Volkswagen Poznań invests in positive employee experiences in their interactions with the organization. One of the key employee experience initiatives is to enhance work comfort by implementing employee self-service mechanisms in the Service Desk application BeeOffice and leveraging the digitalization of HR documentation in E-Teczki (E-Files). Both solutions are integrated with SAP. Everyone benefits – over 10,000 employees can handle their matters with the HR Department more easily and quickly. Employees of this department have modern tools to perform their tasks. The company calculates tangible savings achieved through digitalization. An invaluable benefit is the increase in job satisfaction.
Volkswagen Poznań employs nearly 10,000 people across four plants (two in Poznań, one in Swarzędz, and one in Września). The company undertakes many initiatives with the overarching goal of making their work better organized, more comfortable, and their daily interaction with the organization satisfying. Importantly (and not so obviously) – the focus on a better employee experience applies to everyone, including production workers.
The HR Department consists of over 100 people. Although HR employees are close to the workforce (they have offices in all plants), maintaining a satisfactory level of HR service is significantly challenging with such a large team and shift work.
The way to introduce improvements is clear – advanced digitalization and process automation, the use and integration of bots, and other modern technologies and communication channels. All that remained was to select the tools to accomplish these tasks.
Volkswagen Poznań decided to cooperate with All for One Poland and utilize our ready-made platforms: BeeOffice and Rockawork.
Since the legislator finally allowed for the electronic storage of employee documentation (instead of paper) at the beginning of 2019, the implementation and management of e-archives for employee files has become a hot topic. The E-Teczki (E-Files) module not only allows compliance with legal requirements but also archives other documentation created during employment and provides instant and secure access to it.
Efficient and effective communication between employees and the HR department, along with high-quality internal customer service, is one of the significant factors in building a positive employee experience. For this purpose, the Service Desk module of the BeeOffice employee self-service portal was used.
One of the important criteria for choosing All for One Poland as a partner in HR process digitalization was our experience in integrating business systems, especially the SAP HR system.
SAP HR is the central HR system and the primary source of employee data. One of the main assumptions of HR process digitalization was to maintain this status quo. Therefore, the integration of the implemented solutions with SAP HR was crucial.
In both BeeOffice Service Desk and E-Teczki (E-Files), the employee list, basic data, and organizational structure are retrieved directly from SAP. Both solutions are synchronized with SAP (connection via WebService occurs once a day). If a change in system data is detected, the data in All for One applications is updated.
The ability to manage and store employee files electronically, introduced by the regulation of the Minister of Family, Labour and Social Policy on December 10, 2018, regarding employee documentation, is a true revolution in the work of HR administration teams. Replacing bulky paper files and binders with easily accessible electronic files significantly streamlines daily work and generates huge savings (eliminating the need to maintain archives with documents up to 50 years old).
Since mid-2021, Volkswagen Poznań has begun transferring its paper archive of personnel files to the electronic E-Teczki (E-Files) solution. This is an add-on to HR and payroll systems, enabling the implementation and maintenance of the company’s employee documentation in digital form. E-Teczki (E-Files) provide HR department employees and line managers with the ability to create and view electronic personnel files by assigning electronic documents and scans to appropriate document types placed in dedicated sections of electronic personnel files (sections A, B, C, D).
Based on the Rockawork solution, E-Teczki (E-Files) in SAP allow for the configuration of a uniform electronic personnel file model, tailored to the needs of a specific organization. The solution provides a uniform personnel file structure divided into folders and document types (e.g., an HR e-file containing employment contracts, work certificates, etc.).
Among the most important features of the solution are:
Currently, the creation and update of e-files occur digitally. Hiring a new employee in SAP automatically results in the creation of an empty electronic file for them, with a ready-made structure (divided into sections and subsections). Subsequently, further documents (PDF scans, as well as Word files or emails) are placed into the defined parts and sections of the e-file.
A prerequisite for eliminating paper documentation is to affix certain types of documents (e.g., contracts, addenda, certificates) with a Qualified Electronic Signature.
The implementation of E-Teczki (E-Files) integrated with SAP allowed for the rapid “construction” of an electronic archive, with a ready-made documentation structure and an empty personnel file for each employee. It was then “only” necessary to fill it with documents.
Volkswagen Poznań has been present on Poland’s economic map for nearly 30 years. The company’s oldest personnel files date back just as long. Considering the tens of thousands of employees who have passed through the Poznań plants during this time, it is easy (or rather difficult) to imagine the archive space occupied by these files and the costs of their maintenance.
Therefore, in the project for implementing All for One E-Teczki (E-Files) at Volkswagen Poznań, the biggest challenge was to develop an effective and as fast as possible method for indexing and introducing documents into the appropriate structures. VWP utilized the approach developed by All for One Poland.
In practice, the process is as follows. In the archive of each of the three plants, a dedicated workstation was set up (a place for safely “unpacking” paper files, a computer, scanner, barcode label printer), and trained employees were assigned to operate it.
Holding a paper document, an employee performs preliminary indexing in the Rockawork system: they identify it (by selecting the appropriate section and document type from a list) and reserve a place for it. Based on this, the system assigns a barcode with the employee number, section designation, and sequential number within the section. Before scanning, each document is affixed with a label containing this code. The scanned file automatically receives a name identical to the barcode and, based on this, is automatically paired with the appropriate location in the system and attached as a link.
Previously, before being sent to the archive, documents are directed to a designated folder. There, they are affixed with an electronic signature by an authorized employee, and only then, once prepared, are they sent to the electronic archive.
To increase the efficiency and security of the digitalization process, tasks were divided among several people (one person scans, another enters the document into the system, and yet another employee has authorization to use the electronic signature). Scanning quality control was also introduced (to ensure that documents are legible and files are undamaged).
To ensure the security of sensitive data and to monitor the progress of archive digitalization, tools were prepared where employees are required to register the status (e.g., file retrieved from archive, digitized).
In total, approximately 16,000 personnel files are to be digitized at VWP. The completion of this process is planned for the end of 2023.
The law regulates the type and structure of documents in an employee’s personnel file. However, there is nothing to prevent extending the structure in All for One E-Teczki (E-Files) to include other non-mandatory documents created during employment – so that the entire history of interactions with an employee can be gathered in one place. Volkswagen Poznań decided to take this step by archiving payroll documents within the solution.
Since June 2021, employee HR requests have been handled in the Service Desk BeeOffice solution. The adopted ticketing system (single request = ticket in the system) ensures optimal document flow between VWP employees and the HR Department, as well as within the HR Department itself.
The operating principle of the solution is simple: each employee request is registered in the solution as a separate ticket. Ticket continuity is ensured. Every action: receiving a request, assigning it among HR employees, sending a response to the requester – all occurs within a single request.
Information on the processing time and workflow of a specific request is available. Completed tickets are stored in the system and can be revisited. For HR Department employees responsible for processing requests, a Calendar is available where absences can be marked. Requests assigned to an absent person on a given day are highlighted, which facilitates their identification and potential reassignment to another employee.
The system allows for obtaining reports on response times and SLA (Service Level Agreement) fulfillment – i.e., the time allocated for completing a task, established for each process. Requests are processed according to priorities assigned by the requesters.
The ability to generate aggregate reports has been prepared:
Depending on their position and authorizations, individual employees (or groups of employees) of the HR Department are assigned to process specific types of requests. To ensure high flexibility in defining these authorizations, the BeeOffice filter mechanism was used.
Before the solution’s productive launch, All for One Poland consultants defined templates for the 10 most common types of requests: nursing pass; childcare leave request; reduction of working hours; unpaid leave request; working time standards; removal of e-ZLA locks; checking leave entitlement; employee hiring; appointment of a Master; non-renewal of employment contract.
VWP employees are successively expanding this list. Ultimately, the system is planned to handle approximately 70 HR processes (including working time changes, pension program, absences, payer, employee development).
The ticketing system can be operated in Polish, English, and German.
Using the request application works well where all employees have computer access and are familiar with business systems. At VWP, it was necessary to develop other communication and request submission channels, also accessible to production floor employees. Currently, all employees can use several methods for submitting HR requests.
BeeOffice Service Desk is integrated with All for One E-Teczki (E-Files). A document prepared as a result of a request is attached to the employee’s personnel file, and then a direct link to the document in the electronic file is added to the request. This link and the document it points to constitute the final product of the request, delivered to the employee.
For distributing documents from the e-file to employees, the existing mechanism in VWP for sending payslips via email was utilized (a component of the All for One E-Payslips solution used by VWP). Documents (a PIN-protected ZIP folder) are sent to the email address retrieved from the employee’s basic data in the SAP system.
Artificial intelligence solutions were used in the process of converting an employee’s email into a Service Desk request. The bot “reads” the message, identifies the requester, extracts keywords and phrases, and based on this, creates a request and assigns it to the appropriate team for processing.
Teaching the RPA (Robotic Process Automation) mechanism to interpret employee intentions and distribute tickets appropriately is one of the more interesting challenges of this project. The solution is still being developed and tested.
The use of AI in automating repetitive business processes aligns with the latest HR trends.
In addition to integration with the SAP HR system, other solutions facilitating communication with employees were utilized and integrated during the project. RPA involves learning bots for reading employee emails and automatically creating and classifying service requests based on them. A telephone line with hotline software serves the same purpose. Employee documentation and the request application were linked, and previously implemented mechanisms for sending emails to employees were utilized.
Another convenience for HR Department employees is the integration of BeeOffice Service Desk and All for One E-Teczki (E-Files) with PKI access cards. This allowed for convenient yet secure access to the solutions through the Single Sign-On mechanism used at VWP – a single login for multiple business applications. All for One Poland developed a standard for VWP for integrating PKI cards with external systems, which can be widely used.
Eliminating kilometers of archive shelving, savings on maintaining storage facilities, and shortening the mandatory archiving period are the most important benefits of e-files. Also invaluable are instant access to documents and the ease of their distribution to employees and between company branches (if an employee is transferred to another plant, their e-file automatically moves with them, based on SAP data). The solution significantly enhanced the level of sensitive data security.
The service application also improved the quality and comfort of work for the HR Department. A central employee service point was gained, allowing for monitoring request processing times and providing the ability to archive interactions between employees and the HR department. Time savings and lower costs are also tangible.
In this case, however, the most important aspect is the significant improvement in the satisfaction of HR clients – i.e., company employees who gained easier and faster access to the HR department, unrestricted by working hours, and a guarantee of service within an agreed timeframe.
In the current situation, the advantages of the solution during the pandemic cannot be overlooked. Digitalized HR processes are resilient to restrictions resulting from difficult movement within the plant, sanitary regimes, or remote work.
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