Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD)

Three standout metrics

99%

of new hires received comprehensive first-week itinerary

97%

of new hires satisfied with pre-start information

90%

of the HR team’s time saved on onboarding tasks

The voice of the customer

“Prior to PageUp, we were working with different processes in different locations, and I’m scared to say some still existed on paper.”

Sarah Witcher, Senior Director of Employee Development and HR Communications at SCAD

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Where things got stuck

SCAD is a global university specialisingspecializing in creative arts, with over 17,500 students enrolled across 100+ academic degree programs. Their stated mission is ‘to prepare talented students for creative professions through engaged teaching and learning in a positively oriented university environment’.

As a university, SCAD employs both support staff and faculty who require different hiring and onboarding workflows. The administrative burden on the Talent Acquisition team was overwhelming:

New hire offer preparation, paperwork, and onboarding initiation took 5+ hours
Various disconnected processes existed, with some still paper-based
No ability to tailor new employees’ experiences between staff and faculty roles
Hiring managers lacked the tools and confidence to deliver effective onboarding

With HR centralisedcentralized in Georgia, US supporting hiring managers across all locations, SCAD needed a system that could automate administrative tasks while creating meaningful, personalisedpersonalized onboarding experiences for new hires.

The turning point

Sarah Witcher, Senior Director of Employee Development and HR Communications at SCAD, recognisedrecognized the need for change. Partnering with PageUp, she implemented a comprehensive talent acquisition platform to empower hiring managers and streamline HR processes, all while delivering personalisedpersonalized onboarding experiences at scale.

The shift began in three phases:

Focus on the moments that matter

Sarah and her team wanted new employees to feel a sense of belonging at SCAD from day one; automating administrative tasks freed up the team’s time to deliver purposeful, personalisedpersonalized onboarding journeys.
Curate and simplify

The team created two separate onboarding portals – one for staff and one for faculty – with relevant, actionable tasks tailored to each role type.
Equip leaders to onboard effectively

SCAD used PageUp’s learning library to create asynchronous training for hiring managers, turning them into confident onboarding champions with templates and resources at their fingertips.

The solution in action

SCAD transformed their onboarding using PageUp. The self-accountability built into the system meant both new hires and hiring managers took ownership of their tasks, creating a virtuous cycle that reduced HR’s administrative burden while improving the experience for everyone involved.

Key initiatives included:

Dual-portal onboarding system

SCAD created separate customisedcustomized portals for staff and faculty with different workflows, tasks, and resources, ensuring that new hires don’t have to hunt for information relevant to their role.
Self-service digital workflows

New hires could complete forms and sign paperwork digitally within the onboarding portal, eliminating previous time-consuming paper-based processes.
Manager enablement hub

The learning library became a centralisedcentralized resource where hiring managers could access templates, training, and customisablecustomizable materials anytime, building confidence and competency in onboarding their own new hires.
Complete content control

The HR team could make on-brand content updates as and when needed, such as relocation resources for different campuses, eliminating dependencies on the internal design team and IT.

The impact

Hard ROI

99% of new hires received a comprehensive first-week itinerary
97% of new hires were satisfied with pre-start information
90% time reduction in completing HR’s administrative work per new hire – dropping from 5+ hours to 30 minutes
Single integrated platform replacing multiple disconnected systems

Soft ROI

HR teams freed to create strategic, meaningful onboarding experiences for different teams and new hires
Hiring managers equipped with confidence and tools to onboard new employees effectively
New hires experience tailored, relevant content from day one whether staff or faculty
Eliminated dependency on internal design team for career site updates

What surprisedsurprized us the most

“We make sure all our onboarding tasks are highly relevant and actionable, and PageUp has really enabled us to do that more efficiently. Each new hire has the ability to mark tasks complete themselves and similarly hiring managers have tasks on the other end which they can mark complete. This has saved so much time for our HR team as it has been able to hold those individuals accountable.”

Sarah Witcher, Senior Director of Employee Development and HR Communications at SCAD