When organizations implement SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central globally, they are often replacing disparate systems and varying HR processes. The goal of a global implementation should be to unify technology and process wherever possible, allowing a company’s HR department to operate more smoothly as it reaches internationally.
As Employee Central customers implement their systems in different countries, there are some important things to keep in mind that will create a more efficient project. Here are four important steps to take to maximize your global Employee Central deployment:
1. Don’t Start From Scratch In Every Country
Every country will have different laws around time management, benefits, payroll and more. Countries will also require different translations to different languages. That doesn’t mean every Employee Central deployment in a new country has to be done from the ground up.
It’s important to build a global template of items that will work across all countries—business processes, configurations, naming conventions, training materials, global RICEF (Reports, Interfaces, Conversions, Enhancements, Forms) design decisions and more. This template will give your company a head start whenever it needs to deploy in a new country.
It’s important to meet before the global project to figure out what can be taken globally and what needs local flavor.
2. Aligning Foundation Objects Globally
Before implementing Employee Central, there are organizational steps that can be taken to ensure an easier implementation. Aligning org structures, pay structures, and job structures company-wide are helpful from an employee data perspective—these are the foundational objects of the system.
Org structures are most important—they need to be aligned from a business unit perspective. Job structures are also a good thing to have harmonized, it will make it easier down the road from a recruitment perspective. Pay structures are nice to globalize, but we often see customers that have necessary differences across locations.
3. Create a Standard Approval and Workflow
With approvals and workflows, it’s best to approach them with the 90% rule. That means the global template for approvals will take your implementation 90% of the way there, leaving the final 10% for local specifics. The same can be done for many HR processes and transactions.
4. Build Strong Central Governance
It’s very important that the governance of the global project itself is very tight, no matter where the implementation is occurring. All key stakeholders need to be aligned with the idea of a global template and you need to have a strong process in place to protect the global template.
For example, it’s a good idea to have a design decision team that reviews all design decisions to ensure that requirements coming from different countries are met with the global template in mind as much as possible.
Effective governance will tie all the other work together in harmonizing a global implementation. Working with a partner like Rizing will ensure these four key steps are taken and result in an optimized Employee Central and smoother HR processes for every country.