Leena AI empowers KEC to deliver round the clock HR support with Electra
9,000 employees across time zones chased HR partners for answers on leave, payroll and tax.
Electra now resolves most of them around the clock, and saved 5,000+ HR hours in one quarter.
KEC International is an infrastructure EPC major and a flagship company of the RPG Group, working in more than 100 countries. In 2018, at one of its Action Planning Workshops, a clear need surfaced: faster, smarter access to information on people and processes.
A forward-thinking, digitally agile organisation where people are the greatest asset, KEC has deployed smart digital propositions across the employee journey — from digital onboarding to new-age interventions in employees' daily routines.
Hiring was rising and so was the share of millennials in the workforce. For leave, policy, payroll and tax questions, employees still had to get in touch with an HR Business Partner, time and again.
- Employees across time zones searched several portals and still had to ask an HRBP.
- Before automating anything, KEC and Leena AI mapped how employees already looked for information.
- Turnaround on employee queries fell by 80%, and HR saved 5,000+ hours in a single quarter.
- Query analytics now flag disengagement early, such as repeated questions about exits.
Where answers were getting stuck
KEC had multiple information systems and portals, so employees spent time just finding where an answer lived. Its people worked across geographies and time zones, and resolution times were high.
Together, that made an effective query-resolution framework the need of the hour. With more than half of its employees millennials, KEC wanted a smart, user-friendly, tech-savvy answer: a customised HR virtual assistant.
Surveys had their own problem. Responses were stored after a survey closed, analysed by hand and written up as a report — slow, error-prone, and too late to act on.
Why they started by listening
The first step was not automation. KEC's HR team and Leena AI recorded the different ways employees already obtained information about the company, its policies and its processes.
That made KEC one of the early movers in conversational AI across the EPC industry — with a design based on how its people actually asked.
As a truly global organization, KEC International has strived to be at the forefront of ‘agility’ especially by leveraging digitalization across its value chain. This has helped us in our constant endeavour of unlocking the potential while offering bespoke experiences to our multiple stakeholders. Electra – our very own chatbot has been one such medium through which we have pushed the borders by offering seamless, real-time service to our employees, resulting in enriching their HR service experience.
Somraj Samin RoyCHRO, KEC InternationalWhat KEC built
Electra completely automated frequently asked employee queries. For anything complex, it lets employees raise a ticket that is assigned automatically to the right subject-matter expert or department.
Built on Leena AI's conversational platform with natural language processing, Electra got employees acquainted with HR policies and processes, available 24×7. KEC then kept adding functionality until it became a single platform for any kind of employee request or issue.
What Electra brought onto one platform
- AnswersRoutine HR queriesPayroll, leave, policy and tax questions, available 24×7, including Learning-On-The-Go.
- HRISConnected systemsIntegrated with RPG TalentOne (SuccessFactors), then learning, leave approvals, payslips and Form 16.
- EngagementRecognition and e-NPSInstant recognition badges and e-NPS surveys, with real-time access to feedback.
- NewsCompany updatesThe official Twitter feed and news, internal job postings, and holiday calendars for offices and sites.
The solutions now automated at KEC include payroll, internal job postings, coronavirus awareness and advisories, learning management, instant employee recognition, e-NPS, holiday calendars for corporate offices and for factory and project sites, and the employee directory. Electra has improved the employee experience many times over — responding to queries, resolving tickets and managing requests on the go.
What changed
Right after launch, turnaround time for answering employee queries fell by 80%. Nearly 90% of queries were resolved on the conversational platform, saving 5,000+ HR hours in one quarter. Most payroll and leave queries are now resolved automatically, and ticketing became more transparent.
| Measure | Before | After |
|---|---|---|
| Turnaround on employee queries | Ask an HRBP and wait | 80% faster |
| Queries resolved without HR | — | ~90% |
| Survey analysis | Manual, after the survey closed | Real time |
| Survey participation | — | 91% |
| HR hours saved | — | 5,000+ in one quarter |
Electra is to KEC what Siri or Google Assistant is to smartphone users. It has automated a large chunk of employee queries, making human resource teams less burdened.
Ankur HoodaHRBP South Asia SBU, KEC International Ltd.From HR to the business
Analytics turned Electra into an early-warning system. If someone keeps asking about exits, HR can reach out and offer support. If many people ask something never asked before, HR can close the policy gap proactively.
Analytics also showed the sentiment attached to each query — the basis for data-driven decisions on engagement.
With adoption high, KEC is extending Electra beyond HR and looking at onboarding and induction next.
We wanted Electra to be the one-stop solution for HR queries and now we are extending it to business. Overall, we are able to save half-day per month per HRBP.
Minal PawarManager – HR, Service Delivery & Digitization, KEC International Ltd.
About KEC International
KEC International is an infrastructure Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) major with a footprint in more than 100 countries, and a flagship company of the RPG Group. It has been an early adopter of technology across business operations and enabling functions such as finance and HR, and employs more than 9,000 people.
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The full KEC International case study, as a PDF.
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