Optimizing the management of employee files in SAP at ZOLLERN

At its headquarters in Sigmaringendorf, the HR department of the ZOLLERN Group is working with SAP HCM and wants to further digitalize its HR processes.

Its extensive collection of employee files is an important starting point here. ZOLLERN has a lot of long-standing employees who’ve been with the company for up to 40 years. More and more paper files had accumulated and were taking up a lot of space. Filing and searching for individual paper files was time-consuming and laborious.

Avoiding duplicate filing with SAP based employee file

One particular problem for the HR department was the duplication of files. The original files were stored in the HR administrator’s office, while the team responsible for payroll accounting kept copies of the documents they needed. The department wanted to avoid this duplication by introducing a digital filing solution. Another important argument for the HR department was the limited accessibility of the paper files. By introducing digitalization, the HR department wanted to better support location-independent work, including working from home.

Versatile Centric tools

The initiative to introduce the digital employee file came from the payroll department. The team looked at several products and were struck by one aspect of Centric’s broad product range: It also includes auditing and compliance tools for setting up an SAP internal control system (ICS) for payroll accounting.

Centric Employee File has already been introduced under the leadership of the payroll department and is already operating successfully. In addition, the HR department is introducing Centric Document Builder for automated document creation. ZOLLERN plans to introduce Centric’s ICS to audit payroll accounting at later stages of the project.

Easy utilization of master data through full SAP integration: Employee File

The HR team were also impressed by the deep SAP integration of Centric’s tools. Centric Employee File uses the master data from ZOLLERN’s SAP HCM system and is compatible with the existing roles and authorizations concept. With its intuitive SAP FIORI interface, the digital employee file also requires hardly any training for users. Payroll accountant Vanessa Auer, who works with Centric Employee File on a daily basis, confirms this:

Employee File and Centric Document Builder: Easy implementation

The digital file was easy to implement, and the rollout was quick, as Centric Employee File is a cloud solution that does not require any local installation and can be easily customized to meet the company’s specific requirements. The HR team was supported by a Centric partner company during the implementation.

Digitizing the paper files, however, took more time. ZOLLERN sent 1,400 files to an external service provider for scanning. The project managers at ZOLLERN recommended checking and cleaning the files before external scanning. This made it easier to delineate the scope of the digitization project and identify the requirements any scanning service provider would need to meet.

Online access for all HR employees

By importing the digital documents into Centric’s solution, the project team had already achieved the most important implementation objective: “Copying paper documents and duplicate filing are now a thing of the past thanks to the Centric Employee File,” says Head of Payroll Marion Seitz. The various areas of the HR department can now all use the digital files. Currently, 13 HR experts at headquarters are using the solution. Online access to the files at any time and from anywhere makes the HR teams’ work much easier. They also no longer have to find out where a file is currently located, wait for it to be forwarded, or search for individual documents. The direct importing of master data from SAP HCM whenever new documents are digitally created also makes day-to-day work more efficient and secure.

A plus in compliance and data protection through standardized file management

When the company first introduced the solution, one problem immediately reared its head: Some files had to be edited and cleaned up. Today, ZOLLERN benefits from consistently standardizing the structure and content of the employee files. Standardized file maintenance means the era of sending emails to several people or handwriting notes in the HR documents is over. Vanessa Auer points out: “We can always rest assured that our file management also meets the high standards for compliance and data protection in HR.”