…was the fact xcd is a single HR and payroll solution, which allows any updates made in the HR module to flow through to Payroll, which was a “game-changer” for Landmark, slashing the admin associated with manual data transfer as well as alleviating anxieties around human error and data security.

Finally, and perhaps most significantly, with such a new HR team at Landmark, there was a lack of knowledge around some of the businesses own processes. There was a strong desire to work with a provider that would be flexible to their circumstances and willing to offer the extra effort in implementation. Henry Horsfall elaborates on this:

“A fundamental part of my thinking was, who do I feel I could work with? Do the people that I’m speaking to feel honest, sensible, straightforward, easy to talk to and understanding? The guys from xcd ticked all those boxes.”

The resulting solution has transformed Landmark’s HR and payroll function. The team now commonly receive positive feedback on xcd’s dashboards and the solution’s ability to push important information to managers, creating a culture of visibility; the platform’s “incredibly intuitive” interface and “proper self-service”. This has reduced queries coming into the HR team, and any issues that are still being raised are backed with more information, allowing speed of resolution to be quicker.

Henry Horsfall attests to this, stating: “this has allowed the HR team to be more proactive we’re having conversations around learning and development strategy and career pipelines instead of being bogged down in admin.”

Engagement has not only improved with managers, but also the entire workforce. One of the first tasks the team at Landmark did in their first performance review cycle with xcd was put in a mid-year performance point and set objectives Within one month Landmark had 90% of our employees with objectives in a platform that they’ve never used before, demonstrating the solutions ease of use.

Moreover, while Landmark’s previous solution had some culture-focused features such as a forum style chatroom, key employee experience touch points such as ensuring accurate pay were time-consuming and challenging, leading to employees often raising frustrating errors. Because of this, Landmark were seeking a solution that provided substantial activity and generated savings, which was highly compatible with xcd’s ethos of providing functionality which will tangibly benefit a business’ people, HR team, and ultimately the wider organisation.

With this approach, xcd has enabled the team at Landmark to slash those three weeks a month on payroll down to just three days, freeing up huge amounts of valuable time within the team and providing employees with seamless pay. Henry Horsfall sums up the impact, affirming: “xcd has been transformational for our payroll.”

Most importantly, the xcd team provided Landmark with the high-quality support they were seeking, allowing them to achieve what they needed form the platform:

“The xcd team were incredibly reactive and responsive to us… I reached out to the CEO towards the end of the implementation phase – it’s the first time I’ve done that in my career – to say, ‘I need you to know how good your team have been, because they have been exceptional.”

Fosroc required a single solution for their HR data that could meet the needs of its global footprint. As well as Core HR Fosroc were looking for a solution that could manage talent acquisition and development and provide a self-service functionality.

They chose a staggered implementation process, understanding that it would be a big change for their users who previously did not have a HR system to work with.

In phase one, Fosroc implemented xcd in their head office in Dubai and at their manufacturing facility in the UK.  Phase one enabled the team to learn more about the system in a live environment and ask our team questions to ensure they were maximising the utilisation of the configuration. This phase was very important as it helped grow Fosroc’s knowledge and understanding of the solution.

“We were partnered with someone who understood what we were trying to achieve, and they worked closely with us to help us realise our vision.  This meant challenging some of our requests because it would have impacted ‘ease of use’ of the system which was an important objective for us.” explained Sue Scott, Global HRMS Manager.

The initial implementation saw Core HR rolled out to all sites for local HR to use, as well as self-service for employees to book leave, update personal details and view other information such as job role and compensation details. Sue Scott said, “It was great to see the data all in one place meaning we could easily report on important KPIS and share this information in our business reviews.”

Fosroc then began to roll out their recruitment and talent modules which included probation reviews and annual reviews. These modules required custom configuration and further support and input from our professional service team. The full implementation took 18 months, due to the phased approach.

One of the key improvements for Fosroc was their ability to provide key information to their management teams. They now know that all departments and offices can globally access the same data and analytics, which had not been possible previously. “xcd helped us to achieve it, and sometimes that involved challenging our existing processes and how we did things, which ultimately resulted in a better system.”

Fosroc employees are incredibly positive about their experience with using xcd. Sue Scott believes that “The solution leverages the extensive reputation of the Salesforce platform, while also enjoying the personalised touch of a smaller organisation through xcd’s solution.” She continues “We would recommend xcd to other organisations due to the functionality of the solution and the care and attention that we have received through implementation to customer support.  I felt like I could influence the roadmap and that the team would listen to our opinions.”

With their HR and finance teams no longer spending all their time trying to reconcile data from multiple systems, they now can add significant value, with their time instead able to go towards analysing that data and using it to make better decisions for the business.

“A single source of truth is critical. Having a platform that you can use – that everyone can use – means that you can make the right business decisions based on the right data.”

Again, with utilisation being central to everything they do, they now have a single platform that can help them manage capacity, and gain visibility of how and where their time, resources, and people are being used.

Whereas before, the HR team needed to pull holiday data from one system and input it manually into their resource management system – a task that risked human error impacting the process – now they have an integrated single solution that allows them complete visibility:

“We can make sure that people aren’t taking too much time off, or not taking enough time which could then become a problem later in the year. We can always make sure we have enough capacity for our projects and that’s critical to keeping our customers happy.”

With a ‘war for talent’ raging on in their sector, having an HR solution on Salesforce has also potential to boost their retention efforts. Bridewell can make sure that their people are getting the right opportunities to work on interesting projects and grow in their careers:

“That comes from managing our sales pipeline – what Salesforce was originally put in for.”

Bridewell has complete visibility of the projects coming up, the capacity within their teams, and can link that to the performance development targets set during performance reviews. They have much more visibility and can react much more quickly than before to make the right decisions for their business and their people. This allows them to grow their Employee Value Proposition and ensure they’re using their talent most effectively.

Most critically, Bridewell knows that they now have a solution in place that is going to help drive their continued growth. The rapid pace at which they’ve grown meant that they needed a solution that could grow with them.

Innovative elements included:

• Full mobile accessibility, so employees could check their productivity progress anywhere, any time
• Salesforce integration, where objectives, opportunities and events were linked directly to sales targets
• ‘Job well done’ peer-to-peer function to provide a transparent, measurable channel for cross-team feedback
• Performance gamification mechanics with objectives transparently linked to reward bonuses

As rollout proceeds to the firm’s global workforce, B. Braun’s employees are now being incentivised to take direct control of their own performance management, tracking their success, progression and objective-achievement in real time.

Matthew Metcalfe, Business Technology Manager at B. Braun, says:

“We were shocked by the lack of configurability on offer from most suppliers. Fortunately, xcd provided the flexibility we needed, a totally bespoke system, tailored to fit our specific business requirements.”

Gillian added:

“We have our HR policies and procedures saved within the system so they can see all of this in one place. This includes standard internal forms, any kind of forms they might need to notify us of things; they’re all in the system. As for team charts and organisational charts, I used to have to do them in PowerPoint and update them all the time, now it’s just automatic.“

Efficiency, control and visibility have been achieved within Chase de Vere.

Real time HR information is available at the touch of a button to those who require it, and the system can grow to support Chase de Vere’s longer term goals.

Sander quickly experienced simpler reporting, improved self-service among their people and clear visibility for managers.

Samantha Webb added:

“People within the business are saying it’s a lot simpler, it looks a lot better, and it’s a lot slicker.

“It’s a lot more joined up for our Director of Finance. He gets the bigger picture of everything that’s going on in Europe: recruitment, everything. He can get his hands on data where he couldn’t before – he’d have to ask a separate unit to create something, but now he can get it together and coordinate it.

“We can also give managers the information that they want. Now we’ve got our hands on all this data with reporting it helps us define our HR strategy as a department. Once we get deeper into clever reporting it’s going to add even more value to management. The value of HR will be clearer too. So much of it is quantifiable once you have the data.

“HR will become a true business partner in the company, a real support to help manage team performance and all sorts of training and development.”

The xcd solution supports 14 sites across Sanden International Europe.

With the COVID-19 pandemic forcing a remote implementation, the process was still a successful one, with GL Assessment able to go live with xcd HR in early 2021 and payroll following in the spring of the same year.

Now able to leverage the data and reporting elements of the xcd employee relationship management solution, everything is in one place, significantly reducing the time and administrative overheads of the HR process.

The reporting functionality has transformed the way that the team operates, allowing them to access data quickly and efficiently and ensuring that key stakeholders have all the information they need.

As one member of the team says: “I’ve created so many different reports, all available at the click of a button. It’s really sped up the process because we’re not having to manage multiple spreadsheets or trawl through emails to find what we need”.

With the use of data around recruitment, GL Assessment has been able to change their approach to the hiring process, tracking the cost and time to hire, and the ROI of recruitment for specific roles. Something that had previously been impossible for them to do.

In terms of employee engagement, staff can now access their own records, and now able to see the information that is most relevant to them, they are more engaged, and crucially, require less support from HR to answer questions about basic information.

“It’s just so much more intuitive for both employees and managers, people are able to find the information they need that’s relevant to them, so there’s fewer and fewer queries coming into the HR team”, adds a member of the HR team, “Having xcd is saving us several hours a week in terms of admin, and that quickly adds up.”