Strategic HR transformation at Beaulieu International Group

An international producer of polymers, engineered products and flooring solutions, Beaulieu International Group employs approximately 5,000 people in 27 plants over 16 countries. Its HR department wanted to tackle the challenges of a global organisation in today’s rapidly changing, global market and make sure they are a futureproof employer for their employees. That’s why Flexso for People helped them shift up a gear by automating processes and transitioning into a more strategic HR approach.

Challenging the status quo

The From recruitment and payroll to development and training: it is a challenge to manage over 5,000 employees all over the world. In 2020 Beaulieu International Group announced four key business strategic goals:

1. Being a sustainable organisation
2. Innovating both in products and their way of working
3. Choosing a digital road
4. Creating a talent-first environment

For HR innovation, digitisation and a talent-first approach required that:

• HR made the shift from a transactional to a strategic partner.
• Improved the HR experience of employees and managers, whilst allowing them to take ownership of people management.
• Gathered better management information faster to improve the decision-making process.
• Increased visibility and transparency of the different local and international entities.

The waves of change: going from transactional to strategic HR

First, Beaulieu International Group decided to listen to their own people and hear their needs first-hand. After a thorough survey they had a view on some HR processes and changes that would allow for a sustainable talent-first approach.

Next up, 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 best practices from the HR world. After looking at it from a strategic angle, SAP SuccessFactors was chosen as the perfect HR technology for the transformation project.

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’.

And over the past years their digital journey continued with new processes and technical modules for Recruitment, Succession and Development, expense management, etc. ...

HR support beyond the technical

But the technical part is only going to work if employees use it. To ensure effective implementation and user adoption, Flexso 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. It was important to prove that digitization wouldn't get in the way of human contact. On the contrary, digitization allows the HR team to have more time to focus on the personal interactions. Further, technical tools and real time overviews allow for a personal follow-up on development and training.

Change management included stakeholder management, organizing 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.

Watch the interview for HR Deep Dive with Pieter Lelieur (CHRO at Beaulieu) and Tom Mentens (HR Transformation Consultant at Flexso for People). Available in Dutch only.

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

Over the past years the cooperation between Beaulieu and Flexso for People has continued, with HR transformation consultants keeping track of the best practices in the HR world and keeping the team at Beaulieu informed and up to date about improvements that could be relevant.

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