How De Lijn shifted recruiting and learning into a higher gear with SAP SuccessFactors
Looking for ways to hire the best people, accelerate recruitment or provide your team with the training they need to remain motivated? For De Lijn, Flanders’ public transport company, recruiting and learning have both been running smoothly since they embraced SAP SuccessFactors!
When De Lijn decided to overhaul its corporate strategy in 2018, they resolutely chose to put digital at the heart of its operations. The ultimate goal: to elevate the experience of everyone interacting with De Lijn, which means customers, employees and job applicants.
The public transport company has 700+ applicants per month, 700+ new hires each year and an annual 200,000+ hours of training for 8,000 employees. Now that Gen Y and Z are hitting the workforce and the war for talent is fierce, the HR team knows that talent must take center stage in every HR-related process. So, after digitizing the core HR processes at De Lijn, it was time to transform the existing recruiting and learning practices into more engaging experiences.
SAP SuccessFactors for a new era of recruitment
To get their recruiting to the next level, De Lijn decided to implement an entirely new platform. As they were already running SAP HR, they chose SAP SuccessFactors.“SuccessFactors was the most logical choice, as the online modules would integrate seamlessly into the existing SAP backbone, including the SAP HR on-premise architecture,” says Katrien Dierickx, head of recruitment at De Lijn.
“The move to the cloud-based SAP SuccessFactors modules for recruiting was a really smart step to take. As well as being intuitive and saving our recruiters precious time, SuccessFactors provides better reports faster, not to mention how it ensures a great candidate experience. And that’s just the start, as SAP SuccessFactors Recruiting offers plenty of features that we haven’t even put into practice yet.”
SAP SuccessFactors Recruiting: 3 key benefits for De Lijn
1. Efficiency gains, by streamlining the hiring experience:
easy to create vacancies, publish them online and make adjustments,
automated workflows,
easy candidate tracking,
data on new recruitments is immediately uploaded to other systems (planning, payroll, etc.),
integration with external assessment organizations
2. Better decision-making, thanks to smooth reporting
3. Improved candidate experience
intuitive career site (jobs.delijn.be) where candidates can search job opportunities and apply,
in their account, candidates can view their application history,
fewer manual processes leave recruiters with more time to engage with candidates.
A learning platform for compliance-driven training
Like for recruiting, the goal for the new development tool was to centralize and automate processes. However, Learning & Development (L&D) procedures at De Lijn were a bit more complex to automate than recruiting processes, explains L&D expert Steve DeKoning, as learning at the Lijn is compliance driven.
“What makes it more challenging to adopt a standard learning management system is that learning at De Lijn is compliance driven: the focus lies on completing specific mandatory training, making sure everyone follows the courses before the deadline, recording the certificates acquired and maintaining an audit trail. On top of that, most of our staff are drivers or technicians, so they’re not in front of their computers all day.”
With SAP SuccessFactors Learning, De Lijn could easily accommodate their specific requirements. As a result, the public transport company is now reaping clear benefits when it comes to the learner experience.
SAP SuccessFactors Learning: 3 key benefits for De Lijn
1. Higher learner engagement, through self-service features:
visibility of the training status, activities, and certificates,
easy to select training courses in the catalogue and apply.
2. Efficiency gains for the L&D team:
easy to list and schedule courses, incl. courses from partners,
new employees automatically get a training plan, and sessions are automatically scheduled and followed up,
certificate details are automatically shared with other departments, like planning and payroll.
3. Easier regulatory adherence:
automated learning assignments,
comprehensive certification and document management capabilities,
compliance reports to monitor and control compliance trainings.
Test, learn and take it one step at a time
De Lijn chose Flexso to help them implement SAP SuccessFactors. The collaboration was successful, despite challenging external circumstances. “The COVID pandemic forced us to collaborate remotely, but we pulled it off together,” recalls Katrien. She admits the go-live was postponed in order to test more extensively than planned and make sure the team at De Lijn would master the tool: “A decision we haven’t regretted – and maybe the best advice I’d give to anyone launching a software project: take your time.”
Always on the move
Take-away no. 2: just like De Lijn itself, this software project is always ‘on the move’. “We meet weekly with the team to share experiences and spot optimization opportunities. SAP SuccessFactors offers plenty more features, both for recruiting and learning. We’re looking forward to expanding it, step by step, making sure we get every employee on board,” Steve concludes.
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Want to motivate your employees to learn and develop skills, and attract more job applicants?
