Overview

Away with the paper: New efficiency in personnel management

Winterhalter uses digital personnel file in SAP

A year ago, the HR department at Winterhalter Gastronom GmbH replaced its paper files with a digital personnel file based on top xRM. The employees expected faster access to information and more transparency. Initial experiences have been so promising that further digitization projects are already in the pipeline.

Wherever large quantities of crockery, cutlery and pots and pans are used, a dishwashing system from Winterhalter is not far away. The company, headquartered in Meckenbeuren, Baden-Württemberg, sold its first commercial warewasher in 1957. Since then, customers from the catering, hotel and communal catering sectors as well as bakeries and butchers have placed their trust in its quality. In addition to Meckenbeuren on Lake Constance, there are production sites in Endingen, Rüthi (Switzerland) and Thailand. Winterhalter has subsidiaries and partners for service and sales in more than 70 countries. With around 1,300 employees worldwide, the owner-managed group of companies is one of the global players in the commercial kitchen industry.

Everything comes together at the headquarters in Meckenbeuren. This is where the HR department manages the approximately 580 employees on site and at the German branches. Previously, the HR staff used a combination of software and paper to carry out HR administration tasks: time management, payroll accounting and recruiting were organized using SAP. In contrast, the team managed documents of all kinds separately in folders. The result was extensive handling: “As soon as there were status changes, such as a new hire, change of position, different tax class, or a certificate was required for the social insurance institution, the manual work began: searching for folders, printing out pages, punching holes in sheets, filing and unfiling, checking for completeness, sorting folders back in. E-mails were printed out and filed for documentation purposes. Sometimes the file even went on a trip – in an employee’s suitcase. We also sent a lot of things back and forth by post or sent individual pages by fax,” recalls Siegfried Weber, SAP Team Leader and HCM Application Manager at Winterhalter.

Off to the archive – and then?

Other routine tasks in the HR department were also quite time-consuming. If a head of department wanted to look up an employee appraisal, the HR staff would search for the relevant file and hand it over temporarily – in compliance with data protection regulations. If a colleague left the company, their file went into the archive. If there was a lack of space, all folder pages were scanned and stored in an audit-proof manner – albeit unstructured, so that researching individual cases meant scrolling through huge PDF files.

The desire to abolish these restrictions had been there for some time. “Document management could no longer be considered state of the art,” says Siegfried Weber. Nevertheless, other IT projects were higher on his list of priorities. Or the IT department was simply busy with its day-to-day work. Another problem arose from the approach initially chosen: as early as 2012, Winterhalter came up with the idea of digitizing as many files as possible. Not only for staff, but also for customers and contracts. The solution of a large provider was under discussion. But there were too many players, too many perspectives and wishes in the departments. “We couldn’t make a decision,” says Siegfried Weber. In addition, the range of functions was simply too large.

Tangible benefits

At the DSAG annual congress (German-speaking SAP user group), Winterhalter’s IT manager then got to know the ECM (enterprise content management) specialists from top flow and found their presentation convincing. In the subsequent web sessions, top flow outlined the benefits of digitization using top xRM. The solution approach and range of functions suited Winterhalter. Siegfried Weber: “We quickly realized that top flow had the expertise and answers to our questions – and a reasonable price.”

The digital personnel file was to be introduced as a pilot project. “Our motto now was: think big, start small,” says Siegfried Weber. We didn’t start by running a marathon straight away, but first mastered ten kilometers. As a relatively self-contained area, the HR department was particularly suitable, as only six employees initially had to deal with the new technology. In addition, the existing structure of the personnel files could be mirrored 1:1 in the digital file – one less point of discussion. This also convinced the commercial director, who gave the green light for the project.

Many of the requirements for the new solution were clear from the outset: the adoption of the proven filing structure, controllable access rights to the files, a lending function that complies with data protection, e-mail integration. And, most fundamentally, integration into the existing SAP ERP system instead of an interface solution. “In my experience, you always run the risk of malfunctions with bidirectional interfaces,” says Siegfried Weber. Winterhalter and top flow clarified further details in a one-day workshop.

Implementation thoroughly tested

To install top xRM, Winterhalter’s IT department imported the add-ons into the SAP system in April 2015. It also defined the authorizations and roles in close coordination with the data protection officer. During intensive tests, the employees from the HR department checked whether top flow had correctly understood and implemented all the requirements. IT and top flow quickly converged in an iterative process. The digital file went live in June 2015 – although a hardware change took place in the meantime.

However, the HR department still had a lot of work to do: migrating the old data. A mixture of paper files and digital documents would have been confusing, so all 580 active personnel files had to be migrated to the new digital structure. For one employee, this meant picking up all the folders, scanning the pages, assigning the documents to the digital structure, checking the results and then locking up the paper folders until they were destroyed. Thoroughness took precedence over speed; the process took twelve months. “However, the costs will quickly pay for themselves through the everyday simplifications,” says project manager Siegfried Weber confidently.

Quick familiarization

Training the six employees in the HR department, on the other hand, went very quickly, within half a day. “Most of the functions are self-explanatory for HR staff,” says Siegfried Weber about the interface of the top xRM personnel file. He later set up file access from the Endingen site himself – with telephone support from top flow. All in all, the implementation took up little of the company’s own IT resources. Weber describes the cooperation with top flow as “pragmatic and uncomplicated”. If there were any questions, the right contact person was always available at short notice.

“The days of searching are over. The digital files based on top xRM ensure a fast and paperless flow of information. Colleagues in the HR department can concentrate on the crucial issues, such as applicant management and personnel development.”

Siegfried Weber, SAP team leader at Winterhalter.

The result: file creation requires a few more steps and naming conventions must be adhered to precisely. After that, however, the effort required for day-to-day processes is very low. “And the benefits over the entire lifetime of a file are enormous,” says Siegfried Weber. “Quick access to data and documents, flexible from anywhere and at any time.” If, for example, the HR manager travels to Berlin, she doesn’t have to take folders with her on the train, but can conveniently access the desired information on any computer with Internet access – for example, to review the history of an employee interview. E-mails no longer need to be printed out, but can be filed in the clear file structure using drag and drop.

Other new functions include the issuing of all types of certificates, including automatic filing. Or the automatic adjustment of performance-related remuneration in the event of positive employee development. Here, the personnel file and payroll accounting via the SAP master file work hand in hand. The new efficiency has been well received by employees, who now have to spend less time searching for documents and filing and more time on their actual tasks. And, incidentally, printing costs have been greatly reduced. Siegfried Weber’s conclusion: “Our HR department is now equipped for future tasks, for example when the number of employees increases in the near future.”

The successful personnel file pilot project has also paved the way for further digitalization at Winterhalter: the xRM contract file has been introduced for purchasing and financial accounting since summer 2016.

 

Success Story top xRM Personalakte – Winterhalter Gastronom GmbH



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Overview