I had the opportunity to meet with Rachael Ruiz, Manager of the DeakinPeople Program at Deakin University. Rachael and I spoke about Deakin’s journey to maximize their investment in PeopleSoft by continuing to enhance the product to support the HR function at Deakin. Rachael was responsible for the transition from their previous HR System to PeopleSoft in 2015, as well as leading Deakin’s “get me current” and Fluid User Interface implementation in 2016.

Key Takeaways

About Deakin University

Deakin is a young, contemporary university with a reputation for being innovative, nimble and friendly. They aspire every day to combine excellent research and outstanding teaching with a strong focus on the communities they serve.

Deakin is new to PeopleSoft and have implemented the Human Capital Management 9.2 module as of image 17 and has selectively adopted Fluid Candidate Gateway in Image 18.

What were your drivers for moving to PeopleSoft in 2015?

Rachel:

Deakin was looking for an enterprise-wide platform that offered an integrated solution to a range of our HR needs.

One of the features you mentioned selectively adopting was fluid candidate gateway. Can you tell me what the drivers were for taking it on?

Rachel:

We wanted our prospective employees’ first interaction with Deakin to be a reflection of what Deakin is – contemporary, mobile, friendly and innovative.

What was the timeline for deploying on the technical and functional side?

Rachel:

Short! We only picked it up in scope at the very end of our project planning. It took about 8 weeks to deploy and it could have been shorter, but was part of a larger project delivery.

Can you talk more about how you were able to add it to the end of your project planning?

Rachel:

Using PeopleSoft Selective Adoption framework meant that instead of having to build in the application, review and testing of the entire scope of the image, we just focused on the changes to the Candidate Gateway. It definitely added scope to our project, but we were able to manage it and the results were worth the additional effort.

What was your testing process in deploying fluid candidate gateway?

Rachel:

We undertook both Systems and UAT testing with over 80 tests completed across 3 test cycles to ensure we were testing on a range of different devices and browsers.

Can you talk a bit about how testing went?

Rachel:

We uncovered some issues—as you would expect to be one of the first to test—however, overall the test results were very positive. The testing took time as we wanted to simulate the various ways prospective staff would access the Candidate Gateway, so we used a range of devices such as tablets and smartphones with different browsers as well.

Did you make changes to your current recruitment templates to accommodate the mobile experience?

Rachel:

We made minor changes to wording and instructions to reflect the Fluid User Interface. In most cases, our implementation partner was able to find a solution which enabled us to keep our Deakin tailored customizations.

What obstacles, if any, did you encountered in deploying fluid candidate gateway?

Rachel:

Some of our customizations needed re-working. For example, we have an image header and footer on each advertisement which needed to adjust to the different digital devices. There were some initial issues with caching and access from different users.

For the obstacles you mentioned, were there easy fixes?

Rachel:

There were some technical challenges that we were able to work through with our implementation partner and Oracle. Most of the issues were fixed quite quickly or we were able to find suitable workarounds.

What concerns, if any, did your company have in deploying fluid candidate gateway?

Rachel:

We were one of the first to deploy the Fluid Candidate Gateway, so any bugs, etc. may not be known until go-live (despite our testing). We also recognized that it is impossible to test every mobile device. Any issues were minor, and were related to our internal infrastructure and were easily fixed.

How did you roll out fluid candidate gateway to your applicants?

Rachel:

This was included as part of our overall Change Management Strategy as we transitioned to Fluid in other areas (communication plan for internal applicants, information on our “how-to” sites, information on external Careers at Deakin site). Our Recruitment Team was involved throughout the discovery/testing stages and was therefore well placed to support our Applicants. But it is so intuitive, applicants just know what to do.

Did you promote the ability to apply to any device to your applicants?

Rachel:

No, because in 2017 our applicants expect to be able to apply on any device.

What has been the reaction from your candidates?

Rachel:

Feedback has been positive and that it is easy to use.

Have you seen any significant differences in your applicant pools?

Rachel:

Not yet, but we are only five months in. It is hard to measure applicant quality. We would hope that by making the application process easier we are attracting good quality applicants who embrace new technologies.

You worked with the presence of it. What was their role in this process?

Rachel:

Presence of IT was our implementation partner and was engaged to provide functional and technical expertise during our upgrade to PeopleTools 8.55 and Image 17, as well as the implementation of the Fluid User Interface. They assisted with our Selective Adoption, deployment, testing and Deakin customizations of the Fluid Candidate Gateway.