Automated HR document processes at RATIONAL AG

The central HR department at Rational AG has 40 employees. It already uses the classic SAP HCM (on-premises) for payroll accounting and time recording as well as SAP SuccessFactors with the Performance & Goals, Recruiting, Succession & Development, and Employee Central modules.

The company transitioned directly from paper to electronic employee files – in 2022, in the middle of the pandemic. Accessibility was a pressing issue here: HR staff needed to be able to access all employee files when working from home. “Electronic files are easier to search and much easier to store than paper files,” says Benjamin Kaiser, Head of People Systems & Reporting at RATIONAL AG, summarizing the advantages of digital file management

Data protection, the easier way

Data protection was also an important issue for the company. “It is always time-consuming to send someone to the paper archive on certain days because there are documents that need to be shredded. But in electronic form, you can delete documents at the click of a mouse, set deletion deadlines, and even change them retrospectively – a huge advantage,” says Kaiser.

Excellent Centric support in the purchasing process

To select the right filing solution, RATIONAL drew up a classic list of criteria, which the project team used when considering solutions from various providers. “The knock-out criterion for us was integration into our SAP SuccessFactors master data system,” explains Matthias Schuffenhauer, IT Application Management HR (SuccessFactors) at RATIONAL. “Centric's support in the purchasing process was also really exceptionally good. This was ultimately the decisive factor for us, in addition to the convincing cost-effectiveness ratio.”

As far as Schuffenhauer is concerned, many of the market-leading solutions are comparable in terms of functionality. This means that the provider’s performance in implementing the solution is all the more important, “and this is where Centric Consulting really stood out with its excellent project management.”

The first step was to introduce Centric Employee File in the DACH region – consisting of Germany (D), Austria (A), and Switzerland (CH) – where the majority of the more than 2,600 employees worldwide work. This was quickly followed by North America and Mexico the following year. Many files were imported very quickly, but there was still a large number of paper documents, as the company has many long-standing employees. The previous digitization of the existing files was carried out by an external scanning service provider. RATIONAL had to establish a clear cut-off point here: Anyone who was still with the company by the cut-off date of January 1, 2022, got a new digital employee file, while the company files of all former employees were left in paper form.

Centric’s solution is self-explanatory

Benjamin Kaiser: “Our HR teams really appreciate working with electronic files. The amount of training required was very low because the Centric solution is basically self-explanatory.”

Once Centric Employee File was fully implemented, the HR team turned its attention to the next step: introducing Document Builder. This means that the HR team members work with their familiar Microsoft Word templates and documents, which allows them to automatically integrate master data and other information from SAP HCM and SAP SuccessFactors.

Document Builder massively simplifies internal processes

There are now over 40 document template types in the system. RATIONAL uses Document Builder to create almost all new and amended contracts for its employees in German-speaking countries. A complex workflow was established for this purpose. The administrative assistants draw up a contract, the people partners confirm it, and it is then sent to the payroll department, which enters the changes in SAP.

The Document Builder is already connected to the SuccessFactors Recruiting module. As soon as sufficient data is available in this module, the HR department will also prepare new employees’ employment contracts using the Centric tool. It is already using the Document Builder to create standardized annual salary letters for almost all 1,600 employees in Germany.

For legal reasons, RATIONAL does not yet use digital signatures via Docusign or other tools. Nevertheless, the electronic salary letter massively simplifies internal processes. Documents are created once, given a barcode, signed, scanned, and then automatically assigned to the relevant file.

When the Growth Opportunities Act comes into force, he expects digital signatures to be used across the board.

Whether new document types or additional workflows need to be drawn up: The Head of People Systems & Reporting praises Centric's speed of response, not only when implementing the project but also in ongoing operations. “They immediately accept our suggestions for improvement and things are really moving forward: That's the feeling we have with Centric.”