Lenovo, a Fortune Global 500 technology company, is committed to creating a better world through computing intelligence. With a diverse portfolio of products, solutions, software, and services, Lenovo serves individuals, communities, businesses, and populations worldwide. The company faced several challenges in managing its HR cases before adopting Dovetail's HR Case Management system, including a lack of SLA functionality, limited management reporting capabilities, inability to create child cases, and inefficient management of employee case history. In this case study, we will explore how Lenovo overcame these challenges and achieved operational efficiency with Dovetail's HR Case Management system in their Global Multi-tier HR Shared Service Centers. We will also delve into the features that Lenovo found most beneficial, such as SLA capabilities, case analysis, and reporting functionalities.
About Lenovo
Lenovo is a Fortune Global 500 technology company committed to creating a better world through computing intelligence. With a portfolio of products, solutions, software, and services, Lenovo delivers Smarter Technology for All, serving individuals, communities, businesses, and entire populations around the world.
As industries are reshaping and reimaging what they make and how they do it, smarter technology must be made for all. Lenovo thinks and acts globally, leveraging the diversity of its more than 63,000 employees to serve customers in 180 markets and redefine the limits of what technology can do.
With a full portfolio of PCs and tablets, monitors, accessories, smartphones, smart home and smart collaboration solutions, augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR), commercial Internet of Things (IoT), software, services, and smart infrastructure data center solutions, Lenovo has shipped more than half a billion PCs since 1995 and makes three devices every second. Lenovo's global manufacturing allows tailored offerings to regional markets and includes more than 30 manufacturing facilities in Argentina, Brazil, China, Germany, Hungary, India, Japan, Mexico, and the USA.
Background & Challenges
Sheryl Li is the Global HR Services Director at Lenovo, overseeing the Global HR Shared Service Centers located in China, Argentina, and Slovakia. Under her leadership, a team of 60 HR Services support staff operates, while she reports to the Global HR Strategy & Operations Vice President. The four HR Service Centers are spread across the following regions:
- AG HR Service Center in Argentina supports employees in 9 countries in Latin and North America
- EMEM HR Service Center in Slovakia supports employees in 40 countries in the EMEA region
- AP HR Service Center in China serves 13 Asia Pacific countries
- China HR Service center serves employees in over 70 cities in mainland China
When Lenovo integrated these HR Services Centers in 2014, the company needed an advanced HR Case Management system to support their consistent Global Service Delivery Model. Sheryl explains:
“In 2014, Lenovo built global consistent HR Services Centers in 4 geographic regions together with a Global HR system integration. However, the HR Case Management system at that time had very limited functionality that led to several challenges. We needed a new, more advanced case management system to improve case management quality.”
The challenges Lenovo were facing included:
1. Limited SLA Functionality
Lenovo needed their HR Case Management system to manage cases of varying complexity and urgency levels to ensure that employees received timely and effective support. This required a case management system with more advanced SLA capabilities than the system that Lenovo was using prior to Dovetail had.
Sheryl knew that by adopting Dovetail’s HR Case Management she would have a system that could monitor and manage SLA adherence by the HR Service Support Agents which would improve customer satisfaction and the overall employee experience of HR services.
2. Lack of HR Case Management Reporting
Lenovo needed to review report matrices regularly, track cases daily, and analyze case complexity to accurately measure the productivity of their Service Center Agents. The previous case management reporting system was lacking in these areas, which meant that managers did not have the data they required to make the best decisions.
3. Inability to Create Child Cases and Assign Cases to Tier 2 Level Support
A child case is a smaller task connected to a main, or “parent”, case. Child cases help divide a bigger task into smaller, separate tasks, that can be assigned to other HR team members. Lenovo needed the ability to create child cases to manage employee questions that required escalation to higher levels of support, which the system the company was using prior to Dovetail lacked. Sheryl comments on how this was impacting the HR Shared Service Centers:
“In the system we were using prior to Dovetail, we couldn’t create child cases. This was a problem, as if an employee’s inquiry could not be resolved at Tier 1 level, and we needed to assign it to Tier 2, we could not do this without creating an entirely new case. This was very inefficient for us. So we wanted to find a new system that had child case functionality. Dovetail’s HR Case Management has this functionality and, consequently, has improved operational effectiveness and efficiency substantially.”
4. Inefficient Management of Employee Case History
The company needed to more efficiently access and manage employee case history information. A new system would have to be able to handle the volume of historical case data and provide easy access to it.
5. Need to Improve Operational Efficiency
Sheryl and her colleagues required a system that could improve operational productivity and streamline daily HR service tasks. In general, the previous system lacked the necessary functionalities to achieve this.
Why Lenovo Chose Dovetail?
In 2015, Lenovo acquired Dovetail HR Case Management to meet these challenges. Sheryl explains why Lenovo selected Dovetail’s HR Case Management software:
“We wanted a more advanced HR Case Management system to support the new Service Centers. Lenovo had also merged with Motorola Mobility and we discovered they were using Dovetail’s HR Case Management system. Our new colleagues at Motorola gave us a demo of how they used Dovetail, and provided us with very positive feedback about Dovetail’s software. After comparing and evaluating Dovetail’s functionality and price with other case management providers and seeing how it offered child case functionality and SLA capabilities, we decided Dovetail was the best solution for us.”
Solution - Global Multi-tier HR Shared Service Centers Supported by Dovetail HR Case Management
In order to efficiently manage and resolve employee cases, Lenovo implemented a Multi-tiered HR Shared Service Delivery Model, with different levels of support available to address various types of employee inquiries. This delivery model is supported by Dovetail HR Case Management, which helps to streamline case handling and improve response times. Below is a description of how each tier supports Lenovo employees:
Tier 0 - Employee Self-Service
Lenovo uses an internally developed self-service Knowledge Base built on SharePoint along with an AI Chatbot named Robbie at the Tier 0 level of support for employees.
If an employee is unable to find an answer to their question at this level, they generate an inquiry through Email, MS Teams, or by telephone that is then handled by Tier 1 level support.
Tier 1 - 1st Level HR Services Support
At the Tier 1 level support, 60 support staff, made up of 4 Service Center Managers, their teams of Service Center Specialists and Coordinators, based at four geographic HR Service centers use Dovetail HR Case Management to handle an average of 13,000 employee cases every month.
These Tier 1 support teams have a First Contact Fix target of 92%, which means 92% of cases need to be solved at this level. Currently, the teams exceed their First Contact Fix target, solving 96% of cases.
The remaining 4% of cases (on average around 520 cases) are escalated to Tier 2.
Tier 2 - 2nd Level HR Services Support
At the Tier 2 level support, 50 COEs, Payroll, HRIS and other HR personnel resolve 520 cases on average per month. Almost 100% of these cases are resolved at this level.
Tier 3 - 3rd Level HR Services Support
COEs and HRBPs receive less than 10 cases per month at the Tier 3 level.
How Dovetail Software Supports Lenovo Global HR Shared Services
Commenting on the importance of Dovetail’s HR Case Management system to the Global HR Service Center teams, Sheryl said:
“The Global HR Services team relies on Dovetail as their primary case management system, which is crucial as it tracks all global cases. Employees can create cases by simply sending an email, and Dovetail automatically assigns them to the correct Service Center based on the employee's location. This functionality enables the Team Lead to easily manage and assign cases, as well as track case status and follow up according to SLAs. Additionally, Dovetail allows for easy assignment of cases to Tier 2 support and analysis of case data, including volume, CSAT, SLA, Reopen Rate, and First Contact Fix.”
Discussing HR Case Management’s top 3 benefits, Sheryl said:
“The top three benefits I would say are the SLA capabilities, the Labels feature for tracking case complexity, and from an Agent perspective, the ability to add and use standard templates, as this really saves them a lot of time and energy. I particularly like the SLA capability and how seamlessly it works at the Tier 1 and Tier 2 levels, as this really demonstrates the beauty of the Dovetail system. Also, because Dovetail improves our efficiency, it makes us quicker to respond, and this has led to greater customer satisfaction. Overall, Dovetail HR Case Management has given us more flexibility and made us much more efficient.”
Other benefits include:
Improved HR Service Center Team Effectiveness & Efficiency
Discussing how Dovetail's HR Case Management system has helped Lenovo effectively manage and access employee case history and leverage new functionalities to significantly improve operational productivity, Sheryl said:
“Dovetail enables the team to access the history of employee cases, even from several years ago, to ensure that the correct information is provided, and any feedback is handled appropriately. Also, there are a lot of good functionalities in Dovetail that help us to significantly improve our daily operational productivity. For example, the system we used before Dovetail could not forward attachments in emails but now with Dovetail we can. In short, Dovetail is critical to the Global HR Services team's effectiveness and success.”
Service Level Agreement Capabilities (SLA)
Commenting on the importance of Dovetail’s SLA capabilities to the Lenovo business, Sheryl said:
“An employee wants a resolution to their inquiry as quickly as possible. However, not all inquiries we receive are quick and easy to resolve in under 2 days (Priority 1). So, we needed the capability to manage cases that take longer than this to resolve but still provide the employee with great customer service. That's why we needed to configure 4 levels of Priority within Dovetail’s SLA functionality.
This now means that our agents understand that when they handle the cases, there are 4 levels of Priority, each with their own timeframe to close. If they miss the SLA requirement for a case, it means that the customer (employee) has had to wait too long for a resolution, and this will definitely have an impact on Customer Satisfaction. So, the SLA is very important for ensuring the HR Service Team Lead can monitor and manage the HR Service Support Agents SLA adherence, so that the team can provide great customer service. Dovetail’s SLA feature has helped us substantially improve the employee experience of HR Services.”
Reporting & Analytics
By adopting Dovetail's HR Case Management system, the company was able to improve their case analysis and reporting capabilities, automate report scheduling, and easily run simple case query reports. This helped the company to more effectively manage their cases and optimize their HR services. Sheryl explains:
“For me and for my management team, we need to review our report matrices on a monthly basis and the HR Service Center Team Lead needs to track the status of cases every day. For example, if any cases are nearing SLA violation, the Team Lead must step in to manage the cases for early closure. CSAT is also another important metric to evaluate HR Services quality. If CSAT is lower than target, the Team Lead needs to follow up with an internal customer to ask why they’re not satisfied with a case. We also use a Label called Complexity, which is used to analyze Service Center Agent productivity. We use this because we cannot only analyze a case based on the case volume as some cases are much more complicated and therefore take more time for the Agent to close than simpler cases (that take much less time to close).”
“Overall, Dovetail has definitely improved our case analysis, metrics and reporting capabilities. For example, we can schedule automatic reports to be sent to Data Analysis instead of having to run the report ourselves. Additionally, we can easily run simple case query reports through self-service. We are really looking forward to new reporting capabilities as detailed in Dovetail’s Product Roadmap.”
Ongoing New Dovetail Software Feature Updates
Discussing Dovetail's Product Roadmap, Sheryl said:
"We can see that Dovetail really invests a lot in continually improving its software. Dovetail has introduced a range of new functionalities over the years, plus their transparent Product Roadmap shows that they are continuing to introduce really interesting new features in the coming months and years.”
Conclusion
Lenovo faced several challenges in managing its HR cases before adopting Dovetail HR Case Management, including a lack of SLA functionality, limited management reporting capabilities and inability to create child cases. Dovetail's HR Case Management system provided Lenovo with all these capabilities, enabling the company to achieve operational efficiency in its Global Multi-tier HR Shared Service Delivery Model.
Lenovo has also benefited from Dovetail's ongoing new feature updates and transparent Product Roadmap. Overall, Dovetail's HR Case Management system has proven critical to Lenovo's Global HR Services team's effectiveness and success.
