HR and IT—better together
As one of Germany’s largest insurers of private and business customers, HDI (Haftpflichtverband der Deutschen Industrie) offers its policyholders a comprehensive range of insurance products tailormade to suit their needs. The HDI brand has been synonymous with personal advice and solutions, provided with expertise and experience, for some 120 years.
The HDI Group has recently streamlined its executive board and managerial levels, a process that also saw a reorganisation of its HR and IT teams. The Group’s aim was to establish a future-oriented HR IT strategy that would combine the needs of the workforce with those of the HR department. The HR team also wanted to use the new HR IT strategy as an opportunity to standardise internal procedures by introducing digital, measurable processes. To do this, the HDI Group decided to digitalise HR service processes using the ServiceNow platform, replacing—or in some cases integrating—existing systems and tools to offer staff a one-start-shop.
HR: a better employee experience
“We are working with IT to redesign the employee experience”, explains Rhena Neumann, Head of Group People Services at HDI AG. There are several key systems within the HR area that run parallel to each other, including the HR portal (Fiori Five), group mailboxes (Outlook), learning space (Success Factors), SAP HCM as a backend and One Note.
Each system plays an important role, says Rhena. However, the fact that they were not connected often led to the HR team spending a large amount of time resolving issues behind the scenes and long wait times for the employees. Employee requests on topics from paternity leave to producing a reference require data from several different systems, which meant a large amount of research for the teams involved. These missing links between the systems also led to a high frequency of errors.
In response to this, HDI designed an HR portal based on the Now Platform, which all staff now use as a starting point for their service requests. Behind the scenes, the individual systems were integrated or replaced to create a single, uniform system with a consistent user interface. “Connecting the systems has led to employee requests being processed more quickly, as well as a better company-wide employee experience since everything is now faster, simpler and more self-explanatory”, says Rhena. The employees are unaware of switches between systems happening in the background—they are guided seamlessly and automatically to the relevant service module through the consistent user interface. The same goes for the HR specialists themselves, who are integrated smoothly into the workflows and can now work interdepartmentally.
“By introducing a consistent, attractive user interface like ServiceNow, we can work more effectively and digitalise and automate our processes”, explains Rhena. Seamless integration with existing systems increases speed and leads to a significantly higher usage of the HR offerings and self-service-rate, which noticeably relieves the pressure on the HR team.
“An additional benefit is that the HR specialists can now develop low-code services themselves. This means that we are not only faster in terms of developing the product, but we also save on development costs”, explains Felix Düßdorf, Head of HR IT, Process & People Analytics at HDI AG.
IT: a balance between efficiency and experience
There was also a second objective behind the use of ServiceNow for the HR IT team: greater efficiency. “We focused on both the employees and the somewhat sensitive area of cost reductions”, explains Felix. In a best-case scenario, the two goals are compatible: high employee focus on the one side and efficiency with reduced service costs on the other. And this is achieved with ServiceNow.
Felix has already made huge inroads. HDI launched its portal with 35 HR services initially. Meanwhile, in the background, an expansion is being planned with additional services being added, such as an option to request special glasses for working with screens or booking mobile working days. By mid-2024, 13,000 users will have access to 150 HR services in the new ServiceNow portal. This will make work easier for staff, improve the efficiency of the HR team and reduce costs with lower maintenance expenditure.
Working together instead of in parallel
The employee focus is increased by the close collaboration with the IT team, says Rhena. Blending the activities of the IT and HR teams has been a real success for HDI. Previously, the IT and HR departments used different methods and processes without thinking about their mutual ‘customers’—the employees—remembers Rhena, who has been working in HR at HDI for more than 15 years. Today, the staff in her HR department focus on the user experience, while the IT team implements the needs of the department in an agile manner. “This resolves former conflicts between the IT team and the HR department entirely”.
Felix adds, “We call our team ‘Zebra’ as we are made up of two organisational units—IT and HR. Every challenge or new idea remains within our single team, where we work together, all focused on finding a solution. It’s no longer just about IT or just about the department”.
Mutual understanding and collaboration give the teams a greater ability to react, and to be more precise when responding to requests. “As the HR department, we are also much more futureproof in an agile IT environment because our transformation cycles are so short”, says Rhena. Finally, the comprehensive introduction of workflows has a strong business argument: “We are refinancing the project on a cost-neutral basis and are even saving money in the medium term”, explains Felix.
Multi-departmental portal
The services now available via the HR portal cover a wide range of common HR requests. Staff have access to all HR services at-a-glance. News and events are displayed to specific target groups. Using the standardised portal, staff can easily find answers to general requests themselves, such as applying for a company credit card or requesting a reference. Employees can also find knowledge articles that provide detailed information on a variety of topics. External services, such as clocking in and out, are now integrated into the new HR landing page using ServiceNow. This means that IT and HR have now created a one-start-shop for their colleagues.
ServiceNow also acts as a workflow system for the HR department and HDI management. In future, HR will be able to analyse all incoming queries centrally regardless of which channel they come through. This creates transparency and efficiency.
The management team also has access to a dashboard displaying various metrics such as employee satisfaction and to whom incoming queries should be directed within HR.
Outlook: ServiceNow as a department-agnostic platform
“We are going into the cloud with ServiceNow; we can integrate well and open up new areas sector-wide with its one-to-one integration process”, says Felix. “Due to the huge volume of direct self-service operations, we see enormous potential in automation, so we want to keep on pushing forward with that”, adds Rhena.
The team’s ultimate goal is to create an HR landscape that is state-of-the-art, meets the requirements of the business, encourages employee orientation and promotes the idea of the one-start-shop.
“The appeal of ServiceNow lies in the versatility of the platform. We want to establish ServiceNow as the platform for all platforms within the Group”, says Felix, explaining the overarching objective that goes beyond HR and IT.