Julius Baer enhances HR document management and compliance inside Workday with Kainos EDM
"Before implementing Kainos EDM, we spent significant time printing, sending, and scanning documents back into the system. Now, the process from issuing a contract to receiving all signatures takes less than five minutes. It’s a drastic improvement in efficiency."
About Julius Baer
Julius Baer is a leading Swiss private banking group with a global presence. Operating in over 25 countries, the firm is known for its commitment to innovation, compliance, and excellence in financial services. All in with Workday, Julius Baer continually seeks to optimise its HR operations through digital transformation.
The Challenge: Manual HR document processes and compliance complexities
Julius Baer went live with Workday in 2018 with modules including Workday HCM, Recruiting, Onboarding and Performance. Since then, the organisation has continued a journey of Workday growth, optimising the platform with Workday Learning, Extend, Time Tracking, Prism, Talent Optimisation and more.
The organisation wanted a digital-first HR approach, but its employee document management remained inefficient and fragmented, relying heavily on paper-based workflows. This became a significant bottleneck - especially during the Covid pandemic during a strict work-from-home period. The company also faced challenges in enforcing consistent document retention policies across regions, and contract management was time-consuming and inefficient, impacting both HR teams and candidates.
The Solution: Kainos EDM for Workday
To address inefficiencies in HR document management, Julius Baer sought an automated HR document management solution, with a keen interest to have one that was fully integrated with Workday. As a trusted Kainos Application Management (AMS) partner, Julius Baer discovered Kainos Employee Document Management (Kainos EDM) at Workday Rising EMEA. “We conducted an open RFP for over six months, but other vendors either failed to meet our key requirements or created shadow HR systems outside Workday which for us wasn’t ideal” says Rainer.
After a thorough evaluation process, Julius Baer selected Kainos EDM for its end-to-end document processes and seamless integration with Workday, enabling centralised HR document management and automating critical tasks.
“Kainos EDM ensures everything stays within Workday, guaranteeing both security and compliance,” explains Rainer. "The integration with DocuSign was also an important factor for us to facilitate fast, secure contract processing and finally, automated document retention meant we could compliance with global regulations."
Implementation and transformation
An early adopter of the solution, the implementation of Kainos EDM marked a significant journey for Julius Baer. “The Kainos team was incredibly supportive, adapting Kainos EDM to our specific HR document management needs,” says Rainer. This collaboration proved crucial as the firm moved to streamline HR processes inside Workday. Since implementing Kainos EDM in mid-2024, Julius Baer has experienced significant gains in HR efficiency.
"Kainos EDM is offering centralised management of templates," Rainer explains. "We’ve streamlined our HR document management process and ensured global compliance by storing all templates in one place. Additionally, retention periods and contract management are now easily managed within one system, across all locations." This has played a key role in helping the firm maintain its rigorous compliance standards in the financial sector.
One of the most striking examples of improvement, according to Rainer, is the reduction in contract turnaround time. "Before implementing Kainos EDM, we spent significant time printing, sending, and scanning documents back into the system. Now, the process from issuing a contract to receiving all signatures takes less than five minutes," Rainer notes. "It’s a drastic improvement in efficiency."
The impact has been felt internally. "Our goal is to become the employer of choice, and part of that is delivering an exceptional experience to employees and managers, but also to candidates" says Rainer. "After implementing Kainos EDM, we were really impressed with the positive feedback from all users. They appreciate how easy it is to review, sign, and return contracts, all within a one system." The smooth, paperless process has elevated the overall HR experience, improving engagement and satisfaction.
"Kainos EDM aligns perfectly with our vision of a unified, paperless HR system. The decision to implement it was absolutely the right one."
Future expansion plans
Looking ahead, Julius Baer is expanding Kainos EDM beyond Phase 1, with plans to roll it out in key Asian markets, including Singapore and Hong Kong this year.
"We’re already partnering with local HR teams and representatives in these regions," Rainer shares. "We want to engage them early to ensure a smooth transition and tailor the rollout to meet local HR needs." The firm recognises that involving local teams from the outset is essential for the successful adoption of the digital HR solution across diverse geographies.
Reflecting on the benefits since go-live, Rainer concludes, "The Kainos EDM solution aligns perfectly with our vision of a unified, paperless HR system. The decision to implement it was absolutely the right one."