GPT: Delivering an experience-first HR strategy to create experiences that drive positive impact for “people, place, and planet”
Improving employee experiences and management efficiency
The GPT Group chose SAP SuccessFactors solutions to help transform its HR information system (HRIS) into an integrated solution, bringing its “Experience First” company purpose to life. This strategic move has vastly enhanced efficiency and paved the way for time savings, cost optimisation, and growth.
| Industry | Region | Company Size | Partner |
| Real estate | Sydney, Australia | 670 employees | EPI-USE |
days of administrative effort cut from some processes annually.
minutes to onboard new employee data, down from 7 days.
reduction in finance-integration processing time and effort.
Head of People Business Partnering and Talent, GPT Group
Managing growth and HR system challenges
The GPT Group (GPT) is one of Australia’s largest property groups, managing more than $A30 billion (US$19.6 billion) worth of office, retail, and logistics assets across the country.
GPT has expanded from 450 to 670 employees over the last two years through a combination of organic growth and property-fund partnerships and acquisitions. This new talent, as well as feedback that employees wanted to feel more connected to the vision of the business, led GPT to launch its “Experience First” purpose in 2023, which focusses on creating experiences that drive positive impact for “people, place, and planet.”
GPT’s growth – combined with the company’s new purpose, lack of investment in the HRIS, and the need to move away from the existing HRIS managed-service provider – created the impetus for upgrading HR systems, including addressing the fact that payroll was not integrated. It also marked a turning point for the people team, ushering in a fresh strategic direction and a commitment to enriching GPT’s HR foundations and HRIS.
Promoting inclusion in all aspects of the employee experience is another important part of GPT’s values, as evidenced by its ranking as the number-one property company (and in the top five overall) in Equileap’s Gender Equality Global Report & Ranking 2023.
To better support the thousands of external customers who visit GPT’s properties daily, the people business partnering and talent team began a process of change to embed “Experience First” for its internal customers (employees).
The outdated HRIS had become a critical hurdle, especially after the company’s former provider was acquired, forcing GPT to transition away from its existing platform within a tight 12-month time frame.
The choice of a new solution came from the need for a more interconnected system and additional features that could address wider organisational goals, such as enhancing employee experiences, achieving high performance and growth, and aiding a commitment to inclusion.
Head of People Business Partnering and Talent, GPT Group
Supporting business objectives through an integrated solution
Previously, GPT used limited SAP SuccessFactors solutions through its managed-service provider. However, it found that the offering wasn’t fully meeting its operational needs, was not hitting the mark on employee experiences, and wasn’t delivering the desired level of functionality.
GPT wanted to expand its use of SAP SuccessFactors solutions to better support the team and operational efficiency.
The company embraced these challenges as opportunities for a comprehensive overhaul of its HRIS, aiming to enhance employee experiences and align with its forward-thinking “Experience First” purpose.
Recognising the potential of SAP SuccessFactors solutions to enhance its HR infrastructure, the company began a search for a preferred vendor that could support a more comprehensive implementation and provide ongoing management to leverage the solutions’ full capabilities.
Working with its new implementation partner, EPI-USE, GPT recommitted to using SAP SuccessFactors solutions. This was due to the solutions’ ability to support an integrated platform that matched the company’s objectives across recruitment and onboarding, learning and development, compensation, succession planning, and payroll.
On the partnership with EPI-USE, Lucy Nowland, GPT Group’s head of people business partnering and talent, says, “EPI-USE have been important strategic partners, and we couldn’t have done it without them, particularly given the short implementation time frame.”
Head of People Business Partnering and Talent, GPT Group
Powering up efficiency and equality with a revitalised HR platform
For GPT’s employees, the introduction of a consolidated HR platform has eliminated the need to navigate through disjointed systems for basic needs. Now, with everything in one place, staff have a simple and efficient platform for managing tasks and can have more-productive interactions with managers, focusing on talent development rather than paperwork.
The solutions offer rich capabilities, including connection of performance to development for better-quality development conversations, intuitive access to leave balances and detailed pay slips, and integrated learning and development. They empower employees with information at their fingertips and support them with access to better growth opportunities.
Managers have experienced a fundamental shift in the way they work. The automation and digitalisation of compensation processes have reclaimed hundreds of administrative hours, allowing GPT’s leaders to reallocate a significant chunk of time toward strategic planning and team development.
A more efficient onboarding process – cut down from a week to just 20 minutes – helps GPT integrate new hires swiftly and smoothly. With their increased involvement in hiring, managers can now make more-informed decisions, helping ensure each new employee is the right fit for their team’s culture and objectives.
As a whole, the company has benefited from this positive change, and the people team has become a strategic partner, saving many hours previously spent on administration. Processes that used to take weeks now happen in real time, eliminating cumbersome manual work related previously to reviews, compensation, onboarding, and succession.
Having payroll built into the core has helped with accuracy, speed, and compliance by providing a single source of truth for data that can be replicated and reported on in five minutes.
SAP SuccessFactors solutions are also helping GPT bolster its commitment to inclusion and equality by making development planning and performance reviews more accessible and uniform. With everything in one place, it’s easier to ensure that performance and development KPIs are clear and accountable, leading to more-focused and supportive development conversations.
There’s potential for even more employee experience improvements by using the SAP SuccessFactors Learning solution to smoothly connect learning with development and give managers a better way to support their teams’ growth.
GPT’s future plans include developing report story capabilities to equip leaders and the people team with even better insights and the data they need to tackle complex challenges such as workforce design.
Featured partner
Nowland summarizes EPI-USE’s vital contribution as follows: “EPI-USE understood our requirements, provided best-practice solutions, and enabled us to implement the solutions effectively, working through any issues quickly and smoothly. They are now supporting us in the embedding of SAP SuccessFactors solutions and ongoing management services to provide us with a comprehensive support solution.”