New Possible’s British HR Awards sets out to discover and celebrate the organisations that are truly passionate about delivering a world-class people experience.
In our new Sharing Success series, we interview British HR Awards Winners to shine a light on the inspiring initiatives that are improving workplaces across the UK and beyond. In this article we talk to Charlotte Brooks at Jaguar Land Rover, Winners of the 2024 ‘Innovation of the Year’ category.
Introducing Charlotte Brooks
Charlotte Brooks has been at Jaguar Land Rover for over 6 years, where she has been leading the HR Direct Contact Centre team for the last 18 months. Before her current role, she managed the Learning and Development team within JLR. Charlotte's career also includes a 12-year stint at TNT / FedEx in various Learning and Development positions. She currently oversees a team that includes HR Consultants, Assistants, and two team leads, handling more than 2,000 HR queries weekly from approximately 35,000 UK employees. The Contact Centre is a part of HR Direct, which is a centralised service delivery team encompassing Process Delivery, HR Compliance, and Organisation Management.
About Jaguar Land Rover
Two distinct Brands - Jaguar and Land Rover, steeped in a rich tapestry of timeless designs that resonate with people, creating emotional attachment, truly unique on the global stage. Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) has been a wholly-owned subsidiary of Tata Motors since 2008. They have talented, passionate people across the globe working on high quality modern luxury products for the world of tomorrow, driven by sustainability. JLR will offer pure electric power, by 2030 and aim to achieve net zero carbon emissions across our supply chain, products and operations by 2039.
Reimagining the HR Contact Centre experience
The HR Contact Centre at JLR faced a significant challenge: managing over 2,000 weekly employee queries, ranging from routine transactions to urgent and sensitive matters, without automated prioritisation. With an average response time of 5 days and a satisfaction level of 80%, the JLR team were keen to improve this area of the people experience.
In response, JLR collaborated with external partner LivePerson to develop and implement a HR Virtual Assistant (HRVA). Launched at the end of 2022, this AI-powered assistant enabled employees to engage in immediate online chat conversations on up to 51 HR topics. The interface, crafted by Contact Centre team leads and HR process owners, was designed to provide quick answers in alignment with SLAs. A pivotal feature of the HRVA was its ability to prioritise emergency queries. By programming 'stop' words related to sensitive issues like mental health crises, the system could instantly connect employees with a human HR representative.
Despite the lack of prior experience with this technology, the Contact Centre team swiftly adapted to the new system, mastering immediate chat responses and making outbound calls when necessary. This initiative not only improved response times but also demonstrated the team's dedication to promptly addressing employees' needs.
When asked if Jaguar Land Rover faced any challenges during the implementation of the HR Virtual Assistant, Charlotte commented:
“As we were one of the first organisations to develop a virtual assistant for HR with LivePerson, we didn't have the luxury of previous experience - wins, pitfalls etc to work from. It was new for us all so we really were learning as we went along. There was also scepticism in the business initially as to how well this would work for our colleagues as it was something so new, and as a large organisation change definitely takes time here, so moving away from traditional methods felt like a big step. We were really fortunate to have continued backing and support from our Board HR Director who championed this from the start, so this helped us when we faced challenge from stakeholders."
"Another really big challenge was selling this new tool and way of working to the team and we had to carefully plan the change and training journey to ensure they were fully equipped to chat to employees in real time in a professional and engaging way. There is a real art to creating chat conversations and it certainly isn't as easy as it might seem, the team have adapted so well and now absolutely love the tool. We are really proud at how they embraced the change.”
In summary, judges praised ‘thorough implementation’ and an ‘effective use of AI’.
High impact from day one
In its first year, the virtual assistant identified and escalated 241 urgent queries, demonstrating its effectiveness in providing timely support. The first 12 months yielded impressive results:
- Employee Satisfaction: 95% Positive
- Number of Engagements: 12,766
- BOT Contained Conversations: 3388 (26%)
- Repeat Users: 6868 (52%)
The judges lauded the ‘clear statistical results' and an 'effective response to high-risk situations’.
When asked if Jaguar Land Rover is planning to use AI in other HR areas, Charlotte said “As a business we are carefully exploring user cases for AI within HR and across all functions. We are lucky to have an in-house Digital Intelligent Automation team who now work on business cases for AI within the organisation and identify areas where it can be utilised and would benefit our colleagues and / or customers. As a company we have a Generative AI Governance forum to explore every case carefully and to gain assurance around safeguards on this sort of technology.”
What other advice would Charlotte Brooks give to organisations that might want to implement AI within HR?
“I would definitely say to define your end goal and aspiration, but then break it down into small steps to get there, and if that takes time, it's ok. It's a complex space and with HR topics, you need to be really mindful and considerate of the impact that incorrect advice could have. We built safe fall back options into the way we structured our chat bot so there is always the option to get through to speak to a real person. Adopting the "human in the loop" approach to AI, can be the real game changer with providing an exceptional employee experience that also has soul.”
About New Possible
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