Global Partnership: UK-based Tugela People Provides Seamless Support to Australian Starlight Children’s Foundation’s HRIS
Streamlining processes through HRIS adoption
The Starlight Children’s Foundation in Australia implemented the Sage People HRIS in 2020 to enhance their capabilities to support their employees and volunteers. Implementing an HRIS was driven by the need to streamline HR processes and reduce the administrative burden on the HR team. With an increasing number of staff and volunteers, the foundation's HR team found it challenging to manage employee data, payroll, and compliance requirements using manual processes.
The Sage People HRIS was selected for its ability to automate HR processes, provide real-time visibility into workforce data, and support compliance requirements. With its cloud-based platform, Sage People HRIS also offered the flexibility and scalability required to support the foundation's growing needs.
Support for HRIS Optimisation
A year after the system adoption, Kerry Shields, People & Culture – Talent Experience Lead at Starlight Children’s Foundation, decided to look for an external partner to provide support for implementing additional improvements in their HR system and further enhance their HR efficiency and effectiveness. Specifically, they were looking for support for their HR team with other Sage People related projects, including payroll and Litmos integrations. Kerry contacted Tugela People directly to learn more about the support offered through their managed services division.
In January 2021, after discussing how the Tugela People Managed Services team could provide ongoing support to optimise their use and further develop their HRIS, the Starlight Children’s Foundation signed up for 8 hours of monthly support on a retained basis.
As part of best practice, prior to commencing the regular monthly support, the Tugela People Managed services team conducted a technical adoption overview of their system. This service involves a technical run-through of the Sage People system and provides a great foundation to understand and identify any gaps, determine which areas of the system are being utilised (or not!), highlight any key areas for development and assists in producing a system roadmap based on the client’s priorities alongside any recommendations resulting from the system review.
A successful cross-continent partnership
The Starlight Children’s Foundation’s Sage People org is fully integrated with DocuSign, and they have developed a wide range of documents to support and automate their people management processes.
Eleanor Watkins, the assigned HRIS Technical Support Consultant at Tugela People who is responsible for providing the Starlight Children’s Foundation’s HRIS support, said, “A large percentage of the support we provide is around DocuSign - assisting with the development of flows that create customised processes and remove the manual aspects of HR requests. Kerry and her team are extremely competent, and support requests tend to revolve around technical queries and facilitating with the resolution of issues such as flows that are not working or system troubleshooting.”
When asked about the potential complexities of supporting a client continents apart, Eleanor said, “The partnership between the Tugela People Managed Services team and the HR team at Starlight Children’s Foundation runs very smoothly. Kerry and I have fortnightly team calls that ensure expectations and support requests are well managed. There is some flexibility on both sides with early/late calls between us to ensure that the support provided is seamless. Having complementary working styles is a real benefit, and there are no delays in getting requests into us. The client can benefit from the time difference as often request come in and are dealt with ‘overnight’, allowing them to move ahead with testing etc., on their next working day.”
Kerry Shields, People & Culture – Talent Experience Lead at Starlight Children’s Foundation, said, “Tugela People have provided the additional technical support we’ve needed to keep us incrementally innovating the way we use Sage People. Leveraging Tugela’s wealth of experience and their creative problem solving approach, we always end up with robust solutions that can be quickly implemented. I thoroughly enjoy working in a collaborative way, where we can brainstorm concepts, test ideas and then implement the changes quickly. Having a dedicated consultant allows for a deeper understanding of our people processes and the way we use the system which means we don’t spend time providing context where we’ve already provided this before. They have been really open to feedback and responsive to any additional requests we have and even though we’re on opposite sides of the globe and different time zones we always find a way to connect either via email or video. I am really grateful for the support and guidance they provide and look forward to continuing our working relationship into the future. “
Kerry will be taking a much-earned sabbatical at the end of May for two months, so the foundation’s HR team will avail of the additional temporary cover provided by the Tugela People Managed Services team, who will provide day-to-day support in her absence. This will include a more hands-on approach of overseeing the processes for DocuSign in addition to dealing with daily requests.
About Starlight Children’s Foundation
The Starlight Children’s Foundation Australia was founded in 1988 and has since expanded to become Australia's broadest-reaching children’s charity, supporting children and teens with all types of illnesses. Their mission is to brighten the lives of seriously ill and hospitalised children and young people by replacing pain, fear and stress with fun, joy and laughter. They are the most trusted charity in Australia.
About Tugela People Managed Services for Sage People
Whether you require support on day-to-day administration, simple fixes or complex system configurations, our experienced team of consultants are here to help you take full advantage of Sage People's capabilities.
We act as an extension of your own team so that you can enjoy the benefits of your system with greater flexibility and less expense. And because we understand the people challenges that mid-range companies face especially high growth companies, we offer a range of services to enable you to select the right solution for you, your people, and your organisation.
You decide how much support you need and how you use it.
If you would like to learn more about the services offered or discuss your potential requirements, please reach out to us on tel +44(0)1908 030360 or email: info@tugelapeople.com. Alternatively, complete the ‘Get in touch’ form and a member of our team will contact you directly.