API integration — Streamline & Automate New Hire Process

Improving the (new hire) onboarding and (employee) offboarding processes using Lean and Six Sigma tools and API (Application Programming Interfaces)

Origin Story

This ask began as a Lean and Six Sigma Greenbelt project. The original idea was to integrate, via Application Programming Interface (API), Microfocus Project Portfolio Management (PPM) with Workday.

As my research continued, I expand my focus on all systems and processes included in the new hire process. the result was an Enterprise process improvement solution.

Timing is Everything

I completed my initial research and design in February of 2020. Interest in the idea was postponed due to COVID 19, shelter-in-place, and our entire company moving to work-from-home.

Fast forward to July of 2021. A new CIO is hired and begins work on his 90-day plan. During that time, he had a couple of new hires’ onboarding experience shadowed and evaluated and determined it takes too long. While it only took 24 minutes combined for all new-hire systems to process requests, the additional (non-system) processes, running of batch jobs, and various manual processes average 134 hours (approx. 6 days) to complete. My design reduces that number to 24 hours to process the new hires’ needs… desk, phone, laptop with access to all initial systems, security badge, etc.

Define and Measure

During the Define and Measure phases of the Kaizen process improvement event, I met with each team’s subject matter experts and discussed the current state of their systems and processes. used the following Lean and Six Sigma tools to illustrate the current state, gather user feedback, and define gaps and opportunities:

Charter

SIPOC (Suppliers, Inputs, Process, Outputs, and Customers of a process)

KANO “Voice of the Customer”

Current State Process Map

Pareto — Delays & Errors (which occur most often)

Current State Value Stream Map

Gaps & Opportunities

Analyze and Improve

During the Analyze and Improve phases I took the data captured during the Define and Measure phases to complete root cause analysis (including the 5 why’s).

For this project I identified and analyzed two root causes:

Analysis & the 5 Whys

The 5 Why’s were developed so that, when a problem occurs, asking why five times leads to finding the source of the problem(s):

Based on this piloted analysis I utilized FMEA (Failure Mode and Effects Analysis- utilized to brainstorm solutions to existing problems). In this case, I used the ‘Texas Style” FMEA version (“lighter” version used for rapid analysis for brainstormed solutions):

The deliverable that signaled the end of the Improve phase is the Action Plan (a tool that helps catalog all activities to be performed to ensure a successful implementation of a proposed solution):

Control Phase & Benefit Conclusion

During the Control Phase, I utilized the present state analysis combined with the solutions/ideas discovered during the Define, Measure, Analyze and Improve phases to create future state diagrams and strategies. These included Role-Based Employee access setup configurations (pre-determined access/permission employee setups for similar roles):

and Future State Process and Value Stream Maps:

If the Action Plan was created to ensure a successful implementation of a proposed solution the Control (or Monitoring) Plan was created to ensure gains resulting from implemented process improvement are maintained long after the process improvement project has finished. This is accomplished using the testing and metrics checks established during the Kaizen Process Improvement event:

Finally, a concise Benefit Conclusion statement reiterated the issues and promoted the solutions identified during the Kaizen event needed to improve this process: