Ready for the future: Digital HR transformation for around 10,000 employees in around 40 countries.
Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG had an ambitious goal: to bundle and digitalize all employee data worldwide. Cloud technology, Workday's HR solution, and Deloitte Germany’s team worked to achieve this goal in just eleven months.
What can we do today to usher in the changes required for the future of work? Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG and Deloitte Germany worked together to digitally transform the company's HR management – holistically, transparently, and in a way that is compliant across national borders.
Faced with structural change in the market, a rapidly changing world of work, and advancing digitalization, Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG, the world's leading manufacturer of sheetfed offset presses, recognized the need to transform its business model. The first step was to create more transparency and digital interconnection in the existing HR process structures, some of which were still Excel or paper-based, on a global scale. This was a challenging task that this project aimed to solve.
The goal was, among other things, to digitally bundle and map all employee data worldwide while simultaneously optimizing all related HR processes. A series of detailed workshops were held for each country grouping to get an understanding of the immense amounts of data and to find effective ways to standardize, simplify and fully digitalize the processes.
Among other things, the challenge was to digitally bundle and map all employee data worldwide and at the same time to optimize all associated HR processes.
Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG
The lack of a global HR system meant that Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG had no clear answers to critical HR-related questions, such as: How high is the employee turnover worldwide? Which employee profiles should focus on when recruiting in the future? What is the age structure our workforce, and how might this affect personnel planning in the coming years? It also meant that the company was unable to implement global HR reporting and personnel cost planning. Additionally, there was a need to integrate SAP master data management, cost center management, Single Sign-On, and Active Directory.
A digital HR transformation was the only solution. By tapping into Deloitte Germany’s extensive expertise in cloud technology and collaborating with global partner Workday, the solution would introduce a digital HR solution based on the proven Workday system. All processes were bundled on the newly implemented HR4Future platform. HR4Future provides a transparent view of all HR data while ensuring that it is stored centrally.
To complete the transformation, the three modules including Core HCM, Learning, and Absence, which are now available to Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG employees worldwide, were integrated. Learning, a classic learning management system, maps all processes and data for managing training and ongoing education. Absence integrates all processes and data for absence management, including vacation, sick days, and absences. Core HCM provides master data management along the complete employee lifecycle.
The implementation of the HR4Future platform was completed within the planned project duration of eleven months. Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG now has a holistic view of its complex and distributed structures on its new platform that pulls together data from around the world in compliance with the various local or regional data protection regulations.
Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG has reached a new milestone in its HR management. It now has a globally networked HR team that can carry out standardized processes across the borders of an individual company or location and collaborate across countries thanks to its state-of-the-art HR solution. The platform can be expanded with additional modules and functions should the need arise.
“We managed to roll out the Workday cloud HR software globally and bundle it on the newly created HR4Future platform in just eleven months. HR4Future provides a transparent view of all HR data while ensuring that it is stored centrally. Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG’s employees can now directly access organizational charts and view metrics via personal dashboards from anywhere – whether they're in the office or working remotely."
Florian Ploner, Partner & Sector Lead Industrial Products & Construction at Deloitte Germany
The company’s HR transformation is already showing positive effects and has significantly improved employee self-service, optimized HR reporting, and encouraged innovative organizational management. The HR database is now always up-to-date, and retrieving relevant information via the cloud has resulted in a more user-friendly, easier, and faster than ever experience.
Real connections. Real impact.
Awards and Recognition
Best in Class in Digital Transformation