Hempel A/S successfully transformed their HR operations with Workday & Kainos
About Hempel
As a world-leading supplier of trusted coating solutions, Hempel is a global company with strong values, working with customers in the decorative, marine, infrastructure and energy industries. Hempel factories, R&D centres and stock points are established in every region.
Across the globe, Hempel’s paints and coatings can be found in almost every country of the world. They protect and beautify buildings, infrastructure and other assets, and play an essential role in its customers’ businesses. They help minimise maintenance costs, improve aesthetics and increase energy efficiency.
Hempel was founded in Copenhagen, Denmark in 1915. It is proudly owned by the Hempel Foundation, which ensures a solid economic base for the Hempel Group and supports cultural, social, humanitarian and scientific purposes around the world.
Globalisation of People & Culture
In 2021, Hempel embarked on a new strategy, Double Impact. The path is defined by focus in the entire business, leadership positions in chosen segments, industry leadership in sustainability within those, as well as a strong focus on innovation and digitalisation.
One of the building blocks for both internal excellence and customer focus was change and globalisation of the People & Culture function, and this included investments in new digital platforms. In 2020 Hempel selected Workday as the HCM platform to help deliver on the strategy, and also choose Kainos as the deployment partner.
Implementation of new global HCM platform for Hempel
The project started in April 2020 and went live in August 2021. The scope of the first phase of the project was Core HCM, Core Compensation, Recruiting, Learning and Succession Planning. This phase also covered the following integrations: Generic payroll, AD, SSO, Tagetik and Data Warehouse, CSOD and Areas 9.
The Workday platform in Hempel today supports vital HR processes for 45 countries around the world, offering standardized workflows while at the same time catering to some regional, legal and market specific requirements.
A challenge in phase 1 was the timing of the project as the Covid-19 pandemic called for slight delay but also urgent need to revisit original plans. With a core project team situated in Denmark and Singapore the challenge was accommodated by very detailed project coordination, 100% virtual execution and admirable demonstration of flexibility and dedication by all members of the project in all regions of the company worldwide.
Additional areas deployed
The Phase 2 of the project began while Phase 1 was in hyper care to keep the project momentum going. The scope was to pilot Advanced Compensation (Merit / Bonus) and Talent & Performance including Career & Development.
Another challenge arose during the second phase with only 1 month to deployment. Due to a Global reorganization at Hempel, several major core configuration elements had to be redesigned, tested and deployed before the Phase 2 could go live.
The joint commitment and flexibility from Kainos and Hempel made the transition smooth allowing the business to reap the benefits of Workday instantly.
The Workday partner of choice
We, in Kainos, are proud to be the partner of an iconic Danish company with proud history. We have enjoyed working for Hempel for more than 3 years now and look forward to a continued partnership.