Implementing a global people analytics system for a leading bank

Challenge

For over 10 years we've worked with one of the largest banking and financial services institutions in the world, which employs over a quarter of a million people globally in 60 countries. 

With a workforce of this size, being able to easily access HR data to make informed decisions and provide timely reporting is critical. In the beginning, the bank had an HR platform that it hosted itself to perform these tasks. However, it faced challenges with this, including scaling difficulties, infrequent updates and the solution being hard to maintain. For example, data loads to the platform could only take place on weekends and required a team of people to do this manually.

The bank recognised an opportunity to implement a scalable, secure and cost-effective HR analytics tool that met its vast and complex needs and supported all its staff to easily access the information they require. 

Approach

Embracing the cloud

We wanted to create a secure platform that could continue to grow and evolve, so scalability and security were the two key drivers in building our solution. To do this, we used an agile framework throughout the project. This saw us regularly engage with people in the bank throughout the project to ensure they were continuously involved and up to date and continuous improvements could be made during development and after. This approach is still used in our work to this day.

We first focused on bringing stability and automation to the existing on-premise tool that serviced 1,500 HR professionals globally within the business.

Once this was achieved, we then migrated the bank’s HR analytics solution into a purpose-built private cloud, created and hosted by TPXimpact. Using a cloud-based solution would provide the bank with a way to easily scale the solution and reduce the costs of hosting it on-site. Once developed, this was then rolled out to its 65,000 line managers so they could access the information they needed on their teams. 

Opening up information

We also introduced Ada, TPXimpact’s Analytics Digital Assistant solution, into the new system. Ada is our AI tool that lets users run in-depth and complex analytical queries simply by asking questions using natural language commands. It is built to deliver a highly conversational and engaging user experience, meaning that the bank’s line managers could self-serve a huge number of requests and queries to access the HR data they need, including headcounts by area or region or the number of joiners and leavers over a given period.

Taking a security-first approach

HR data is highly sensitive for any organisation. To ensure this information was protected while re-platforming the system and delivering analytics improvements, we worked within an extremely tight security model, putting in place complex rules to limit access to data based on role and business need. Something that continues in our work with the bank to this day. 

Impact

Moving from a self-hosted platform to a cloud solution enabled the bank’s HR team to roll out its HR analytics tool to its entire global workforce of 265,000 employees, delivering operational efficiencies that were anticipated to save the bank $10 million over a five-year period. 

When we piloted Ada with 4,000 users, the digital assistant saved the bank’s central team of 50 HR data analysts just under 90 hours a month in productivity gains. The subsequent rollout of Ada to 20,000 users has created further efficiencies and streamlined operations, giving them valuable time back to use on work that is most important to them. Internal HR queries are projected to fall by 50%, as line managers can self-serve their data needs rather than raise a ticket with the HR data team. At the same time, being able to easily access insights and data has made it easier for the bank to advance equality and inclusion within their workplace and society at large.

We’ve built a long-term relationship based on trust, partnership and innovation with the bank through our partnership, delivering world-class HR analytics platform and GenAI solutions. We’re now scoping further programmes of work for the HR team around digital enablement to increase the capabilities of existing technology, making innovations using artificial intelligence and data science.