Centralisation and digitalisation in one move, with respect for the people who carry the operation
Client
HR Operations - Compensation & Benefits within an international retail organisation (Makro/Metro)
Role
Project Manager and Team Lead
Personnel administration and payroll were spread across different stores, each with their own habits. At the same time there was a strategic ambition to modernise and professionalise the HR landscape through digital automation. The assignment: centralise structurally and lay the digital architecture on which the new Shared Service Center could run.
Locally spread HR Operations means a lot of implicit knowledge and divergent ways of working. That created process variation, limited transparency and a high administrative workload, each dependent on what individual stores had built up over time.
Centralisation alone wouldn't suffice. Without simultaneous digitalisation, the Shared Service Center would simply bring the old fragmentation together in one place. Both movements therefore had to happen at the same time.
As project manager and team lead, we tackled the transformation in two intertwined tracks. The structural track: centralise HR Operations within Compensation & Benefits, make governance clear and install a shared way of working. The digital track: map end-to-end processes, automate high-volume payroll administration through RPA, further build out SAP HR and implement the K2 workflow platform for orchestration.
Around this, we built out the IT architecture for collaboration and communication, with integration of SharePoint, Power Apps, Office 365, MS Teams and e-signatures. A project team of five people was coached and led on this, together with external partners such as Flexso and SD Worx and the IT head office.
The turning point came when processes no longer hung on stores or persons, but became recognisable as 'this is how we do it'. Workflows got owners, decisions became traceable and the collaboration between HR and Operations became smoother.
From that point, the digital architecture started to pay off visibly: manual administration decreased, payroll became more robust and the Shared Service Center got its own, professional identity. The culture that grew within the team carried at least as much as the technology.
Digital transformation in HR works when structure, technology and people are designed together. Centralisation without digitalisation stays administrative. Digitalisation without structural clarity stays fragile. Only when both run together does a scalable HR foundation emerge.
The department evolved from decentralised, manual administration to a centralised, digitally supported service organisation. That is human-centred digitalisation in practice: using technology so that work becomes clearer and people get more room for what really adds value.
