HR is playing a strategic role through this public health crisis, leading COVID-19 tracking and compliance, formulating organizations鈥� COVID-19 responses, and helping workforces navigate through the challenges of remote work, reskilling and upskilling, extended leave, furloughs, unemployment, government orders, and economic spikes and slowdowns.

So on HR Professional Day, let鈥檚 take a moment to do two things. First, learn from the example below of HR excellence. And second, say thank you to recognize all HR professionals around the world for all they鈥檝e accomplished!

HR in the Spotlight

Just when many organizations looked forward to a return to some semblance of stability, HR leaders are managing the complexities of . They include the rise of the hybrid workforce; the need for flexible work, social justice and equity, and well-being; and the need to balance data intelligence with data privacy, to name a few. There are many companies that have made noteworthy progress in these and other areas.

HR Leading with Innovation

Microsoft鈥檚 HR leaders underwent a massive change effort when the company successfully completed the implementation of one HR platform in the cloud for all its 140,000 employees in 109 countries.

After decades of running HR operations using the on-premise 麻豆原创 ERP Human Capital Management solution and multiple homegrown applications, Microsoft knew it needed to deliver on its mobile-first, cloud-first philosophy. So, the company consolidated all its global core HR data into a single mobile-friendly platform using 麻豆原创 SuccessFactors Human Experience Management (HXM) Suite. Now, regardless of whether employees work remotely or in a hybrid model, everyone can enjoy a consistent employee experience 鈥� whoever and wherever they are, and whatever they do. And, the company can use data to design engaging, inclusive experiences as the needs of the workforce change.

The Best Is Yet to Come

This is just one example that stands out. At companies large and small, across every sector, HR professionals are striving to manage the impacts of a rapidly changing workplace. If the past 18 months are any indication, HR professionals will continue to innovate and provide a better employee experience over time. Specifically, we anticipate that HR leaders will work even more closely with operational leaders and assume the role of 鈥渆xpert advisor鈥� on matters such as requiring vaccinations and handling COVID-19 test results to give that extra layer of safety to employees.

Ideally, this increased HR influence can be used 鈥� at least in part 鈥� to lean into business and digital transformations already underway. They should also use this influence to ensure that cultural and workforce transformation initiatives result in wins for both people and profits. For what lies ahead and for managing the impossible this past year, HR professionals deserve everyone鈥檚 heartfelt thanks for everything they do.

Say thanks to your HR team today.

Marc Havercroft is global chief customer officer for 麻豆原创 SuccessFactors.

Q: Can you start by telling us a bit about how Kmart鈥檚 HR transformation journey started?

A: Kmart Group is made up of Kmart Australia/New Zealand, Target and Catch, Kmart Group Asia and employs about 50,000 team members working in over 500 stores around Australia and New Zealand. These team members work in stores all the way through to design roles, senior professional roles, and so on in our national offices. We are part of the , which is a large conglomerate here in Australia with over 100,000 employees.

In 2018, Wesfarmers made the decision to spin off a large supermarket business that owned the majority of our HR systems. This change kickstarted the transformation of our HR technology in Kmart Group. We had a 15-year-old HR system that came with a number of challenges and frustrations. The de-merger of the supermarket business gave us a great opportunity to look at what technology we needed and how we wanted our HR system to support our business, not only today but for the next 10 to 15 years.

What were some of the key benefits you were looking to get out of your HR transformation?

What was really important for us was partnering with an organization that had the stability and ability to manage multi-sites and multi-levels of team members, and the ability to interface with other systems within the business. For example, we were already running 麻豆原创 finance. We also wanted a partner that understood the challenges that we had and would be able to grow and evolve with us, and to provide thought leadership. We selected 麻豆原创 SuccessFactors and kicked 聽off our implementation in March 2019.

At the start, we worked very closely with the sales and technical teams at 麻豆原创 to not only understand the systems and processes, but also the opportunity that it brought to re-engineer what we were doing and find ways to automate and optimize processes to be more efficient. More importantly, we wanted to make the team member experience better and increase self-service.

We launched 麻豆原创 SuccessFactors Employee Central, 麻豆原创 SuccessFactors Payroll, 麻豆原创 SuccessFactors Recruiting, and SuccessFactors Compensation in March 2020, and went live with performance and talent management solutions in January 2021. We are now live with the entire 麻豆原创 SuccessFactors HXM Suite and seeing an amazing difference.

We know employee experience absolutely correlates to a good customer experience and greater employee engagement. What are your thoughts on HXM and how is Kmart Group embodying the values of HXM?

It really helped us in terms of thinking about what we want our team members鈥� experience of working at Kmart to be like and how we could address their pain points. Of the聽 39,000 team members in Kmart Group for example, approximately 15,000 of them are under 18 years old. Their expectation of technology is that it will be seamless, digital, and an always-on cloud-based environment. We have to think about the experience that works for them, but at the same time does not make the technology too intimidating for the 30-year veteran in one of our stores. We have worked really hard to make our HR technology intuitive, easy to use, and self-operating right from the candidate experience. We are recruiting 10,000 team members annually, so we want to make sure that they can access things like their pay quickly and straight away.

At the same time, we also need to demystify it for the older generations in our workforce who are not as used to doing things that way. One thing that is interesting is that with such a large cohort of young team members, often it鈥檚 about their parents鈥� experience as well. How do we make it easy for parents to navigate? If parents find our systems clunky, that can affect their perception of Kmart. And since they are often our customers, it can have a negative impact on our reputation.

Kmart went live with talent management solutions, including 麻豆原创 SuccessFactors Performance & Goals, in January. What is the HR team most excited about in using those?

As we’ve gone through the implementation process and we’re seeing it come to life with our recent review cycle, one thing that is exciting is just seeing the digitalization of everything. For the first time, we have had digital goal sheets and digital performance reviews in the system. We no longer have to work off of a PDF or a piece of paper somewhere. We can allocate goals across several hundred team members with one touch of a button across instead of relying on managers to go in and add them manually. When we think about the human experience, this is really making a difference.

Within the HR team, the ability now to report on progress has been wonderful. We know exactly what stage of their performance review has been completed and by how many people and which areas might need some more support. We can be far more targeted in the way we support the business. As chief people and capability officer, this is incredibly important because it gives me the ability to direct my resources to the people and areas that need it rather than resorting to blanket emails or universal communications. I can better understand why we are having challenges in some areas: Is it a capability issue? Is it an awareness issue? Is it a training issue? Is it a work diversity issue?

For the first time, we have visibility into the data. We can actually see how many performance reviews are being completed, whereas in the past we maybe had a gut feeling but couldn鈥檛 actually drill into the data. Now we can give real time data and insights to the rest of the business. This is important for our team members, too, because it鈥檚 improving their experience. Instead of spending weeks in a spreadsheet, they can be more strategic and deliver more value to the business.

In the last 20 years, the nature of work has changed dramatically. What’s your perspectives on the next couple of years? How do you see work changing in the future?

First is the importance of simplicity. The days of technology being highly complicated for end users — whether they be customers, team members, or the business itself — is no longer acceptable. The intuitive nature of technology will increase, which will make it more ubiquitous, more universal, and easier to use. Organizations that don’t have a digital mindset will rapidly fall behind. Technology will not become any less complex, but the user experience must become simpler and more intuitive. The use of APIs and system interface aspects to multiple systems is going to become increasingly important as well.

Second, how you collect, utilize, and leverage the data you have within an organization is going to become increasingly important. There will only be more data going forward. The critical piece is how you organize that data and how you make sense out of it quickly. Otherwise we will all drown in data lakes and will have so much data it鈥檒l almost be a 鈥渁nalysis paralysis鈥� situation. Organizations that can quickly work out how to synthesize that data and organize it and correlate it in a way where they can make sense of it and correlate multiple data sets from what may appear to be disparate parts of the organization or customers will really have an advantage.

Last is the new hybrid world of working that we’re now in. Technology plays a key role in this, but I think it’s also about organizations that can adapt and execute while prioritizing the human experience at work. Face-to-face interactions and working in the office still have an important聽 role to play, but it will be limited to work where you need to collaborate and build connections, enduring relationships, and trust. At the same time, we need quiet spaces and times that are free of distractions, whether that鈥檚 in the office or at home or at a caf茅.

The speed of change won鈥檛 reduce in organizations, but organizations need to figure out how they will take people on that change journey. We can鈥檛 start with the technology. We have to start with what our customers and team members needs and then work backwards from that point; that is, start with the end user in mind.

Marc Havercroft is chief customer officer for 麻豆原创 SuccessFactors.

is a free peer review and ratings platform designed for enterprise software and services decision makers. Customers can share information with each other in order to increase their confidence and success when purchasing new solutions. Peer reviews are directly from the reviewers 鈥� or customers 鈥� and include their satisfaction with a product, overall experience, support for the product or service, and overall implementation effort. The distinction is limited to the vendors that are the most highly rated by their customers.

As we evolve the human capital management (HCM) market toward human experience management (HXM), innovation at 麻豆原创 is driven by our customers. There are now more than 7,000 organizations using 麻豆原创 SuccessFactors software around the globe, including over 4,000 customers using our core HR solution, . The feedback and partnership with each of these customers is what drives our ability to innovate and push the boundaries of what HR technology is capable of. From the reimagined user experience across to entirely new solutions like and , we are constantly co-innovating with customers to optimize our solutions to meet their needs, now and in the future.

Here are just some of the :

• “麻豆原创 SuccessFactors is the future of HR.鈥� 鈥�
• 鈥溌槎乖� SuccessFactors has an extraordinary platform to cover practically all needs of the human resources, benefits, and payroll functions. Procurement was a breeze, provisioning equally so. Technical support is adequate, and account management is considerable above average. Partnership is great with ample opportunities for influence and advisory boards, and facilitation of access to other customers for experiential learning is second to none.” 鈥� (Miscellaneous Industry)
• 鈥淚t is a best-class full suite HCM. It is an exceptional technology, but what I love the most is the data security, data controls, and most importantly the client support/partnership.鈥� 鈥� (Miscellaneous Industry)
• “Game changer we were looking for!鈥� 鈥�
• 鈥淲e have finally managed to have 鈥榦ne single source of truth鈥� in terms of HR data, reduced considerably the double data entry activities, and started using the HRIS as a strategic tool, not only for data administration.” 鈥�
• “A very user-friendly portal, and being a cloud solution can be easily accessible from any place and its mobile app capability helps us to use it very conveniently. It has a great user interface.鈥� 鈥�
• “Next generation HR — powered by 麻豆原创 SuccessFactors!鈥� 鈥�
• 鈥淭he integration of the suite is solid — this creates tremendous cost advantages and supports the single source of data. Ability to implement in 33 countries, nine languages, and integrated payroll.” 鈥�

Read all 麻豆原创 SuccessFactors reviews on the .

To learn more about this distinction, visit the Gartner Peer Insights page.

Marc Havercroft is chief customer officer for 麻豆原创 SuccessFactors.

Disclaimer: Gartner Peer Insights Customers鈥� Choice constitute the subjective opinions of individual end-user reviews, ratings, and data applied against a documented methodology; they neither represent the views of, nor constitute an endorsement by, Gartner or its affiliates.
*Gartner, Gartner Peer Insights 鈥榁oice of the Customer鈥�: Cloud HCM Suites for 1,000+ Employee Enterprises, Peer Contributors, 9 April 2021
**Gartner, Gartner Peer Insights 鈥榁oice of the Customer鈥�: Corporate Learning, Peer Contributors, 3 October 2019

Given our commitment, we are thrilled that for the second consecutive year, 麻豆原创 SuccessFactors was chosen as one of Gartner Peer Insights and was the only company to receive .

is a free peer review and ratings platform designed for enterprise software and services decision-makers. With more than 315,000 verified customer reviews across 330 defined markets, it allows customers to share information with each other in order to increase their confidence and success when purchasing new solutions. Peer reviews are driven solely by the specific experiences relative to the reviewers, including their satisfaction with a product, as well as overall experience, support for the product or service, and overall implementation effort. The Customers鈥� Choice distinction is based on the number of reviews and overall user ratings.

With more than 6,850 customers representing all industries and spread out across the globe, we are grateful for those who share their experiences, best practices, and feedback.

Here are a few from customers:

• “System is intuitive and user friendly. Being a cloud solution, it is accessible from anywhere, and the mobile app capability encourages people to use it wherever they are.鈥�
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• 鈥淎 time-saver tool to view, track, and assess all HR-related processes.鈥�
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• “The various team members assigned to our account are supportive and reliable. I feel valued as a customer.鈥�
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• “Matured [麻豆原创 Successfactors] Employee Central module. HCI integrations are great along with integration center.”
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• “Great features and excellent support.鈥�
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To learn more about this distinction, visit the Gartner Peer Insights page. View the .

Marc Havercroft is chief customer officer for 麻豆原创 SuccessFactors.

Disclaimer: Gartner Peer Insights Customers鈥� Choice constitute the subjective opinions of individual end-user reviews, ratings, and data applied against a documented methodology; they neither represent the views of, nor constitute an endorsement by, Gartner or its affiliates.