topdesk for hr at dsm

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6 CUSTOMER IN FOCUS Photography: Aad Hoogendoorn PROFESSIONAL BUT STILL PERSONAL

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In the past, it was not uncommon for employees to stay at life science and materials science company DSM until they retired. DSM would take care of them for their entire lives. Even now, with hundreds of branches worldwide, DSM values a personal approach to HRM. But how do they combine that with standardization and new tools?

TRANSCRIPT

Page 1: Topdesk for HR at DSM

6 customer in focus Photography: Aad Hoogendoorn

Professional but still

Personal

Page 2: Topdesk for HR at DSM

“DSM has grown rapidly over the past few

years,” says Fons Manders, head of DSM’s Busi-

ness Support Centre HR (BSC HR). “Takeovers

have resulted in an even broader base of exper-

tise in our company. At the moment, DSM has

over 22,000 employees worldwide. The BSC HR

supports 6,000 employees across 16 locations

in the Netherlands, from factory operators to

site directors. The location we are at right now

houses a number of central services.”

Seven collective labour agreementsWhen we ask Manders what role the BSC HR

plays in within DSM, he draws us a diagram.

“The BSC HR department functions as the HR

service desk, which means we primarily work

with two groups. First of all there’s HR Neth-

erlands, an advisory body that defi nes our HR

policy and ensures we apply this policy in our

operations. We also have a lot of contact with

the HR offi cials from the Dutch plants. These

business partners are intermediaries for col-

leagues at their location. When an employee

leaves or joins the company, or if there are any

questions or changes for us to process, they

send us the required information.”

The BSC HR employees are part of a so-

called skilled service desk. Manders explains

why this is necessary. “Most branches have

a unique collective labour agreement. This

means that when you answer a question

about certain terms of employment, you

need to know which of the seven agreements

applies. This is why we divided the front offi ce

into two teams, each specializing in a num-

ber of collective labour agreements. Thanks

to their knowledge and experience, the front

offi ce can answer eighty per cent of all incom-

ing questions. The rest of the queries are sent

to the back offi ce.”

Shared service centresDSM has been working on improving its effi -

ciency for a while now, as Manders explains.

“Shared service centres have been on the rise

over the past few years. With the current eco-

nomic climate, we thought that this would be

the best way to improve our effi ciency and

cut costs. I frequently attend HR congresses,

and noticed that a lot of organizations have

only just started looking into shared service

centres. HR is often behind the times, possibly

due to the nature of the fi eld. Personal con-

tact is very important: people like being able

to quickly visit the HR employee down the

hall. However, this means often having to deal

with resistance when trying to automate HR

processes. We set up a shared service centre

fi ve years ago, and often received comments

that things were done differently before. We

had to apply a lot of change management

before everyone was used to the tool and

standardization.”

Tools for HRDSM has a separate department dedicated to

automating HR processes: Global HR Informa-

tion Solutions. This team is concerned with

optimizing processes, supporting HR systems

and safeguarding the quality of data for DSM

worldwide. Global HR IS’ activities ensure

that HR managers and employees can focus

on their personal development. “We support

six systems, including recruitment and career

management,” says Jacqueline Hendriks,

Global HR IS expert and TOPdesk functional

manager. “We look for tools to support HR

processes and determine whether these sys-

tems should be implemented locally or glob-

ally.” Hendriks had previous experience imple-

menting TOPdesk as a case management tool

for a Finance Shared Service Centre. “When

the BSC HR started looking for a new tool,

customer in focus 7 Text: Nienke Deuss

In the past, it was not uncommon for employees to stay at life science and materials science company DSM until they retired. DSM would take care of them for their entire lives. Even now, with hundreds of branches worldwide, DSM values a personal approach to HRM. But how do they combine that with standardization and new tools?

TOPdesk for HR at DSM

YOU OFTEN DEAL WITH RESISTANCE WHEN TRYING TO AUTOMATE HR PROCESSES

Fons Manders - DSM

Fons Manders (l) and Jacqueline Hendriks - DSM

Page 3: Topdesk for HR at DSM

8 customer in focus Photography: Aad Hoogendoorn

Fons and I looked into TOPdesk to see if it could

provide a solution,” says Hendriks. Manders

adds, “We already used SAP Solution Manager,

but it was not effi cient enough. We had to

manually copy incoming emails into SAP. That

was a full-time job for one of our colleagues.”

Fewer obstaclesManders explains that TOPdesk was a logi-

cal choice. “The most important factors were

how quickly the tool could be implemented,

the price and the user-friendliness.” “The

implementation was completed in ten days,”

says Hendriks.

An essential part of the implementation

was training the HR staff, says Hendriks. “Our

employees were already used to working

with a tool, but there was still some resist-

ance. Everyone had to get used to the new

system. This is why I trained a number of ‘key

users’ after the system went live, who in turn

trained their colleagues. These key users are

also ambassadors: they are their department’s

contact person for questions about TOPdesk.”

“Such things always take getting used to,”

says Manders, “but in a matter of weeks we

were hearing that staff never wanted to go

back to the old system. When you get such

positive feedback so quickly, you know you’ve

made the right choice. We really notice the

difference in user-friendliness. For instance,

it’s easy for us to create reports about our

customer services because we have defi ned

SLAs for categories and subcategories. We

also keep an eye on trends: which topic and

which category are most common among

incoming questions? We reserve room in

our newsletter to provide extra information

about these diffi cult subjects.”

TOPDESK GAVE US THE OPPORTUNITY TO MAINTAIN OUR PERSONAL APPROACH

Fons Manders - DSM

The DSM offi ce in Sittard

Page 4: Topdesk for HR at DSM

One tool for the Netherlands and the USThe implementation went smoothly, even

though there were many things that DSM

had to take into consideration, as Hendriks

explains. “We didn’t set up TOPdesk just for

the Dutch HR employees: we also kept our

American colleagues in mind. This meant

that we had to carefully consider how we

could have these groups work together in a

single TOPdesk environment, without them

having to deal with the other team’s ques-

tions. To do this, we set up a branch fi lter on

a national level. Now users only see informa-

tion relevant to them.”

“Using a single tool for branches in differ-

ent countries has both advantages and draw-

backs,” says Manders. “If you need to restart

the system, you have to fi nd a moment that

works for both time zones. However, sharing

a tool lets you share an investment and limit

costs, and you can learn from one another’s

processes, approach and experience.”

Room for personal contactThe BSC HR team receives questions via tel-

ephone, email and the online Employee Self

Service (ESS). The ESS forms are automatically

registered in TOPdesk. “But it’s hard to quan-

tify whether TOPdesk has made us more effi -

cient,” says Manders. “After all, the number of

cases you have processed doesn’t really say

anything, as each case is different.” However,

TOPdesk’s automatic mail registration and

notifi cations have saved between 1 and 1.5

FTE. “The colleague who had to manually copy

emails can now focus on something we have

wanted to do for a long time: visiting custom-

ers. We already did this, but wanted to make it

a structural part of our tasks. Using TOPdesk

meant we had the opportunity to maintain

our personal approach. We currently visit the

HR directors and business partners several

times a year to discuss and improve services.”

Improved customer satisfactionManders explains that the BSC HR team’s

customers have also noticed a difference.

“We conduct a yearly survey to gauge how

customers experience our services. We only

just scored a pass mark in 2010 (5.6/10),

but that grade has already gone up to a 6.8.

I believe the main reason is that we created

more room for customer contact. Customers

also indicate that we are better at keeping

them up to date: they can use the intranet to

check their questions and requests in TOPdesk.

This keeps them informed and saves us a lot

of phone calls. We are confi dent that our score

will be even better this year. Our goal is a 7.3.”

Continuous feedbackDSM is taking the next step in customer

contact, says Hendriks. “Customer satisfac-

tion survey results are snapshots. Maybe

someone had a negative experience with

the department just before we sent out the

survey, causing them to give us a lower score.

This is why we recently introduced so-called

quick surveys. Once a case is processed, ran-

domly selected customers are sent an email

with three questions about how they were

served. This provides us with continuous

feedback and lets us actively apply changes

where needed.” DSM created the quick survey

in cooperation with TOPdesk. “At DSM, we are

always looking for new ways to improve our

effi ciency and customer-oriented approach,”

says Hendriks. “We try to get the most out of

our current systems, which is why we collabo-

rate with TOPdesk so frequently. I know that

this tool has a lot to offer, and we’re only reap-

ing some of the benefi ts. We might use TOP-

desk for other processes in the future, such as

planning HR workfl ows, issuing company cars

or keeping track of digital staff fi les.”

Working towards a single CLADSM is about to undergo extensive changes.

“A recent benchmark revealed that DSM has

a large amount of HR employees,” says Man-

ders. “This isn’t surprising when you consider

how tasks are scattered across departments.”

To address this, DSM wants to switch to a sin-

gle collective labour agreement on 1 January

2014. “A single CLA will help DSM save money

and increase effi ciency, and it will make our

work much easier. Even more importantly,

the terms of employment will be modern-

ized. Each employee will be able to make

personal choices regarding their terms of

employment.”

DSM’s future is exciting, but the employees

remain enthusiastic, as Hendriks explains.

“It’s a challenge to design effi cient processes

for such a complex organization. We have the

right tool, but there’s a long way to go before

all our processes are in line.”

customer in focus 9 Text: Nienke Deuss

QUICK SURVEYS PROVIDE US WITH CONTINUOUS FEEDBACK AND LET US ACTIVELY APPLY CHANGES

Jacqueline Hendriks - DSM