Beaulieu International Group covers new ground with an SAP SuccessFactors-based strategic HR approach

Over the years, raw materials, engineered products and flooring company Beaulieu International Group (B.I.G.) has grown both organically and through acquisitions. They embarked on their HR transformation journey in early 2018.

An international producer of polymers, engineered products and flooring solutions, Beaulieu International Group employs approximately 5,000 people in 27 plants over 16 countries. The company turns over around 2 billion euros annually. Its HR department wanted to tackle the challenges of a global organisation in today’s rapidly changing, global market. That’s why Flexso for People helped them shift up a gear by automating processes and transitioning into a more strategic HR approach.

“By allowing us to set up a strategic HR approach, Flexso for People helped us improve our decision-making processes and increase our efficiency.”
Geert Boone - Group HR Processes & Industrial Relations Manager at Beaulieu International Group

Challenging the status quo

From recruitment and payroll to development and training: it is a challenge to manage over 5,000 employees all over the world. Beaulieu International Group aimed to achieve four key goals:

Allowing HR to make the shift from a transactional to a strategic partner.
Improving the HR experience of employees and managers, whilst allowing them to take ownership of people management.
Gathering better management information faster to improve the decision-making process.
Increasing visibility and transparency of the different local and international entities.

How can a future-facing HR empower digital transformation?

Discover what it takes

The waves of change: going from transactional to strategic HR

First, Beaulieu International Group and Flexso for People organised an HR maturity assessment: we mapped and analysed the existing processes and identified opportunities to centralise and change the HR operating model. Based on these results, we concluded that SAP SuccessFactors was the perfect HR technology for the transformation project. So, we prepared a business case for a full suite implementation and convinced the Beaulieu International Group Board of Directors of its merits.

The implementation of SAP SuccessFactors was divided up into a number of waves to make sure Beaulieu International Group could start working with the new HR suite as quickly as possible. First up was the implementation of Employee Central. This included an update of HR policies, data models and processes per country, as well as payroll integration and an integration with Active Directory. Functionalities such as Contingent Workforce Management, Global Assignments and Concurrent Employment were also set up, in order to manage the total workforce and get better insights into headcount and FTE reporting. Once Employee Central was live and the basics were in place, Flexso for People added SAP Analytics Cloud. This way, the standard ‘HR story’ was finetuned, enriched with data and transformed into the ‘B.I.G. story’.

HR support beyond the technical

But we didn’t stop there. To ensure effective implementation and user adoption, we provided important change management support as well, guiding Beaulieu International Group through every step of the process and offering assistance to the HR department where needed.

This included stakeholder management, organising international kick-off workshops and the implementation of SAP Jam as a collaborative platform for the local and international HR managers. Finally, to make sure future employees would also be able to work with the new HR technology, Flexso for People developed several tutorials and short e-learning clips with Beaulieu International Group’s pre-existing video conferencing tools.

“Thanks to SAP SuccessFactors and Flexso for People, international collaboration between all Beaulieu International Group offices has never been easier.”
Geert Boone - Group HR Processes & Industrial Relations Manager at Beaulieu International Group

The business benefits

Now that SAP SuccessFactors has been implemented and the strategic HR approach is in use, Beaulieu International Group reaps the benefits of:

Increased efficiency, quicker response time and increased reliability of HR. This allows them to shift their attention from transactions to strategy and people management.
Faster and better decision making thanks to the strategic business insights achieved through centralized reporting and analytics.
Easier and more efficient collaboration, more visibility and transparency between all Beaulieu International Group offices.
Full compliance with legislation, including data privacy laws.

The story continues

While these first steps already allow for a major shift from transactional HR to strategic HR, further improvements are in progress. Currently, Beaulieu International Group has reviewed and updated its data policies and models in order to implement a goals and performance management module in SAP SuccessFactors as well. Currently, Beaulieu International Group is implementing the recruitment module with the learning module next up in line. Planned for 2022, Succession & development will follow.

Interested in transforming your own HR processes from transactional to strategic?
We’re ready to tackle the challenge with you!