Rivulis Digital HR Strategy with SuccessFactors and AKT
Yael CHOPRA, Global Human Resources Director at Rivulis, agreed to share her digital HR strategy and explains how the HR SuccessFactors digital platform was selected and implemented, and what external support they chose to rely on.
Tell us about Rivulis and its Digital HR Strategy?
Rivulis is one of the Global leaders in micro irrigation, we work with agriculture industries and we deliver products that are related to the micro irrigation fields. Rivulis has 2 400 employees in 16 countries worldwide. On the HR side, we implemented the core of SAP SuccessFactors at the end of 2020.
The system is supporting our HR processes. The project gave us an additional focus on HR which helped our organization tremendously.
We have phased our program to support our Digital HR strategy starting with building a solid foundation. Our first step was to create a single global Employee database with all relevant information, deploying to SuccessFactors Employee Central. That was a big project because we have activities in many countries and units. This implementation helped us to overcome our first challenge.
Next, we decided to focus on Compensation. Our goal was to focus on digitizing our salary increase process. This allows an effective and efficient approval from the top. Then we continue with the other modules gradually.
What were your initial business objectives when choosing SuccessFactors as your digital HR platform?
We wanted a global HR management system that could support all our units today and has potential for a lot of additional capabilities and modules.
There are all kinds of tools out there, all kinds of different systems, but we wanted something that we could trust it would easily adapt to any new HR process in the future without disruptions.
We wanted to have a system that could support our vision across all units, and all regions as much as their specific needs.
How did you consider getting an external partner to support your HRIS implementation? When did you make this decision?
We understand that AKT is the main representative of SAP SuccessFactors in Israel.
I knew AKT from previous works that we did, more on the HR consulting side. We kick started the tool selection in 2019 with an audit and comparison of benefits.
When I started looking into SAP SuccessFactors , we looked at a few different options for the implementation. We ran another audit and we compared benefits. It was clear to us that AKT was the only solution for our organization.
What was the criteria when choosing AKT as your application management support partner?
We have seen in the last few years, specifically with Corona, how dramatic the changes are. Things change all the time in business for sure. We wanted to do something much more flexible and very quick. So, we needed someone who could think like that with us and who was willing to do a different kind of process: a quicker one. And furthermore, we wanted to be very conscious of three things: the time, the budget, and the flexibility in thinking. And we found AKT is a very good partner on these three points.
We implemented what AKT team calls the “ready-to-run”. It was something that we did not have before. It was a good experience for us. We knew that each of our “go live” would not be perfect. Our needs will forever be evolving. With over 2400 employees in 16 different countries, how could it be different? We want to make improvements using the feedback received from our employees and managers. If we take the compensation process as an example, we have already run two cycles of compensation and I want the next cycle to be better than the first. I want the third one to be better than the previous two.
So, we must have a partner that’s willing to do all of those adaptations and to be flexible with us.
The implementation is very important, but we also need to consider an ongoing way to make the system evolve. We started something but now for some reason we need to change it, so we need to change the system to support it. We need to work with a partner that is flexible and that will provide ongoing support. We are confident that with AKTs support, we will get an ever improving system along with the SuccessFactors roadmap.
What are your expectations regarding user adoption and value realisation on the system?
Our main users are HR, they are responsible for keeping the employee core data up to date. But there are other users like our employees, our line managers, and everyone using the system. We are aware that it takes time for people to get into the habit of using a new digital system.
So, we try to create very clear processes as easy as possible to understand. Even for the most straightforward processes like putting a new employee in the system or increasing the salaries for which we have a very clear timeline and it’s very clear what the manager needs to do, we need training and digital assistance, because not all managers and employees come with the same kind of digital expertise.
We have to offer a lot of adoption support in all our different locations. There are also modules will take more time getting used to, such as the LMS and Work Zone.
Could you share a couple of moments when AKT application management support (AMS) demonstrated its commitment to your success?
So, I think again the phenomenal part was AKTs willingness to implement “ready to run” in a way that was good for our organizational needs. I think that that made all the difference for us.
We need to understand that changes will happen all the time. It is not just like you buy a one-time solution and you run with it. It is an ongoing improvement of the system, and our willingness to be open to feedback.
We have built a good relationship. That is very important and key for us to know that we have someone to go to raise our concerns. The AKT team listen to us and there is a feeling that we have a real partnership and that they are interested in our success as well. All of those things are very important for us and as a result AKT is the key to using the System and everything that comes with it.
How likely are you to recommend AKT to another company rolling out digital HR And SuccessFactors?
For us this was a very good experience. We appreciate AKT’s willingness to listen to us, and to make changes when concerns arise.
I would definitely recommend. I have already recommended them to some of my peers in other organisations.