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Donovan Group

Discover how Donovan Group leveraged ELMO’s recruitment software to streamline tedious manual processes.

The Challenges

HR processes were manual and paper-based, taking up time that could have been spent on other projects.

On-site employees struggled to access policies, forms and documentation.

Recruitment processes were time-consuming and cumbersome.

It was difficult to track down important information when making business decisions.

“With the amount of new roles that I could see coming through the business… I needed software to streamline those manual processes.”
Katie Hirst
People and Capability Manager at Donovan Group
Katie Hirst had been with Donovan Group for over a year when it became clear that the New Zealand-based construction technology company needed to invest in a Human Resources Information System (HRIS).

With more than 60 years of experience in the industry, Donovan Group has expanded from its first site in Whangārei and now has teams based in Auckland, Sydney and the Philippines. Given how quickly Donovan Group was growing, Katie knew that the company needed to streamline its manual, paper-based HR procedures, especially when it came to recruiting talent.

“We were on a growth path,” Katie explains. “And with the amount of new roles that I could see coming through the business, and knowing what our resourcing was like, I needed software to streamline those manual processes.

“When we started looking at options, we could have just gone for a recruitment tool. But rather than just stopping there, we decided to go for something that could offer us solutions across a wide range of HR aspects.”

For a rapidly growing business such as Donovan Group, it was important to invest in an HRIS that would fit their current needs but also support their future expansion.

“I knew the piece of software we invested in now was going to need to sustain the business for a long period of time,” Katie says. “The software was going to need to scale up and change and adapt as the company grew.”

Another reason for needing a cloud-based HRIS was to give all employees the same experience, regardless of their role or where they are located.

On top of this, many of Donovan Group’s employees work on-site. “Most of our manufacturing team don’t have desk-bound roles,” explains Katie. “So getting information to them was challenging, and it was difficult for them to access policies and forms.”

What Donovan Group needed was a cloud-based, modular HRIS that could eliminate the need for paper-based processes, provide easier access to a growing global team, and evolve with the company’s future growth.

The Solution

Donovan Group chose to implement ELMO Recruitment to transform the company’s hiring process to keep up with demand and provide a better overall candidate experience.

They also implemented ELMO Onboarding, HR Core and Learning Management to consolidate the entire new hire workflow, ensuring a smooth and simple start for new team members no matter where they’re based.

Reflecting on the implementation journey, Katie said it was a chance to reflect on the company’s existing processes and procedures, conducting an “HR health check” with the support of her ELMO consultant.

“I can’t speak highly enough of our Implementation Consultant Caitlin. We had a lot of fun along the way in terms of trying to push the system toward new limits and trying different things. It was about asking ‘Is this best practice, or can we actually improve our processes?’

“So, we haven’t just taken everything we did on paper and turned it into an online system. We’ve also taken the opportunity to review those processes and decide if it’s even necessary anymore.”

Katie said the regular cadence of support provided by ELMO also helped to keep the project on track.

“With any technology implementation, you have to put time in your calendar every week to actually sit down and do the steps required, otherwise it just won’t happen. But having those regular check-ins with Caitlin drove that behaviour,” she says.

The Benefits

Custom-built recruitment workflow reduces admin and speeds up the hiring process.

Employees have remote access to the HRIS, even when working on-site away from a desk.

Flexible configurability gives Donovan Group complete control over their HRIS and it can be customised to match the organisation’s branding.

Relegating process-driven admin tasks to the HRIS means there is more time to focus on other projects.

ELMO has allowed us to start focusing on other projects that really add value to the business.
Katie Hirst
People and Capability Manager at Donovan Group
KatieHirst-CSImage-01

For Katie, the main benefit of using ELMO is simple. It takes care of the admin tasks so she can focus on what matters most. Instead of needing to hire a new member of the HR team to manage admin, the software takes care of those processes automatically. Freeing up more time for value-adding projects has been one of the most beneficial aspects.

“One of the biggest things is having all of those manual admin processes taken care of for the HR team,” she says.

“ELMO has allowed us to start focusing on other projects that really add value to the business. Without ELMO, we would never have been able to even start looking at that side of HR.”

Having more time in her day means Katie can dedicate more time engaging and interacting with people in the business, as well as being able to work on long-term HR projects that benefit the employee experience.

The high level of configurability has allowed Donovan Group to create workflows that suit their organisation’s exact needs, rather than changing how they operate to fit the technology. The self-service aspect of ELMO has also empowered employees to take control over their own HR and learning needs.

Having a manufacturing facility brings a higher level of health and safety compliance to keep staff safe at all times. Now, compliance can be tracked conveniently through a dashboard.

“We were very manual before in terms of recording people’s training requirements and competencies,” says Katie. “It’s still a work in progress as we tailor the system, but the potential there is massive because tracking everyone’s expiry dates for equipment certifications, first aid and other compliance training is so important. Now the system can take care of all of that for us.”

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