The Handoff Playbook: How RGA Moved from Go-Live to Mass Adoption with Phenom Hypercare Service

Implementing a new recruiting platform is one thing. Getting people to actually use it is another. For global reinsurer RGA, both required more than good technology — they required the right service partnership.

After a year-long implementation combining Workday Recruiting and Phenom Applied AI, Sydney Gibson, Global Talent Acquisition Operations Leader at RGA, shared what made their go-live and the critical weeks that followed a success. The answer came down to preparation and a deliberate support strategy through Phenom Hypercare.

Keep reading for highlights or watch the full session here!

What was RGA trying to achieve with its talent transformation?

RGA’s goals went beyond replacing systems. The organization was modernizing how it supported recruiters, hiring managers, and candidates across a global footprint.

Gibson shared that RGA embarked on a roughly nine-month foundational transformation that included both Workday and Phenom. The scope was broad by design. RGA implemented Phenom Talent CRM, a global multilingual Phenom Career Site, Phenom Automated Interview Scheduling, and a bi-directional data integration with Workday, all while supporting specialized hiring across regions.

“Our intent was to give teams practical tools that actually worked together,” Gibson noted, adding that the scale of change made the post-go-live period especially critical.

What is Phenom Hypercare?

Phenom Hypercare is a structured post-go-live support period designed to stabilize the platform, resolve early issues, and help teams build confidence in their new workflows.

Following implementation, ownership transitions from Phenom’s Global Professional Services team to Global Customer Care (GCC). During this window, GCC provides proactive monitoring, prioritized issue resolution, and managed service requests (MSRs) for targeted refinements such as UI updates or workflow adjustments.

The goal isn’t just to ensure the system is live; it’s to ensure it works the way recruiters, hiring managers, and candidates expect in real-world scenarios. Acting as the bridge between launch and business-as-usual operations, hypercare creates a structured environment where issues are resolved quickly, feedback is captured, and widespread adoption succeeds. 

Why does post-go-live support matter for HR tech adoption?

For RGA, hypercare wasn’t treated as a checkbox at the end of implementation. Instead, it was viewed as the moment that would define first impressions.

“You only get to go live once,” Gibson recalled. “First impressions really do matter.”

Because RGA is a global organization with recruiters and stakeholders across time zones, even small issues could quickly impact confidence. The team knew adoption would depend on how supported users felt in the first few weeks.

How long should a hypercare period last after an HR tech implementation?

Rather than defaulting to a fixed model, RGA made hypercare flexible. The team initially planned for a two-week period, then extended it to four weeks based on real-time feedback from recruiters and stakeholders.

Gibson explained that factors like hiring volume, regional coverage, and team capacity all influenced that decision. While RGA doesn’t hire at extreme volume, the roles are highly specialized, making recruiter confidence essential.

She emphasized that hypercare required true availability. “Everyone who was part of that team needed the capacity to be all hands on deck if something didn’t work as expected.”

How should teams structure support during an applied AI go-live?

RGA approached support with clear ownership and escalation paths. The team defined three distinct groups: the implementation team, the hypercare support team, and the business-as-usual team. While roles evolved, continuity remained important.

A champion super-user community played a central role. These individuals were identified early, brought into testing, and served as the first point of escalation during hypercare.

Gibson recalled that change management was intentionally involved from the beginning, helping set expectations and communication channels long before go-live.

What role did testing play before and during hypercare?

Testing was one of the most repeated themes in RGA’s approach, and for good reason. They completed three rounds of testing: unit testing, end-to-end testing, and live production testing immediately after go-live. Gibson shared that the team went live early in the morning and began executing real test cases in production before normal business hours — submitting test applications as candidates, reviewing recruiter workflows, checking mobile experiences, and validating regional nuances.

“If I could give anyone one tip,” she said, “it would be to test in production after you go live.”

How should HR teams handle escalations and communicate issues during a go-live?

With escalations, RGA took a layered approach. At the base were self-service resources, including custom quick reference guides and learning content built within Phenom's LMS. Above that sat super users, followed by leadership, and then vendor escalation when needed. Only real issues reached Phenom; user errors and training gaps were resolved before they got there.

Not every issue required a broadcast, either. Gibson's team evaluated the impact of each problem before deciding how broadly to communicate. Items affecting all users flowed through change management channels, office hours, or mass communication. More localized updates were shared through super users via Microsoft Teams.

Global office hours reinforced both layers. Encouraged across regions, they created space for questions, demos, and feedback — and when patterns emerged, the team addressed them in real time. Those feedback loops were part of what drove the decision to extend hypercare from two to four weeks.

What results can organizations expect from a structured hypercare approach?

A hypercare approach built on layered escalation, impact-based communication, and rapid feedback loops helps reduce unnecessary noise, prevent stakeholder overwhelm, and ultimately drive faster adoption with fewer escalations. For RGA, this resulted in:

• 100% improvement in Phenom's internal health metrics since go-live

• 95% decrease in support case escalations

• 75% decrease in support cases raised in the last 90 days

• 142+ new ideas derived from user feedback during hypercare

Continuous feedback loops enabled the team to identify patterns early, refine workflows in real time, and improve the overall user experience during a critical adoption window. As the system stabilized, teams gained confidence in the platform, supported by analytics that helped track usage, identify high adopters, and validate the effectiveness of the super-user model.

How do you maintain adoption after hypercare?

Sustaining adoption of any new HR tech requires a shift from intensive support to structured ownership and consistent visibility.

Post-hypercare, RGA transitioned to a leaner model with clear accountability. Ownership lived within the talent team, supported by an executive sponsor and a dedicated product owner, while limiting support ticket submissions to a small group to reduce noise and improve issue quality. This allowed the team to operate efficiently without over-reliance on external support.

Adoption was reinforced through ongoing visibility and data. Monthly analytics reviews helped track usage, identify high adopters, and share progress with leadership, while office hours evolved into regular operational sessions that addressed platform, process, and workflow questions. This consistent feedback loop helped maintain recruiter confidence and sustained engagement over time.

What should HR teams prioritize when preparing for a major AI implementation?

Training stood out as one of the biggest lessons from RGA’s experience. While the team invested heavily in customized materials to control branding and experience, the timeline proved intense.

Gibson encouraged other organizations to balance Phenom’s existing training content with custom materials and to involve SMEs earlier, so core team members can stay focused on hypercare. “You don’t need perfection to go live,” she said. “But you do need to own the experience.”

She also emphasized the importance of testing in production, taking hypercare seriously, and maintaining strong partnerships with vendors as new phases roll out. For RGA, hypercare wasn’t the end. It was the foundation for everything that followed.

Learn how Global Customer Care teams support complex go-lives and help organizations move from launch to long-term adoption.