Improving HR work processes at Capilano University with SharePoint
Image credit: capilanou.ca
About Capilano University
Capilano University is based in British Columbia with 4 teaching locations in North Vancouver, on the Sunshine Coast and in Mount Currie. They have over 9,000 enrolled students and are one of B.C.’s top employers.
The Human Resources (HR) department at Capilano University engaged Gravity Union to migrate their file shares into SharePoint and onboard the team into the platform.
Technologies
SharePoint Online
ShareGate for automated migration
Context
Capilano University's HR department was facing a challenge with their file share system. They had large volumes of data in a system that resulted in redundant, outdated, and transitory (ROT) content. This made it hard to find information, collaborate and maintain a single source of truth. The content also lacked metadata to classify content, and collaboration was difficult without a reliable way to edit content concurrently.
As with many file share systems, this approach to content management was affecting the HR team’s productivity and efficiency.
Solution highlights
The HR team planned to leverage SharePoint Online (SPO) as their new content management platform, with implementation guidance from Gravity Union. They had completed basic SPO training, but the team needed to understand more about how to align the features with their business needs and processes.
A comprehensive SharePoint rollout process
Gravity Union worked with the Capilano University HR Team in a SharePoint rollout project that included:
Pre-kickoff SharePoint training for the HR team to showcase what’s possible and build confidence in the platform
Current state assessment and requirements gathering
Art of the possible demonstration and best practices
Content audit and ROT analysis
Card sort exercise to define the information architecture (IA) and navigation
Prototype development, configuration of the solution with content types and metadata, and testing
Migration planning and dry runs to get feedback on the solution and content process
Auto-assisted migration for some of the content
Manual migration for the rest of the content
The landing page of the Capilano University HR Hub
Designed for how people work
The HR department had distinct groups and business processes that need to be reflected carefully in the Information Architecture (IA) and design. These groups included Learning and Development, Faculty and Staff groups for employee experience, Engagement and Wellbeing, Organizational Development and Labour Relations.
A detailed information architecture diagram is created to make sure content and functionality aligns with how people work
These groups are reflected in SharePoint Online in several sites and libraries, including:
Talent Acquisition
Faculty Processes
Employee Lifecycle
Learning and Development
Employee Engagement and Wellbeing
Labour Relations
By understanding the scope and scale of how these groups work, Gravity Union recommended a design that didn’t try to contain all the groups and functions into a single site with simple document libraries.
Instead, the resulting design supported these business functions with unique sites for each function under a HR hub site. The hub site allows for persistent cross-site navigation, consistent branding and easy sharing, management and content discovery across the sites associated to a main hub.
Each group had a workspace designed for how they worked with their content, metadata, permissions and workflows in place.
Paying special attention to critical information and records
Gravity Union also supported the HR team with complex scenarios such as the management of employee files. The employee files are critical records for the department and they each had specific properties and access rules depending on the employee type — e.g., administration staff, union employees and faculty.
Instead of creating a solution with a complex web of permissions, Gravity Union used document sets to group files per employee in a central library. Most of these files were open to all HR staff, except for the minority of content that is sensitive and stored in a separate library.
Document sets were also used for other important sets of information such as job descriptions. In this way, the right metadata can be assigned for group of documents.
An example of document sets to manage related documents in a SharePoint library
The end-result? A SharePoint solution that unlocks collaboration and productivity
The result is a modern, user-friendly and secure SPO solution that enables the Capilano University HR department to manage content more effectively, collaborate more efficiently and improve productivity. The HR team is happy with the results of the solution that enables their team to move into SharePoint with confidence and trust.
“Everyone is using the site, and it's fully functional! Thank you for all your work supporting us through this and keeping us on track. Gravity Union is highly recommended from our team here at CapU.”
— HR Manager, People Services at Capilano University
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