With experience spanning three centuries, Royal IHC continues to lead the way in the development, design and construction of ships, as well as related maritime technologies and services for the dredging, offshore and mining industries.
The company’s head offices are in Kinderdijk in the Netherlands, where it also has a dedicated shipyard and slipway. Additional production facilities at Krimpen aan den IJssel include the largest covered slipway in Europe. These production capabilities are specifically designed to support the development and manufacture of complex and custom-built vessels featuring the very latest technological innovations. Royal IHC also provides customers with the assurance of the entire production cycle taking place under one roof, with key suppliers on the immediate doorstep.
Royal IHC has a highly specialised and skilled workforce of around 2,000, enabling the company to meet increasing demand from the dredging and offshore industries for the supply of vessels, innovative equipment and lifecycle support services.
Developing a more flexible, resilient and efficient way of working has been of critical importance for Royal IHC. In its pursuit of operational agility, the company especially sought standardisation of global HR processes, uniform HR data and higher levels of self-service for management and employees. The introduction of Workday enabled Royal IHC to fulfil these objectives and provided deeper business insight and service efficiencies in recruitment and workforce planning.
Accurate, real-time data and greater self-sufficiency improve HR service levels
The phased introduction of Workday at Royal IHC covered 18 countries and took just 10 months. The deployment was successfully completed on time and on budget, and included Workday Human Capital Management, Advanced Compensation, Recruitment and Time Tracking. The adoption of Workday enabled the project management team to complete a partial consolidation of 3 legacy systems without the need to build integrations to enhance process effectiveness and drive data insights. Workday also eliminated technical debt and potential requirements for product customisation.
Royal IHC now has a single source of truth across all operating units, resulting in considerable service transformation. Self-maintenance of the HR system is now standard practice, eliminating delays and frustrations waiting for external specialist input for process reconfiguration and security adjustments. As a result, the HR team has more autonomy and opportunities to be involved in issue resolution.
Having all employee data on all business units and all relevant HR materials in one place has been hugely beneficial. Our HR processes are now much more intuitive and efficient, and managers and employees now have the information they need at their fingertips.
– Inge Vergouwen-Bierkens, Manager HR Service and Expertise
Faster processes drive 30% overall improvement in HR efficiencies
Workday brought greater efficiency to Royal IHC’s HR team, managers and employees across the business.
Key tasks can now be completed quickly and conveniently due to the standard processes now in place. There is also a very high level of self-service (70% for employees and 90% for managers). These efficiencies helped to reduce the earlier dependency on the HR team and provided managers with greater control over and instant visibility of essential, real-time data across their areas of responsibility.
Such improvements have reduced the time needed for HR ticket resolution from 5 days to the same day. The HR team boasts a 39% efficiency gain on core HR processes, with managers and employees benefiting from processes that are 43% faster than before. The time required for effective compensation planning has been cut in half, and internal organisational changes can be completed within 1 week rather than 3 weeks. Finally, Royal IHC reduced the time needed to produce more than 100 management reports from 3 or 4 days to just 5 minutes.
Rapid onboarding, effective time tracking and improved overtime control
Creating a direct connection between recruitment and onboarding has certainly accelerated the process, making it much easier for new recruits to provide more information themselves thanks to the company’s higher level of self-service.
In support of the company’s objectives for greater flexibility and agility, improved international mobility for its workforce was a key consideration for Royal IHC. The introduction of Workday has helped to transform this area of the business. Staff now can easily work abroad as expats, and the company can scale up or down to reflect workload changes, operational priorities and market developments.
Royal IHC managers no longer have to rely on Microsoft Excel for approving absences. Fingertip access to and high visibility of relevant absence data and time tracking information helps to immediately pinpoint irregularities so that appropriate steps can be taken without delay. In the same way, Workday improved managers’ ability to monitor and control overtime levels and costs to ensure compliance with operational and financial performance targets.
Management reporting is now just a matter of clicking a button. We have efficiencies in all areas of HR, and onerous administrative tasks are history, so we have the scope to add real value to the business.
– Inge Vergouwen-Bierkens, Manager HR Service and Expertise