Case study

First Midwest resolves 47% of HR inquiries before a person is involved, and lifted HR productivity 20%

Chicago headquartered First Midwest Bank, now Old National, protected more than 2,100 staff and kept more than 100 branches and operations centers open across four Midwest states through 2020. A self service portal carrying 450 knowledge articles now handles 47% of employee inquiries before anyone in HR sees them.

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The organization

Industry: Banking
Employees: More than 2,100
Footprint: 112 branches and three operations centers across Illinois, Wisconsin, Ohio and Indiana
Portal name: MyHR
HR structure: Five HR generalists at tier 1, two HR specialists at tier 2, three employee relations advisers at tier 3
Using: Dovetail HR Case Management, Employee Portal, HR Knowledge Management and HR Reporting and Analytics

What changed

47%
Of employee inquiries handled at tier 0 through the MyHR portal
450
Knowledge articles in the portal knowledge base
20%
Increase in HR shared services productivity
2 FTE
Equivalent workload absorbed by self service automation
20%
Increase in total HR case workload absorbed over the period, including 2,381 additional cases

Figures as published in the First Midwest Bank case study. Lori Sappington, VP HR Shared Services, and Pam O'Connor, HR Program Manager, First Midwest Bank.

The context

An essential business that could not close

In March 2020 First Midwest Bank had to protect the health of its staff and customers while remaining open as an essential business. Branches were closing for deep cleaning and to accommodate quarantines, and employees were raising questions HR had no structured way to handle.

Lori Sappington, VP HR Shared Services, describes the questions arriving as questions of fear, alongside employees managing home schooling, financial pressure and sick relatives. Over the period from March to November 2020 the bank recorded 2,381 additional employee cases, 30% of total caseload, and a 20% increase in overall HR case workload.

I like a lot of Dovetail HR Service Delivery features. Case Types and the Case Management Query tool are among them, but the #1 feature is the self-service Employee Portal with a searchable Knowledge Base. We have more than 450 Knowledge Articles in the Knowledge Base, including answers to common employee questions, inquiries, and queries. I would need two other team members if our employees didn't have access to Dovetail's Employee Portal.

Lori SappingtonVP HR Shared Services · First Midwest Bank

47%

of inquiries resolved at tier 0

What they did

Extending a system already in place

The bank had already adopted Dovetail case management, the employee portal, knowledge management and reporting before 2020, supporting a multi tiered HR shared services function. That meant the response was configuration rather than procurement.

The team extended the case types feature, branching down to 40 case types, so everything could be tracked in one database and leaders could see patterns across locations. Contact tracing templates and labels were added to track when an employee could not attend work and when they were cleared to return.

Senior management ran employee support programs including enhanced benefits, expanded PTO and interest free hardship loans. Employees applied by opening a case, which meant HR could report on uptake directly rather than tracking it by hand.

The operating model

Four tiers, with self service carrying the volume

Tier 0. The MyHR employee portal carries a knowledge base of more than 450 articles. 47% of employee inquiries are handled here. Employees who cannot find an answer open a chat with an HR agent or raise a case directly.

Tier 1. Five HR generalists manage incoming cases, calls, emails and live chat. Anything arriving by phone, email or chat has a case created immediately.

Tier 2. Two HR specialists with deeper subject knowledge take what tier 1 cannot resolve.

Tier 3. Three employee relations advisers with investigation expertise handle ER casework.

The whole shared services team moved to remote working without disruption, and Lori found the remote team more productive.

Over the months, the insights that we've been able to generate from Dovetail metrics have enabled us to take decisive actions. For example, 'Do we need to increase the number of comp hours we have been giving employees?' and 'How many people are applying for the hardship loan?' With the data from Dovetail system, we can easily answer these types of questions and adapt or evolve our programs as needed.

Lori SappingtonVP HR Shared Services · First Midwest Bank

The results

What it was worth

Self service automation absorbed the equivalent workload of two full time HR employees. HR shared services productivity rose 20%.

Reporting turned case data into management decisions. Because program applications ran through cases with their own case types, leaders could answer questions like how many employees had used additional hours, or how many had applied for a hardship loan, and adjust the programs accordingly. Lori's assessment of the alternative is that tracking it manually would have been a nightmare.

Live chat, reached through the portal, became the preferred channel for younger employees.

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