Global HR balanced locally

Global standardized processes facilitate management on the one hand, but at the same time geographical diversity had to be taken into account in the Freudenberg Group. On the one hand, local laws had to be complied with, on the other hand, local location advantages had to be taken into account and locally and regionally balanced talent and management development had to be expanded to a greater extent.

After a preliminary project by Corporate HR and all Freudenberg Group Business Groups to develop a kind of global common denominator for HR processes, the decision was made to go with Workday's cloud-based and intuitive HCM software. This "think globally - act locally" approach was in line with Freudenberg's corporate strategy.

HCM with interfaces

After the decision for Workday's best-of-suite solution, the implementation succeeded very quickly: At the end of May 2020, the cloud solution went live in all countries and a large part of the employees were already actively working with it. All employees with a digital identity have since benefited from a modern, cloud-based HR IT system that can be used quickly and easily via different end devices (laptop, tablet, smartphone). Interfaces to the company's own learning management system as well as the most important payroll systems in the Group were created without any problems. Both the EU-wide General Data Protection Regulation (DSGVO) and all national data protection laws were taken into account.

"With Workday as our digital hub, we have been able to establish lean and fast processes in HR management across the group" explains Esther Maria Loidl, Chief Human Resource Officer (CHRO) of the Freudenberg Group. "With just a few clicks, everything can now be done the same way from anywhere - from managing HR master data, to the individual building blocks of talent and performance reviews, to bonus and salary reviews, to mapping all internal and external applications." Within a year, Workday has established itself as a valuable tool for employees, managers and the HR departments at Freudenberg, with over one million accesses.

Transparent processes motivate

Transparency in the company motivates employees and management alike and creates mutual trust. The task of modern HR management is therefore to create systems and tools that provide optimal information and communication in the areas of career management and performance feedback as well as compensation management. The enormously improved transparency is also appreciated by CEO Loidl: "I like to refer to Workday in this context as a single source of truth, in other words, our so-called source of truth. It may sound trivial at first, but having a common, authoritative, up-to-the-minute database has massive implications for all users."

And it clearly shows the advantages compared to the past: "This transparent database helps managers and the HR community make faster and better strategic decisions. Where previously almost everything had to be maintained manually in Excel lists, queried centrally and summarized, daily updated digital reports can now be generated at the push of a button. On the one hand, this minimizes the susceptibility to errors. On the other hand, we understand interrelationships much better and faster and can take more targeted measures. Last but not least, the new processes have brought the HR community even closer together - from the start of the project to the present day - silos have been broken down and everyone is pulling in the same direction."explains Loidl.

Freudenberg employees also benefit enormously from the newly created transparency. After all, it is standard practice to manage employees by setting targets. However, these are not always clear and employees who are willing and able to perform expect prospects - both in terms of content and career opportunities. "Workday therefore increases all-round visibility and is a huge enabler in terms of career planning at Freudenberg if your own profile is well maintained. Our employees can better prepare for discussions with colleagues by looking at their profile or finding contacts for specific topics. Freudenberg thus enables its employees to actively engage in their further development and take it into their own hands."Loidl summarizes the most popular Workday features.

Recruiting and talent management

Finding, promoting and retaining qualified and committed employees - in times of a global shortage of skilled workers and personnel, all companies are looking for the magic formula to achieve this. A basic prerequisite for successful recruiting and talent management is an optimally coordinated HCM solution. 

In a second step, the Freudenberg Group therefore introduced recruiting processes in which all internal and external applications in all 60 countries are mapped digitally. This has a particularly positive impact on internal recruiting and succession management, as global HR manager Loidl explained: "Since we introduced the Workday recruiting tool in September last year, our employees have had an overview of all advertised positions at Freudenberg at the touch of a button and can apply. Managers have a tool in their hands with Workday to engage in dialog with their employees and develop them. And thanks to Workday, the HR community understands interrelationships much better and faster - for example, which specialists are leaving us where and when. This allows them to take more targeted action, whether it's engaging with employees earlier rather than when they leave, or taking a more effective approach to recruiting and succession planning."

A pan-European study commissioned by Workday in spring 2021 shows the positive impact of diversity and inclusion (D&I) on business success. The extent and progress of such initiatives varies widely, and there are still large differences in operational implementation.

Diversity as a success factor

At the Freudenberg Group, diversity is firmly anchored in its values and principles, as global HR Officer Loidl explains: "We are convinced that teams made up of people of different ages and genders and from different cultural backgrounds are more successful. Particular attention is paid to gender balance with a focus on the hiring process, early identification of female talent, and targeted career development of women for top management positions. We also want to pay even greater attention to geographical diversity in the future. Many of the specialist and managerial staff are based in Europe and in particular in Germany. In the medium term, the Group wants to work even harder on good local and regional leadership, both in production and in administration. The goal is to have balanced know-how and expertise across all regions. With Workday, we have created the necessary transparency to target these issues."

Summary

Esther Maria Loidl, Member of the Management Board, summarizes the introduction and operation of the Workday solution: "With Workday, we were able to realize our vision: to harmonize the Freudenberg Group's very diverse and decentralized HR process landscape step by step with a single system solution that spans all Business Groups. With this digital HCM solution, it is possible to make the Freudenberg Group even more future-proof. make."

The Freudenberg Group

in Weinheim, Baden-Württemberg, is a family-owned group of companies. As a global technology company, Freudenberg employees work together with customers and the scientific community to develop leading-edge products, solutions and services for various sectors such as the automotive, mechanical engineering, textile, construction and telecommunications industries.

The innovative applications range from seals, vibration control components, technical textiles, filters, cleaning technologies and products to specialty chemicals and medical technology products. Strong customer orientation, innovative strength, as well as diversity and team spirit are important success factors in Freudenberg's more than 170-year corporate history.

The family-owned company took an international approach to its business at a very early stage. In 2021, the Freudenberg Group employed some 50,000 people from 136 nations at sites in 60 countries, generating sales of more than 10 billion euros for the first time.