Allison Transmission Transforms Grievance System with ServiceNow HRSD

The Opportunity

Allison Transmission, A global leader in the manufacturing industry of automatic transmissions, with its presence in more than 100 countries, was facing a pressing need for a unified platform that allowed all employees to work seamlessly from anywhere.

The manufacturer's Labour and Union Relations department encountered a critical obstacle when it came to addressing worker grievances and issuing disciplinary actions. Their existing process relied heavily on pen and paper, leading to a time-consuming and burdensome procedure that took an average of six to nine months to complete. The outdated approach led to misplaced paperwork, prolonged approval processes, complicated negotiations across multiple stages, and major financial losses.  

Recognizing the need for improvement, Allison Transmission collaborated with INRY, a trusted ServiceNow partner, to undertake a ground-breaking transformation of their employee management processes using ServiceNow HRSD.  

The Approach

The transformative implementation focused on effectively resolving rule violations, implementing disciplinary measures, and ensuring compliance with industry standards.  

1. HRSD Employee Relations Implementation: INRY implemented the ServiceNow HRSD Employee Relations Out of The Box feature to capture and manage all cases associated with grievances effectively. The part significantly reduced manual efforts and ensured electronic record-keeping for auditing and security purposes.  

1. Digitized and Streamlined Process Flow: The digitized 'Grievance' and 'Disciplinary Action' forms streamlined the end-to-end process flow and made it available for employees to use anytime and from anywhere.  

1. Personalized Employee Experience: The solution is tailored to meet the unique needs of different employee personas, providing a customized experience based on roles, responsibilities, and location.  

1. Streamlined Notifications: Leveraging ServiceNow's workflow capabilities, INRY experts automated notifications, delivering timely updates on case progress and actions required. Additionally, the system generated PDF summaries of case details which were automatically attached to email announcements for review and approval by superiors.  

1. Training and Adoption: Extensive training sessions were conducted to facilitate the adoption and acceptance of the ServiceNow platform by the predominantly senior workforce, to overcome initial resistance and ensure a smooth transition to the new system.

The Rewards

Within an impressive timeframe of just 10 days, Allison Transmission transitioned from a paper-based process to a fully integrated digital solution.

1. 1. The time taken to handle a single grievance was reduced from six to nine months to an average of 15 days, leading to an impressive 90% enhancement in efficiency for the management.  

2. Automating manual processes saved the manufacturer significant time and reduced administrative overhead. The streamlined workflows and automated notifications accelerated case resolution and reduced bottlenecks. 

3. Within just one week of implementing the ServiceNow HRSD platform, the organization swiftly processed and recorded 59 reported concern requests, encompassing disciplinary actions and grievances.  

1. 4. Authorized personnel could easily access and retrieve information, ensuring confidentiality and providing timely reporting for decision-making purposes. 
2. 5. The HRSD solutions offered scalable and secure access to information, allowing authorized personnel to track and report on settled grievances, accepted monetary settlements, rejections, and any required submissions to the legal department. 
3. 6. The automated workflows streamlined the suspension and termination processes, ensuring adherence to legal requirements and organizational policies. This resulted in the consistent and fair handling of disciplinary actions, promoting a culture of accountability and compliance. 

The union management experienced a significant surge in productivity. This strategic partnership not only eliminated the inefficiencies of manual procedures but, within 10 weeks, also revolutionized the approach through which veterans in the union tackled grievances and disciplinary actions, delivering a highly streamlined and user-friendly experience.