Benteler significantly reduces the workload in HR management
A new IT tool for global compensation & benefits management
Company / Industry
Benteler International AG / Automotive, Mechanical Engineering
Service Portfolio
Benteler International AG is an industrial company, which was formerly located in Germany, but moved its branches automotive engineering, steel and tube production, mechanical engineering and distribution to Austria in 2010.
Website
www.benteler.com
Especially companies with sites in various countries need a suitable IT Solution for a professional compensation management. Hence, it guarantees transparency and quality for their HR data in compensation and benefits and, moreover, a company-wide proof of efficiency in related HR processes. The larger the enterprise, the more complex the requirements for HR management. The Salzburg based industrial concern Benteler International GmbH with sites in 40 countries has faced this challenge.
For 140 years Benteler stands for competency in material, manufacturing and technology in the automotive segment, steel and tube production as well as machine engineering. At more than 150 sites, the owner-managed consortium, which has an annual turnover of about 8 billion Euro, engages 30000 employees. The Benteler International AG consolidates the tree business divisions automotive technologies, steel/tube and distribution. Given the company´s size, Benteler focused on short decision paths, optimal development prospects for their employees as well as a maximum in customer service for all their divisions. In order to meet their needs and therefore replace old and complex processes, Benteler was looking for a cross-divisional IT solution for compensation.
Previously, the administration of incentives was processed individually and manually for each division, hence, the risk of error was inevitable. Moreover, the legacy solution lacked an interface to Payroll, which led to an enormous effort of work and time. The employee on- and offboarding in particular and the transfers to or within the division were affected by this condition. „Moreover, we also had an enormous workload related to the provisions, we had to make at least quarterly“, Benteler´s Head of Corporate Compensation & Benefits, Andreas Kopejsko, adds.
Planning, calculation and reporting for 40 countries
Kopejsko and his team were looking for an Enterprise-Content-Management (ECM) solution, to plan and implement the compensation model with its components incentive, merit increase and individual salary increase (ISI), which was finally launched in 2014. The system-based planning, calculation and reporting should be standardized cross-divisional for all 40 countries by means of the ECM solution. Furthermore, Benteler wanted to obtain scale effects, and therefore create transparency, in order to reduce the administrative effort, improve data quality and quicker responses. At this time other divisions already had SAP ERP HCM in use, so the compensation management solution by SAP was preferred. „In addition, it was hard to find a supplier, who had the neccessary knowledge and the experience in international projects, as is requested by a project, as ours“, IT Business Application Architect Ralf Landgraf, who was responsible for the IT coordination, states. Therefore, Benteler applied directly to SAP, in order to find qualified support for their project. After a recommendation through the software developing enterprise and a subsequent selection process, Benteler found the partner, who met the industrial company´s expectations, in projekt0708.
The challenge was to globally implement the SAP ECM solution with the processes incentive, merit and ISI in a „Big Bang“-procedure from the beginning, and not in the usual manner, successively country by country. Therefore, Benteler preferred an early involvement of the regional stakeholders: e.g. they were invited to test in the main office in Paderborn, where project members of all 40 Benteler sites were asked to come. „Due to the globally displayed project design, we had to consider various currencies and their conversion rates“, Dirk Jäckel, SAP HCM specialist projekt0708´s CEO, explains one of the project´s core requirements. Furthermore, Benteler maps the complete incentive process – from the formula, the bonus is based on, to the total target achievment calculation, in SAP ECM. „Thus, we gain an increase in transparency for our employees and the HR department´s colleagues“, Birgit Bertels from Benteler Automotive Technology´s department Comp & Ben explains.
Workload reduced to a fifth
Together with projekt0708, Benteler was able to implement the SAP ECM solution in all 40 countries within a year thanks to the centralized corporate structure. “An extremely athletic approach, for which other companies need several years,” says projekt0708 Managing Director Jäckel. Kopejsko returns the compliment: “The projekt0708 employees were very motivated to understand our processes down to the last detail.” Kopejsko also emphasizes the positive feedback from the foreign branches. “The colleagues really enjoyed being involved in the project, even though they had to do it on top of their daily work,” adds the Head of Corporate Compensation & Benefits.
Benteler has ultimately reaped significant benefits from the project: Apart from increased transparency and data quality within the processes, which are now operated across business units in SAP ECM, the workload of the HR employees who were previously involved in these processes has been reduced to a fifth. For Benteler, SAP ECM is the basis for further system---supported IT solutions, for example to calculate remuneration---relevant KPIs in the future. Kopejsko is therefore interested in further cooperation with projekt0708.