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Illustration: Studio van Laar
In May, the company experienced the live launch of Workday, an innovative cloud-based platform for finance, HR and planning. Adelheid Vanhecke, Human Resource Information System Manager at DEME, shares her experiences and explains what organizations should look out for when considering an HR transformation. “It’s so much more than just implementing a new tool. It involves a totally different way of working. You’ll have to really think it through beforehand.”
“Don’t underestimate this: it really takes a full day’s work”
Dredging, Environmental & Marine Engineering – better known as DEME – is an international company specialized in four pillars: dredging, solutions for the offshore energy market, infrastructure, and environment. The company employs some 5200 people and operates in more than 90 countries with its headquarters in Zwijndrecht, Belgium, near Antwerp. The HR department was ready to catch up on digitalization and started looking for an innovative HR tool about a year and a half ago.
Too much done manually
“We are a topnotch and innovative engineering company and are seeing the best technological gadgets in other departments, but in HR too much was still being done manually and we were using AX – a system from 2009. There was an urgent need for professionalization and an upgrade,” says Vanhecke.
Moreover, the tool was a good fit with the need for more transparency and self-service functionality among managers and employees. It also left HR with more time to focus on adding value instead of administrative tasks and answering recurring questions. “In addition to these material benefits, there are also intangible benefits such as enhancing the image of the HR department and an improved employee experience,” Vanhecke explains.
Read the complete CHRO Magazine 1-2021 (in Dutch)
Rolls-Royce among HRIT
The choice was made for Workday – according to Vanhecke ’the Rolls-Royce among HRIT systems’. According to her, the tool distinguishes itself both in terms of look & feel and employee experience. “It is much more of a complete package than many products from other providers, because it started from scratch with the latest technologies and was not developed along the way through acquisitions. As a result, all the modules are set up in the same way and management is consistent.”
It was the first project for DEME that involved working across different HR teams. For the teams from Talent & Training, Payroll, Recruitment, HR Tools, HR Business Partners, the Visa Desk and Crew Planning, it was the first major project in which they really started working together. “That’s pretty striking, because we’re talking about an end-to-end process. You can’t just throw something over the wall and not wonder what’s happening to it on the other side. The second risk I saw was that initially a team was put together for which people had been assigned from above, and moreover: who had to do it on top of their day-to-day jobs.”
“It often involves much more specific expertise than customers think”
Challenges enough, indeed. For this reason, Hans Casier, DEME’s CHRO, decided to look for an independent implementation partner to assist him. The choice was made for SuccessDay. According to Managing Director Bas Eggelaar of SuccessDay, it was a fairly long sales process. “That is mainly due to us. We always want to understand customers well in order to give them good advice. We never just send CVs. In the preliminary process we look at what the hygiene factors are to achieve success.
Proven methodologies
The structure, organization and processes must be ready in advance before you start with the implementation. During the implementation, we support the roles that the client must perform, such as testing and change management. This is often necessary because these kinds of projects are only done once every ten years and organizations do not necessarily have these roles in-house. The difference with a broker or freelancers is that we do all projects using our own proven methodologies and are backed by Quality Assurance. With more than 30 Workday and HRIT consultants, we have all the necessary expertise to properly support our customers.”
At DEME, SuccessDay started with project management, and change and business consultants were also brought in. Data specialists, test managers and Workday testers were added later, because the capacity was not available internally. Eggelaar was glad that DEME sounded the alarm at an early stage. “Usually, we are only called by companies when the process is not running smoothly. It is not until late in the day that many customers find out that implementing and testing an HR or ERP tool is quite different from testing an HCM package. It often involves much more specific expertise than customers think.”
Key factors for a successful implementation
According to Vanhecke, there are a number of things needed to properly implement and operationalize an HRIT tool like Workday:
- A clear business case with a shared urgency
- Top-down commitment
- A dedicated project manager
- A clear project structure with sufficient allocated resources throughout the organization
- Clearly described ownership, so everyone knows their task/place
- Clear Design Principles and mandate for the project team
- Sufficient attention to change management and user adoption with clear communication
- A realistic planning that takes into account regular work and business continuity
How much time organizations should allocate to implementing Workday depends on how many modules you wish to implement. HCM Core is the foundation, other modules can be rolled out more quickly once the structure is in place and the way of working is clear. At DEME, the ‘go live’ was scheduled for May 3, 2021. Vanhecke is not yet ready to give an indication of when the tool will be able to be used ‘independently’.
“An external dedicated project manager is a hard necessity”
The sales process took about four months, then it took five months until the first configuration was ready and another six months until end-to-end testing could be done. Lastly, five months were allotted for finishing the integration, collecting data and preparing for the ‘go live’. Vanhecke: “My consultancy past has taught me: the customer is always the delaying factor. The implementer knows the tool and the customer has to rethink and adapt the processes in order to be able to put them into a SaaS tool.”
Decisiveness and autonomy
The pace of the transition largely depends on how well the customer has its internal setup in order. Conducting a proper analysis and optimization of processes in advance can prevent major setbacks later in the project. It’s important to document this thoroughly and come well prepared to the design and configuration workshops. Having enough decisiveness and autonomy to make decisions during those workshops is also key. Nothing slows progress more than having to validate each outcome with external stakeholders after every session.
Another determining factor for the pace is the amount of time people can devote to the project. At DEME, the external dedicated project manager organized weekly calls, break-out sessions and stand-up meetings. At one point, the team agreed to block specific days to focus on the project. Tuesday became “Workday day” with a fixed weekly call involving the entire project team. Without that structure, it would have taken much longer to get everyone aligned. An external project manager can be essential, especially if internal capacity is limited. It’s easy to underestimate, but in reality it demands full-time attention.
SuccessDay’s role goes far beyond project management. The team builds bridges between the Workday consultants who often leave after configuration is complete and the customer, who is still figuring out how the tool works and how to use it going forward. SuccessDay steps in to guide the customer through this critical phase, with practical support instead of commentary from the sidelines.
The Coolblue of HRIT
This is the essence of SuccessDay’s added value. Thinking and working together with the customer. If there are risks, they are made visible, even if the customer hasn’t explicitly asked. The goal is simple. The project isn’t successful until the customer is satisfied. SuccessDay aims to be the Coolblue of HRIT. Always delivering that extra bit of service, even after go-live. It’s unrealistic to expect users to embrace a new system fully on their own. Ongoing attention, guidance and adaptation are necessary.
Workday is not a silver bullet that solves every challenge from day one. The world evolves, and so do customer needs. That’s why post go-live support is just as important as the implementation itself. For DEME, this journey isn’t over yet. The mission will only be complete when no one remembers how things used to be and when the benefits of the new system are fully understood and embraced across the organization. According to the team, they’re well on their way.
SuccessDay unburdens organizations during HR transformation
SuccessDay takes care of organizations during the HR transformation to a new HRIT or HCM system such as Workday, SuccessFactors or TalentSoft. Founder Bas Eggelaar personally held various HR roles at large organizations for 20 years and was very involved with HR and IT. In his own words, he stepped into all the pitfalls you can imagine. “Alongside, I saw peers stepping into the same pitfalls and came to the conclusion that there was a player missing in the market.” To this end, he founded SuccessDay. In a series of articles, we will cover interesting client cases that focus on the most important experiences and lessons learned – so that you, as a CHRO, don’t have to reinvent the wheel if you want to digitally transform your HR processes.
