RELX Gains Proactive Global Employee Relations Insight with HR Acuity
The Challenge
RELX’s Employee Relations team was managing cases in SharePoint or spreadsheets, which led to maintenance challenges as the strategic direction for Employee Relations extended to a global function.
Manual uploads and cross-team data requests slowed access to insights, with inconsistent, fragmented processes across regions. Creating a unified view meant navigating multiple sites and reconciling mismatched data — making timely, comparable trend analysis difficult.
“Reporting was geographically isolated,” Ian Stickland, Head of Employee Relations, recalled. “Global business leaders need to know how their division is performing— not just in the US or UK, but across a number of geographical locations.”
The team evaluated a number of vendors before ultimately selecting HR Acuity. “HR Acuity was the clear winner,” Julie Doss, Director, Head of Employee Relations – US & Canada, shared. “We chose the platform because it’s built for employee relations and can capture everything we do — not just investigations, but also performance management, disciplinary actions, consultations and more.”
See How RELX Leveled Up Their Employee Relations with HR Acuity
At-a-Glance
With HR Acuity, RELX benefits from:
- One secure, global system of record for employee relations cases
- Quicker, more accurate reporting with easy-access dashboards
- Clear visibility into case age, health and open-vs-closed trends
- Standardized templates and workflows for consistent issue handling across regions
- A shared view that streamlines collaboration and handoffs while boosting data confidence
- Consistency and transparency at scale, elevating the visibility and credibility of employee relations
“HR Acuity has helped elevate employee relations in the eyes of organizational leadership, positioning our team in strategic conversations.”
The Solution
HR Acuity is now RELX’s centralized solution for employee relations, standardizing processes across regions and business units. It enables consistency, collaboration and unprecedented access to key data insights — empowering RELX, the global provider of information-based analytics, to take a proactive approach to employee relations.
“HR Acuity is simple enough for easy adoption but has the complexity required to get the job done,” Ian explained. “It has stood the test of time, keeping pace with the demands of our global business.”
“With HR Acuity, it’s faster and easier to find the information that we’re looking for.”
The Impact
Data-Driven Visibility for Global Leaders
With HR Acuity, RELX’s employee relations team can access global data faster than ever before.
Case health, duration, and volume trends are easily visualized, helping leaders identify patterns across geographies and business units. “With HR Acuity, I can tell the story of case intake throughout the year,” Ian said. “It’s very impactful for business leaders because it helps them clearly see trends, pinpoint risk and make more informed decisions.”
That visibility has elevated the team’s impact with business leadership. “With HR Acuity, it’s faster and easier to find the information that we’re looking for,” Julie added. “If a business leader comes to us with a question, finding whatever they need is simple.” The employee relations team now brings data-backed insights to conversations, shifting from reactive reporting to strategic advising.
Focusing on What Matters Most
HR Acuity’s analytics help RELX pinpoint where to prioritize its efforts. “Looking at case age helps us see the issue categories where we need to focus our attention,” said Yra Macuja, Employee Relations Operations Lead. “Being able to share trends with the business has been very important for stakeholders. We can highlight where attention is needed, which supports more informed, proactive decision-making.”
These insights empower the team to anticipate challenges, refine processes and maintain consistent case quality across regions, ensuring that every effort aligns with business needs.
Faster, Smarter Reporting
Manual data pulls and cross-regional reconciliations are a thing of the past. Reports that once required coordination across multiple systems can now be generated instantly.
“HR Acuity empowers us to be much more efficient and effective with our reporting time. Before HR Acuity, it was a much more manual, cumbersome process,” Julie said. The time saved lets the team focus on analysis and strategy rather than administrative work.
Seamless Global Collaboration
Having a single system of record has transformed how ER Partners work together. “We can see any case history for an employee and get the full context before going into a case,” Yra said. “That immediate access to case history enhances how the analysts and partners work together because we can all see the same data.”
Previously, files lived on local drives or OneDrive, creating version control risk. “Before HR Acuity, there was a margin of error that someone might download an outdated document or report. We don’t have that concern anymore,” Yra added. Consistent data entry and access also help ensure the global team stays aligned. “There’s a standard everyone is working together to achieve,” says Yra.
Elevated Employee Relations Brand
By delivering consistency and transparency at scale, HR Acuity has elevated the standing of ER within RELX. “Over the last couple of years, with the support of HR Acuity, employee relations at RELX has come to be seen as a trusted and valued partner,” said Ian. “HR Acuity has helped elevate employee relations in the eyes of organizational leadership, positioning our team in strategic conversations and planning.”
That confidence is reflected in team engagement results: “The employee relations team has one of the highest team engagement performance scores of any function in the organization,” said Ian.
HR Acuity’s Impact in Action
With HR Acuity, RELX gains a single source of truth for ER, quicker access to data insights and a consistent way of working worldwide — elevating ER from reactive reporting to strategic advising.
The partnership that RELX and HR Acuity have built continues to support its employee relations team as it scales, standardizes and delivers better outcomes for the business and its people alike. “This product delivers exactly what it promises,” Ian said.
Real Success, Real Stories: Read More Customer Stories
Learn from successful brands who trust HR acuity for next level employee relations. Our detailed case studies showcase real challenges, solutions and outcomes, illustrating the power of proactive employee relations management.
