What does it take to digitally unify 150,000 employees across 38 countries? For Rio Tinto, the answer involved a multi-year, multinational HR overhaul—led by Deloitte Australia and powered by ServiceNow.
Global mining heavyweight Rio Tinto has completed a sweeping transformation of its human resources systems, with Deloitte Australia steering a multi-year integration of ServiceNow technology. The initiative modernized how Rio Tinto supports its workforce across six continents, replacing aging systems with a unified digital experience.
Reimagining HR in a Post-Pandemic World
The groundwork began in 2021, when Rio Tinto identified the need to modernize its HR capabilities. The COVID-19 pandemic had accelerated the company’s desire to revamp its digital strategy and collaboration infrastructure. However, it wasn’t until 2023 that the formal “phase zero” kicked off—an intensive discovery and planning effort centered around integrating Workday with ServiceNow.
At ServiceNow’s Knowledge 2025 conference, Rio Tinto’s HR Service Delivery (HRSD) product owner John Davidson explained the company’s goal: to create a seamless experience around core human capital management (HCM). What started as a narrow implementation quickly expanded in scope.
“As we dug deeper, we uncovered more gaps,” Davidson said. “That led us to extend the platform’s use into areas like payroll, knowledge management, and workforce queries. We were aiming to elevate service quality across HR and shared business functions.”
Breaking Free from Legacy Debt
Before the transformation, Rio Tinto had relied for over a decade on a custom-built IT service management tool—known internally as the Rio Tinto Ticket Management System (RTTMS). According to Alex Dunster, manager of the ServiceNow Platform at Rio Tinto, this aging system had become an obstacle.
“Much of our HR functionality was grafted onto an ITSM framework,” Dunster said. “That made upgrades not only difficult but nearly unmanageable. This program was key to offloading those workloads so we could sunset the legacy platform and tap into modern capabilities like analytics.”
That decommissioning effort is now nearing its conclusion, with full retirement of RTTMS scheduled for the end of May 2025.
A Global Team, Led from Australia
The project’s leadership came from Deloitte Australia, with Douglas Schairer—head of the firm’s HR transformation practice—at the helm. Despite Rio Tinto’s executive base being largely in London, many key milestones and celebrations were hosted in Australia.
“This was one of the most unique team structures I’ve worked with in over a decade,” Schairer said. “We had a truly blended global team—combining Rio Tinto personnel, Deloitte teams from Australia, New Zealand, the Philippines, and support from ServiceNow’s own professional services.”
The collaborative nature of the project became a hallmark of its success. “When people joined our calls, they couldn’t tell who worked for which company,” Schairer added. “That one-team mentality really helped us deliver something meaningful.”
What the New System Delivers
By November 2024, the new HRSD platform had gone live. It now supports a range of features—AI-powered search, incident summarization, and resolution tracking among them—all aimed at enhancing service quality and employee productivity.
With the migration complete, Rio Tinto is already exploring next steps: automation, advanced analytics, and streamlined user experiences.
Lessons in Long-Term Transformation
Reflecting on the journey, Schairer emphasized the importance of empathy and morale in long-term enterprise programs. “These transformations are tough,” he said. “What got us through was a focus on people—supporting each other and taking time to celebrate the wins.”
For enterprise leaders considering similar large-scale digital shifts, Rio Tinto’s experience offers a valuable case study in managing complexity, scaling collaboration, and navigating legacy infrastructure.