than 600 teachers at the Bendigo Kangan Institute (BKI) campuses are asked by their HR team months in advance to submit their annual work plans by the end of the following February, barely half of them typically manage to get theirs done by the time February rolls around.
The subsequent last-minute rush by hundreds of teachers submitting their work plans adds stress not just for them, but also for the HR administrators tasked with processing all the data and information in a short timeframe.
For David Spendlove, BKI’s new HR Systems and Data Analytics Manager, the root cause of this annual headache seemed obvious.
They were using the wrong tools.
“Why are you using Excel?”
“They tried to manage it two years ago with a series of Word Documents,” explains David.
“And then last year an Excel database – they created a pseudo form in Excel to try and capture all this information and then try and report on it and it was a mess.”
“Having worked with systems for a long time, my immediate question was, Why are you using Excel? Why don’t you use a smart form? Why don’t you use a tool to create a smart form, capture the data in the database and eliminate all the backwards and forwards, incomplete forms, all of that sort of trouble?”
From manual to digital: a cultural shift
“When we implemented Snapforms (to manage the work plan data collection), compared to the amount of admin time that the HR people had been spending previously, I immediately identified in excess of a hundred hours of time saved just by implementing the Snapforms solution. I said to them, It’s a no-brainer, guys.”
“I’m trying to get them… away from admin, away from shifting paper and manually manipulating data.”
David says these immediate and tangible benefits have triggered a rethink across the HR team.
“I’m trying to get them to adopt technology to improve on their practices, but also to get them away from admin, away from shifting paper and manually manipulating data, and follow up and all that sort of nonsense.”
“I’ve said to them, This tool can be used for surveys, it can be used to basically replace every form that you’re asking people to fill in, and enable you much better capability on reporting.”
What was the business challenge?
When David joined the HR team, he was tasked with getting the work plan solution up and running within just two months.
“Make it easier for the end-user… easier for the reporting and demonstrate the benefits.”
He knew he was looking for a technology-driven solution.
“A smart form with mandatory fields, drop-down lists, et cetera – and have a workflow process that the manager of the teachers could approve and enable them to attach documents and all these other requirements,” explains David.
“It meets a compliance need, in this case by the end of February – so they have several months to do it – every teacher has to have their work plan for the year.”
“This time last year they were struggling and chasing people and were barely over 50% – but this year we’re already at 72% – the story for me is introduce the technology, make it easier for the end-user, make it easier for the reporting and demonstrate the benefits.”
How was the solution implemented?
“I worked with the Snapforms team online to get that solution up and running in time and the feedback from our teachers and teacher managers was, Wow this is just an amazing improvement, this is just so much better than the trouble we had last year!”
“From a user experience perspective, it was just leaps ahead.”
“I’ve convinced the HR team that they really need to look at every single form they’ve got and forget about using PDFs and Word Docs, take advantage of Snapforms and start creating these online forms and catching the data.”
David was also impressed with Snapforms’ potential for future scalability and the ability to set up integrations.
“What I’ve already flagged with our IT guys is why don’t we set up an integration with our internal business intelligence and analytics tool – Power BI – and set up some automated dashboards for reporting?”
“I’ve also carried out a few demonstrations for our occupational health and safety team and they’re loving it.”
“For our OH&S team, the beauty of this Snapforms product is it’s scalable so you can actually view it and fill it in on your mobile phone, onsite, take a photo, attach the file, submit and then it goes through the relevant OH&S people.”
“From a user experience perspective, it was just leaps ahead, and they agree.”
“I’m trying to show them the benefits of technology and how it is for them as an administrator to set it up, all of the additional benefits from workflow reporting and so on.”
“I’m also demonstrating to our engagement team – who use a competitor’s survey tool, and the marketing team who use another survey tool – but the survey tools these teams are using are not compliant with Australian privacy requirements – so this again is another big selling point.”
“One of the key drivers for me is user experience.”
David considered other online smart form providers but found that none of them has the full capabilities of what Snapforms can do.
“They’ve got some good features and their selling point is oh we’ve got the automatic integration and you can access your data directly but that’s kind of where it ends,” said David.
“Or they say we’ve got this cool survey function – and I’m talking about some of the top-tier products and they’re seriously lacking.”
“One of the key drivers for me is user experience, whether you’re the person filling in the form or the administrator, it’s got to be simple and easy, a minimal amount of time to learn.”
“Snapforms’ support is also really good and when I’ve done these demos I’ve highlighted the fact you’ve got an online chat – that responds quickly and from what I’ve experienced it’s really, really impressive – particularly the turnaround times.”
“Whether it’s forms, workflows or surveys, Snapforms is going to meet a lot of our needs.”
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