Hexaware Revolutionizes Outplacement Services for A Global Workforce Solutions Company 

Client

Our client is a global workforce solutions company helping organizations in sourcing, developing, and managing talent. 

Among a host of business services that address the complex workforce challenges organizations face today, the client also provides outplacement services for candidates who have been terminated or laid off, with support for honing their skills and competencies, allowing for a smooth transition into new organizations. 

Challenge

Client’s Business Challenges: 

The client’s outplacement services were centered on a legacy core application. The application offered limited functionality that translated to services for candidates using several existing external integrations for associated services, data, and content. 

The overall process was sub-optimal in supporting the primary outcome (placement of the candidate), as was the candidate’s journey to land a suitable new position. 

Critical challenges faced by the candidates in their outplacement journey were: 

• Multiple interaction points created a disjointed experience 
• Low levels of control over their placement search process and a lack of timely inputs 
• While refreshed periodically, the content was largely static and sometimes outdated 
• Lack of any mechanism for registering feedback on services and features 

Challenges also existed for the client’s operations team assisting the candidates. They were limited in how they could effectively support a plan for the candidate’s job search. Also, they were slow to point to the right information and realign for the next best steps, considering existing job opportunities and their fit. Thus, only limited guidance was possible. Additionally, available knowledge, training, and assessments were underutilized. While at acceptable levels, services for platform clients (typically employers of candidates or recruiters) lacked a competitive edge. 

Further, the cost for the overall ecosystem remediation continued to grow. Maintaining systems in siloed, on-premises arrangements made adding new services for operations, platform clients, and candidates difficult. Planning release and deployment cycles were slow, with numerous constraints due to a legacy architecture and added complexities due to manual workflows. 

Solution

Technical Approach

Hexaware took a 100% cloud-led transformation approach. Key aspects of this approach were:

• Unified, cloud-native platform design on Azure with automated workflows and high-end security and monitoring features
• Headless, serverless micro-services architecture with centralized distributed logging and high availability
• Middleware iPaas Boomi for façade design pattern with 3rd party integrations
• Authentication and authorization based on Azure B2C, Azure AD along with Identity Governance
• Asynchronous messaging implemented for loose runtime coupling
• Circuit-Breaker (Polly) implemented for expressing policies
• Sitecore CMS as PaaS used for content management and content delivery
• Agile and modern DevOps with industry standards and custom tools

Business Coverage

The cloud-centric approach was fully guided with the objective of creating a business platform with a cohesive, intuitive experience for all user groups that offered:

• A comprehensive set of services for both B2B (platform clients such as recruiters, employers and associated businesses) and B2C (for candidates) needs
• Domain-driven design and bounded context principles for API and microservices management
• Epics and stories centered on candidates’ requirements for functionality and features
• Integration of various types of business services feeding into the platform
• Integration with external systems for market data and content
• A content authoring-driven process for candidate training and other content requirements
• Mechanisms and corresponding tools to support collaboration, primarily between the operations team and the candidates

Benefits

• Future-proofed platform with high agility for changing business needs
• ‘Productized’ architecture for functional extensibility
• Steady and controlled pipeline of features with incremental deployments
• Low latency with real-time data and content integrations
• Email, notifications, and updates for lag-free communication
• Unified candidate portal interface for a top-down career planning and guided tour
• Centralized location for training, skills and competency assessments, coaching, visual CV creation and templates, and job status tracking
• Deep personalization for preferences, profile, and placement requirements
• More relevant, newly authored content, leading to an increase in content usage
• Jump in candidate NPS, platform adoption, and placement rates
• A collaborative environment with an analytical view allowing for easier assistance to candidates
• Easier candidate feedback capture for honing the product backlog
• Content managed with a neat hierarchy (regions, languages, job requirements) and easy tools
• Billing and payment acceleration for better cash flow predictability while reducing overheads
• Reduced TCO with cloud-native architecture and predictable cost of resources
• Easier onboarding of clients and businesses with service packages
• Intuitive, self-service features for platform clients and associated business
• Improved matching, planning, and calendaring of candidate services with timely delivery
• Real-time data via an integration-driven dashboard with bulk upload feature
• Increased trust of businesses due to speed, clarity, and consequent perceived value

Summary

Faced with challenges rooted in a legacy core application, candidates experienced disjointed interactions and limited control over their placement search. Hexaware’s cloud-led transformation introduced a unified, intuitive platform design on Azure, fostering a cohesive experience for both B2B and B2C users. With features like visual CV creation, event calendaring, and personalized learning paths, we helped overcome the challenges faced by candidates and the operations team. The cloud-centric approach resulted in a future-proofed, scalable platform, with benefits spanning increased content usage, improved client trust, and a 30% reduction in profile completion time. Hexaware’s digital prowess not only transformed experiences but also brought about a paradigm shift in the landscape of outplacement services.