GKN success story
Accelerating support access and analysis with a tier one aerospace supplier.
Key outcomes
- A 4x improvement in necessary task completions
- 91% user engagement with in-app process reminders
- 85% usage of in-the-flow-of-work tooltips
“The Adopt platform has been an important part of our change strategy since day one.”
Willy Holdahl, Global Head of Change Management – HR
The objective
GKN Aerospace is a world-leading aerospace supplier, serving over 90% of the world’s aircraft and engine manufacturers. Their 15,000+ employees work in 40 locations across 13 countries to produce technology that’s relied on by all major aircraft and engine manufacturers. In 2018, they wanted to give their internal teams HR technology that hit this same standard.
“This was a golden opportunity to try something we had never done before, not just in HR but anywhere in the organization – building help into the solution just at the point you need it.”
Liz West, VP HR Systems and Processes at GKN Aerospace
After choosing SAP SuccessFactors to do this, the scale of the change was soon apparent. The combination of moving on from the incumbent platform and their global complexity led them to investigate digital guidance. With the understanding that users don’t want to always read long guides for answers and the importance of a data-driven approach, they soon came across AppLearn and our digital adoption platform.
From there, things happened fast. After deciding to use our platform to deliver in-the-flow-of-work materials and capture adoption insights, we moved quickly to ensure Adopt was ready to support GKN’s employees from day one.
"We focused on how we were going to use SuccessFactors, embed it and adopt it. This is where AppLearn’s platform came in."
Willy Holdahl, Global Head of Change Management – HR at GKN Aerospace
The solution
GKN’s goals for our platform were to put effective self-help training materials in SuccessFactors and get data on how employees were using both the software and support.
With the in-app support, ease-of-access was the main priority. GKN had the materials, but they were scattered in places outside of the old system. Our task was to modernize the delivery in both format and placement. With their people spanning geographies and different worksites, from offices to manufacturing, catering to all in the right context would be crucial.
To move quickly and accurately, our approach targeted key tasks from start to finish. We used our pop-up style Smart Pages to share change information and due task reminders. We also made associated materials available in our side-panel Split Screen module, along with Tooltips to provide field-level instructions.
"AppLearn’s platform lets us put self-help training materials in SuccessFactors and get data on how our employees are using it"
Willy Holdahl, Global Head of Change Management – HR at GKN Aerospace
The fact that SuccessFactors was a complete change meant that while ensuring support was easy to use and in the right context was important, measurement was critical.
For GKN, moving to a data-driven culture meant not only having more insight into the usage of their applications, but the wider picture and how it links to other KPIs and measurements.
This meant GKN needed data to be contextual and meaningful, and our analytics accommodated this through a range of dashboards. Combined with the in-app guidance, we ensured they were not only able to support the whole employee lifecycle but quantify the value of doing so.
While in-app videos and self-help were especially important in the beginning, with SuccessFactors being new to all employees, it’s only through analytics that continual optimization can be accurately tracked and targeted.
"We use Adopt data to see where we need to put support to help our people be as efficient as possible"
Willy Holdahl, Global Head of Change Management – HR at GKN Aerospace
The outcomes
Adopt was rolled out from day one of GKN’s SuccessFactors launch, offering the contextual support required to get a global workforce rapidly up to speed with a new system.
Beyond that, it also meant GKN could draw out data immediately, and have since been doing so consistently. In fact, they’ve seen 91% user engagement with in-app process reminders and 85% usage of in-the-flow-of-work Tooltips, with both measures leading to faster, better in-app experiences.
This improvement is best captured in the finding that users were on average 4x more likely to perform necessary tasks after viewing a pop-up reminder provided by our platform.
“AppLearn has helped us to make using our system as efficient as possible.”
Willy Holdahl, Global Head of Change Management – HR at GKN Aerospace
Their HR and management teams are now equipped with a blend of contextual support options and behavioral insights into how they’re using technology, why points of friction are happening and where future resource may be required. This makes the complexity of different languages, sites and employee types simpler to understand and manage, short and long term.
The combination of accessibility and data enabled a successful change program and continued rollout. Reported through both staff anecdotes and analytics, GKN have seen excellent results and are continuing their efforts to reach a consumer-grade experience in their business. Their HR teams and managers are even more efficient, simply because their employees can actually help themselves.
On top of our digital adoption platform, GKN continue to collaborate with AppLearn’s team. By analyzing and acting together, we’re ensuring GKN continue to make things fly.
“The sky is the limit for the journey we’re on with AppLearn.”
Willy Holdahl, Global Head of Change Management – HR at GKN Aerospace
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