Debbie Mannas
Group Head of Human Resources
Wallem Group
After a quick introduction of the Wallem Group and its main responsibilities, she emphasized that the enormous amount of logistics requires constant growth and expansion. This, however, means that HR cannot be ‘made up on the fly’, solid strategies are a must to keep people in the company. This strategy is also crucial to be formulated before doing the market research for IT systems; the system has to meet the strategy.
Studies showed that in a lot of HR departments, there was a misalignment between the goals and smaller pieces of HR, which meant that the company needed a robust system to deal with these issues. The first step was to engage IT, then the Board and Executive Committee in the selection process of implementing software.
Selection criteria included; look and feel, responsiveness of service, and post implementation support. Next up was the idea of a phased deployment to ensure that the most value adding items were automated first. For example, HRIS is beneficial to the HR department, but not for the rest of the business. Employee profiles and needs were deemed far more important.
In terms of selling it to the different stakeholders, she had to think of different benefits for all parties. Additionally, the HR department focused on training and communication prior to the launch of the system. Furthermore, ‘christening’ the system in terms of design and attraction was helpful in getting different stakeholders involved. She emphasized that it’s a journey; a constant work in progress to improve the system even further.
Critical lessons that she learned from this roll-out included the importance of communication and training, staff ownership of profiles and photos, as well as patience. She emphasized that behind the scenes, patience is the glue that holds this all together. An attitude that was looking to evaluate and improve was far more helpful than being defensive about choices made.
Paul Arkwright
Publisher
