Renowned for ground-breaking innovations, Philips has evolved to become a global leader in advanced health technologies and is on a mission to improve the health and well-being of 2.5 billion people by 2030. The company is playing a pivotal role in the digital revolution that is transforming healthcare services.
With geographical complexities and the limitations of legacy Excel processes, data consolidation for enterprise-wide workforce planning however was a challenge for the company. Greater insight, consistency and accuracy were required to ensure more informed decision-making and more effective forward planning across the entire business.
Since 2014, Workday has helped to transform Philips’ HR operations. The recent additional introduction of Adaptive Planning capitalises on Workday’s versatility and is now driving continuous workforce and cost planning for Philips.
The clarity, capabilities and insight of Workday are ensuring our innovative culture follows through into HR and, increasingly, financial planning.
Global HRIS Architect, Philips
Integrated cloud-based system for consistent and reliable enterprise planning
Overcoming local data disparities across 77 countries is creating a single source of truth, standardising processes and providing unprecedented insight and accuracy in headcount costs. This is enabling corporate and local management teams to plan ahead with much greater confidence. It is also providing the agility for continuous planning, as it enables adjustments to be made quickly and easily in response to ever-changing business priorities.
Workday has acted as a catalyst for a more productive and collaborative working relationship between the HR and Finance teams, and the introduction of Adaptive Planning has taken this to a whole new level. There is now a much greater understanding of the wage bill, workforce composition and geographic distribution, so the company is in a position to benefit from much more informed, timely and insightful decision-making at all times.
Using innovation to forge ahead
Philips’ Global HRIS Architect, Efthymios Zindros, says it was practically impossible to use legacy systems to unify definitions and processes across such a diverse global enterprise. “The introduction of Workday has enabled the company to overcome a multitude of local variables which is helping to drive greater consistency and much smarter ways of working.”
“We always like to push boundaries,” he adds. “And that goes for the way we use Workday just as much as it does for all other areas of the business. Having all headcount costs at our fingertips has created new possibilities and extended our internal capabilities. It is certainly helping us to flex and adapt at short notice to meet constantly changing circumstances and priorities.”
Continuous learning delivers smarter outcomes
Core HCM was the first Workday module introduced by Philips’ HR team. This has not only proved invaluable in running core HR processes and feeding data into downstream IT management systems, but has now also enabled the company to extend its planning capabilities.
Such a dynamic approach to enterprise management has benefited from a commitment to continuous learning and is offering significant advantages in the company’s active M&A program. It has also led to a dramatic reduction in administration and is providing the scope for the HR and Finance teams to evolve in tandem with the demands and priorities of the business, at both a local and international level.
All information in one place
“We are now able to take full account of all headcount costs – from salary and wages to country-specific social security costs, annual incentives, all kinds of bonus plans and so on,” says Babette van Biljouw, Philips’ Human Resources Project Manager.
“This overcomes the need for local Excels and provides us with an accurate and holistic view of what lies ahead. Such information enables us to prepare plans that take full account of so many different factors.”