Cyted
Healthy HR for Business Success
Industry: Health Technology
About the company: Headquartered in Cambridge UK and founded in 2018, Cyted is a data-driven diagnostics company committed to saving lives by catching cancer early. The company has developed an innovative diagnostic test called EndoSign® and harness technology to unlock clinical insights that improve the diagnostic journey and outcomes for patients.
Jack Wilson
Head of People
The problem: tackling HR efficiency & integration headaches
Cyted were in rapid growth mode when Jack Wilson joined as Head of People in 2021. The company was rapidly growing, doubling in size in the first six months Jack was with the business. Jack recognised that against a challenging economic backdrop, headcount growth alone was not a good measure of success.
“Investors are looking for time efficiency and cost control, and enabling our people was key to that,” says Jack, which meant that his number one challenge was embedding sustainable and scalable processes. "Our people operations were very, very paperwork-heavy: the usual stuff that you find in a startup where you haven't had time to put in place many systems, and nothing is integrated."
Data was all over the place, says Jack. “We had an HR management system and a separate recruiting system. Lots of things were in Google Sheets or Microsoft Excel, and the people team are not here to fill out a load of Google Forms or an Excel spreadsheet.”
Having no integration between HR and recruitment systems was a significant issue. “It's just a pain in the backside. You recruit, and then you need to transfer all the data into another system. It probably took two days per hire, so it wasn’t scalable or sustainable. Hiring 30 people would need three working months of just moving people about on systems.”
Disparate data sources with no integration
Inefficient onboarding and payroll
Unscalable processes
Onboarding was done using a form emailed to a manager. “They wouldn't fill it out, they’d guess or forget, so we’d be chasing for that; people are just super busy! Essentially, you would just end up with a load of incomplete data.”
Lots of employee questions came through to Jack directly, which, as the company grew, was becoming unsustainable: “We’re a very approachable team, so people reach out, but I also have strategic projects to work on, which delayed the response people would get and made their employee experience worse.”
There was just too much inefficient administration, and it was preventing the people from focusing on the things that matter most – the people.
Making the choice
Jack and his colleagues spoke to a couple of providers, but one stood out from the beginning: “With Personio, it was really easy from the start. There was no pressure, and we had an open and honest conversation about what the platform can do, which I really valued.” The platform needed to become the single place to go for all things ‘people.‘ This would help reduce time spent on admin tasks, streamline processes and workflows, and engage the business. As Jack explains: “I wanted to think about how we use a platform to make us more efficient and deliver a better employee experience to the business.”
An important part of this was to find a platform that’s easy to use: “Personio is a perfect balance between nice to look at and functionality. It looks professional but is also very, very usable. I really like that.” Cyted needed to be efficient in terms of budget too, as Jack explains: “We said, ‘we don't want to spend more than we are currently spending and we need a better system’. We managed to achieve both with Personio, it was definitely a win.”
2018
15,000
68
“Personio Conversations is an excellent tool for helping to train new HR staff. We can tag new team members in specific requests to guide them how to manage certain scenarios. It wasn't until we were using it that we realised how valuable it was!”
The implementation process
“Personio were as keen to get us live as we were, and this made a massive difference,” says Jack. His busy schedule sometimes meant that implementation tasks had to be deprioritised for other matters on his plate: “Delays always came from my end because I was always busy but somehow the team at Personio always got us back on schedule.”
There was plenty of support to get the project live too he says: “The team really helped with our pre-go-live anxiety with great hand-holding and support. This was really important as we had no system overlap planned. It all went smoothly.” In the future, Jack knows it will be easy to scale. “I know that I have scalable processes in Personio, and whether we have 60 people or grow to 600, Personio can manage it.”
Enjoying the results
Jack and his team at Cyted are more efficient, engaged, and productive than ever before. Personio has made a game-changing impact on the business. “It's driven massive efficiency, which has allowed us to focus on the stuff that really matters,” says Jack.
Victoria Brown, Cyted’s People Operations Advisor added: “You can see exactly what you need to do. You have all the information you need and don't have to search; it's all there in one place.” With Personio, everything now flows seamlessly through their recruitment and HR management functions. The Cyted people team has all the information at its fingertips, so there's no more searching around.
Offering employment contracts has never been easier. Templates simplify the whole process, and Jack highlights that added transparency has led to engagement and accountability: “People and managers can see and be part of things moving forward. It creates momentum and a healthy conversation with our team, taking away the mystery of what the people team are doing.”
Onboarding has also changed for the better, thanks to Personio’s automated emails and onboarding checklists. There’s no more paperwork, file uploads, or navigating different systems, says Jack: “The profile gets completed accurately, the manager just checks everything off, and it's there in the system, with no chasing for my team to do.”
Beyond their employees, Cyted works with over 65 consultant pathologists as contractors. Personio has a tailored onboarding process for them, enabling easy storage and access to the necessary medical regulations, CPD (Continual Professional Development), and insurance requirements. “Compliance around our medical contractors is now far easier to manage as everything is in one place.”
All HR data is in one place
More efficient onboarding, payroll and workloads
Sustainable growth and time to focus on strategic tasks
When it comes to payroll, time and simplicity have been the biggest benefits. Setting up new employees automatically includes them in the payroll process. Data like overtime sheets flows straight into payroll, and exporting to the external payroll company is easy. “We just export an Excel sheet to our external payroll company, which works for everybody” says Jack, adding that they’ve won back lots of time from payroll.
Overall, Personio has given Jack's team back countless hours, allowing them to focus on more critical and value-added tasks. "I can think about things like hiring roadmaps to make sure that we're recruiting the right people. Personio helps us to be a sustainable business for our existing people and create a good example of healthy efficiency. I think that's what the people's team should be about.”
What do you appreciate most about Personio?
Personio Conversations, an automated HR help desk, has brought the team benefits that they truly value. First off, it has streamlined their team processes, boosting efficiency. And beyond that, it's turned out to be a valuable tool for learning and development, which came as a big but welcome surprise.
Employees and managers now get in touch with the Cyted people team via a centralised platform, as Jack explains: “To them, it’s using Slack to reach out, and what’s important is they know who is messaging back, so it’s still a very personal experience, but it allows us to be far more efficient with our time.” In essence, workload sharing has been reimagined - now anyone in the team who can help with a query can pick it up. People and Finance Assistant Maddie Vanoli agrees, adding: “Having that shared oversight is especially useful with hybrid working - it’s like we are all together.”
The team can also look back at previous enquiries and reuse answers, making it easier to respond next time. Personio Conversations helps them strike the perfect balance of personalised and speedy responses. But the unexpected gem has been the learning and development aspect, says Jack: “Personio Conversations gives the team more exposure to different things and lets them step into new areas. It’s a safe space where they can see all the different queries and attempt to resolve them. But if they start to feel out of their comfort zone, they can look for advice in the thread or reassign it. It's invaluable.”
It’s been such a success that Jack says there’s a good chance it will be used in the same way by the Cyted finance team. “One of the things I'm really, really big on is keeping our team approachable. Personio Conversations actually helps build better relationships, and this is important for business success.”
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