Insurance giant Sanlam Life says it has streamlined its human resources (HR) processes since upgrading its company-wide HR self-service solution in December 2003.
The upgrade to the company's mySAP Human Resources Management (mySAP HR) solution, allows managers to take a more active role in their departments' human resources affairs by providing a Web-based portal through which they can perform certain personnel-related functions.
Other benefits include the availability of real-time information, elimination of inefficiencies in service provision, reduced costs in service delivery, and more effective use of resources, says Steve Hattingh, HR manager at Sanlam Life.
Hattingh says the new MSS (manager self-service) solution has contributed to the effectiveness of the company's HR department. Self-service puts the responsibility for many information-management tasks, such as salary and travel management functions, in the hands of employees, dramatically reducing the amount of time that HR staffers spend on administrative tasks.
"It frees HR to focus their energy on achieving more strategic goals for the company. It can also enable companies to deliver the same HR services using fewer people," said Hattingh this week.
Traditionally, companies need one HR person for every 50 employees - a massive staffing overhead. Today best practice dictates one HR person for every 80 employees.
Sanlam first rolled out mySAP HR in 2002 with the Web-enabled SAP Employee Self-Service (SAP ESS) solution that empowers employees to view, create and maintain information relating to their role within the organisation.
ESS quickly gained user acceptance by allowing staff to access HR information from their desktops. The first phase provided 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.
The upgrade has brought vastly improved user-friendliness and functionality to the table, including SAP MSS and various Web-enabled HR transactions within the enterprise portal. It impacted a core user base of approximately 600 managers and 5 000 general employees, finishing on time and on budget.
"SAP helps organisations to build and enable employee relationships by delivering human capital management services and solutions, integrated with other mySAP solutions, tools and technology. By combining process re-engineering with features and functionality from SAP's HR module and Employee and Manager Self Service solution, you enable employees and managers to initiate important HR transactions and data changes," said SAP Africa business development manager Mike McNeil.
"mySAP HR has the employee relationship management capabilities that enable the workforce to share knowledge quickly and to build collaborative, interactive relationships. By leveraging existing technology channels such as mobile, help-desk, portal and voice, the solution makes it easy for employees to connect with each other, their managers, outside suppliers and everyone involved in the business. Web-enabled IT systems automate time-consuming administration tasks, thereby speeding up workflow for all employees and ultimately reducing costs," said McNeil.
Hattingh says the upgraded HR system will improve the effectiveness of employees, which will improve the company's competitive profile.
"Too many HR implementations have centred around the roll-out of the payroll system. 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, and are impressed with the genuine business benefits we have derived so far," said Hattingh.
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