Employees of leading South African financial services insurance company will soon be managing their own human resources (HR) affairs, following an SAP employee self-service deployment at Sanlam Life.
Sanlam Life, a merger between Sanlam Personal Finance and Sanlam Employee Benefits, the largest division within the Sanlam Group, is currently implementing SAP HR, in a deal worth R2.5 million to SAP Africa.
Following the deployment of the solution, Sanlam Life staff will be empowered to manage information related to their jobs, such as salary and travel management information. Employees will no longer have to rely on HR staff to fulfil an administrative role, allowing the HR department to fulfil a more strategic role within the organisation.
The transformation is facilitated by a key feature of the new implementation: Web-enabled employee self-service. Sanlam Life will roll-out employee self-service to all its 5 000 salaried users, who will be able to access relevant HR information and manage personal data via their desktop or touch-screen kiosks.
"Web-enabled IT systems automate time-consuming administration tasks, thereby speeding up workflow for all employees and ultimately reducing costs. It has been estimated that in most companies, one HR person is required for every 50 employees," says Phillip Booth, GM HR at SAP Africa.
"When HR systems are moved online, this number grows to 150, which effectively means a 33% cut in HR staff costs. However, it is important to remember that technology is not meant to replace human interaction, but to enhance it. Human contact is at the centre of the HR discipline and if technology is integrated correctly it will improve each individual interaction rather than substitute it."
The SAP project at Sanlam Life, which replaces an existing Oracle system, aims to ensure early measurable benefits for quick user acceptance. The go-live date for the phased implementation is March 2002. The objective of the project is to create an integrated payroll function, aligned performance management, the capacity to change more effectively, flexible conditions of service for a diverse workforce and a high performance business culture.
"As well as benefiting employees, the solution will enable our HR department to move away from performing transactional role to a more strategic role in managing the organisations human capital," says Gerry Conchar, IT manager at Sanlam Life. "We believe that the HR function should become a business partner, rather than a mere administrator. Other expected benefits are the availability of real-time information, elimination of inefficiencies in service provision, reduced costs in service delivery, and more effective use of resources."
"Our new HR system will improve the effectiveness of our human capital for sustained competitive advantage, and will refocus our HR function to create value," says Themba Siyolo, General Manager SPF Human Resources of Sanlam.
"At Sanlam, people are our distinct advantage. How we manage our brainpower makes the difference. This project will ensure that we manage this valuable asset, our human capital, correctly. We are implementing a solution that will make us world-class in terms of managing a people business. We want to be a benchmark of excellence in terms of having a truly outstanding, fully integrated business-to-employee suite."
Too many HR implementations have centred around the roll-out of the payroll," adds Conchar. "Unless a company starts with the intention of implementing self-service, it may never get around to it. We therefore made self-service an end goal."
Sanlam Life has opted for an in-house, SAP-based solution, as SAP offers local support and stability, and has a strong market presence in SA. There are 120 SAP HR sites in Africa, and within the local company there is a well established HR competency.
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