Successful partnership between Banijay and Deloitte unlocks the true potential of Workday

Banijay’s continued growth and success is rooted firmly in the principles of independence, entrepreneurship, agility, a collaborative spirit and commercial acumen, as well as the freedom to create original, compelling content and IP locally that travels globally. Turnover is now more than €3.3 bn and the business represents some of the biggest global brands in the market including Survivor, Big Brother, Peaky Blinders, Ripley, MasterChef, Mr Bean, The Summit, Deal or No Deal and Upside Down.

An active acquisition programme has reflected Banijay’s dynamic approach to the fast-moving world of TV production, streamer services and entertainment. The independence and creative freedom of each production company is fiercely protected and stimulated; however, there is still a clear need to fulfil the requirements expected of a quoted company. Balancing such demands has proved quite challenging, with acquired businesses having different HR processes and support systems at varying levels of maturity.

After a detailed assessment of different enterprise management and HR support systems, Banijay decided to bring HR data together in one place with Workday. Although some of the production companies already had experience with the system, it was clear that outcomes in many cases were falling short of expectations. Significantly, Banijay decided to work in partnership with the HR Transformation Practice at Deloitte, which has more than a decade of experience working with Workday. This partnership led to the successful adoption of Workday across the business, with both local and central levels realising the system’s full benefits and versatility.

Satisfying both local and central operations

Banijay has completed many significant and exciting acquisitions over the past few years. However, the use of Workday among both existing and newly acquired independent production companies was neither consistent nor universal. Even where it was established and in daily use, the team at Deloitte could see there was further scope to leverage the full capabilities of the system within the wider company. In many areas, there were also opportunities to deliver added value at the local level. 

“It really was a case of simplification and optimisation,” says Raimond Rovers, Partner HR Transformation at Deloitte. “To achieve that, we needed to see how the different companies were using Workday and where things could be simplified. We wanted each operating company to have a say in what it needed from the system and to tell us what is important to its own business. Such an inclusive and ‘bottom-up’ approach directly reflects the culture of Banijay and enabled us to achieve widespread user engagement and acceptance. It also helped us to simplify internal processes and eliminate avoidable bureaucracy.”  

Today, Workday is not just delivering a consistent and single source of core data to support Banijay’s central functions, but is also providing deep insights, advanced analytics and prompt reporting. Moreover, each individual company has the scope to introduce additional modules in support of its own business needs without adversely impacting anyone else. “That really represents the best of both worlds,” adds Rovers. “On the one hand, there is now consistency and greater operational efficiency. On the other hand, Workday is helping to support independence and specific business priorities at a local level.”  

Understanding what “easy” means to different teams

Having easy access to reliable information on all personnel is a challenge for any global business. For a large and federated business such as Banijay, the challenge is that much greater at the local, regional and central levels. The company knew that all HR data really needed to be in one place to not only improve and simplify working practices, but also to help the business maintain compliance and meet its obligations for accurate and timely reporting while minimising bureaucracy. 

“Establishing a direct link between Workday and payroll had to be the starting point for us,” says Jean-Michel Haker, global head of Compensation & Benefits/HRIS and Head of HR HQ Amsterdam, Banijay. “That was the best way to ensure that data is as clean and up-to-date as possible. It also enables initial users of the system to have their say on the local functionality of the tool and for local management to see the advantages of greater reporting capabilities. 

“We were keen to keep everything as simple, logical and straightforward as possible for users and made every effort to avoid any cumbersome bureaucratic layers and approval processes,” Haker continues. “We asked local teams ‘what does easy mean for you?’  We knew this would be a key factor for securing buy-in, and we wanted people to feel entirely comfortable with the tool and the integration through payroll.

“The next step is to get local employees and management more involved with Workday in other areas such as expenses, absence and time tracking,” Haker says. “And, although it represents quite a challenge, we are already making some good progress in adding our complex and flexible world of format productions onto Workday. It is a progressive process, but such a move really will take our service transformation to another level again.”

A responsive and progressive partnership unlocks the full potential of Workday 

A close and supportive partnership with Deloitte has underpinned Banijay’s successful Workday deployment. 

“It continues to be a very positive and enlightening relationship,” says Haker. “Raimond and team have truly tuned in to our culture and unusual business structure and have been very open with us from day one. They have shown they are not afraid to ‘think outside of the box’ to help accommodate our specific requirements.  

“I have no doubt that such a hands-on and responsive approach has helped us to keep our eye on the needs of individual users, and has ensured we don’t impose, over-complicate or over-engineer the deployment of such a powerful tool,” Haker explains. “Achieving such positive results and widespread user acceptance within such a unique and complex business and in such a short space of time is quite remarkable and a credit to Deloitte. Kudos!”