Topdesk for HR at DSM
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Transcript of Topdesk for HR at DSM
6 customer in focus Photography: Aad Hoogendoorn
Professional but still
Personal
“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
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
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