With the arrival of Fieke Fleskens—and the Global Center of Expertise team she formed as Global Director HR Technology & Data for the past year and a half—the focus at Vanderlande shifted to the HR technology landscape, and the use of HR tooling. Fieke has always had a keen interest in HR, technology, and transformations, calling it the ‘Golden Triangle’. “HRIT is so much more than just technology. There is also a soft, human side, which is essential for successful implementation, and the use of systems and tools.”
Fieke came on board at Vanderlande in November 2020—in the middle of the pandemic. ” Not ideal timing, but fortunately I’ve been around for a while and know how to be effective and lead”, she responds soberly. She spotted a vacancy at the rapidly growing logistic process automation company for a position, she felt it would be a good fit: Global Director HR Technology & Data.
I really want to understand what drives people and how to get them on board during major changes.
“It brought together everything I envisioned as the next step,” says Fieke, a passionate HR leader with extensive experience in driving global HR transformations supported by technology. She had previously done this at PwC and Philips. At Philips, she was Project Manager & Team Lead HR Digital, where she was jointly responsible for the implementation of Workday in over 70 countries.
She earned two master’s degrees from Tilburg University: Human Resource and Organizational Science. “The latter focuses on transformations and change management. The soft, human aspect particularly appeals to me. I really want to understand what drives people and how to get them on board during major changes. But the soft side alone is not enough for me. Technology—the ‘harder’ side—makes it tangible, and supports and enables change”, Fieke explains.
This combination of hard and soft interests her not only professionally, but also privately. “I have a hard and soft side myself. Never shying away from a challenge, I like to take the lead but always look for ways to collaborate. I am ambitious—I like to plan and organize. At the same time, I love being surprised and seeing what life brings me. Backpacking without planning is a good example of this. All in all, I am a busy bee, a social animal and a real nature lover.”
Rare combination
Bas Eggelaar of SuccessDay, which has supported Vanderlande with various HR and technology projects in recent years, thinks that the combination of hard and soft aspects is what makes Fieke so successful as a person. “I’ve seen a lot of HRIT implementations that are solely about the IT aspect. Those are rarely successful. And the same goes for an HR department that can devise great strategies but can’t make a connection with the technology—in the end you have nothing. Successful implementations consider both aspects.”
Vanderlande’s HR department has three pillars: the HR Business Partner, which is in close contact with the business leaders; People Services, which focuses on the service delivery of HR; and finally, the Centers of Expertise, which deals with complex issues, strategy, vision, and larger projects. Fieke set up a Center of Expertise in Technology and Data for HR. “All three elements came together in an international organization that—like me, has roots in Brabant—is professionalizing and in the middle of an HR transformation. In other words, plenty of challenges!”
Although there were people within Vanderlande who were working on HR, technology, and data prior to her arrival, there was a lack of functional ownership. “My team has the right experience and knowledge and is dedicated to advice and delivery on a daily basis. Apart from myself, there are, at present, six other people: a solution architect who oversees the entire technology and data landscape, and five consultants who each focus on their own areas within HR. They identify the needs within the organization, and functionally translate them into technical system requirements. We also collaborate with external partners.”
Preferred supplier
One of those partners is SuccessDay. Fieke reached out to them for expertise and help with optimizing their technology landscape. Not only for their HCM system (Workday), which has been deployed in stages since 2015, but also for a case-management solution they were implementing for HR Service Delivery at the time. “We had very good, experienced Lead consultants on board from SuccessDay, who really lifted the projects onto their shoulders,” says Fieke. Bas adds: “Because we are now preferred supplier, we have regular contact—and together we look at plans for the future, and what is needed. This allows us to develop ideas with them, plan better and ensure that Fieke gets consultants who know Vanderlande well.” Like Vanderlande, he believes in long-term partnerships. Fieke: “In the end, everything at Vanderlande stands or falls with long-term partnerships: with our customers, with my team, with our managers and employees, but also with our suppliers.”
Seven years ago, Vanderlande was a frontrunner in the Netherlands when it came to rolling out Workday. With cloud software you often see organizations rolling out the standard product—and then trying to accommodate the current ways of working in the system. Fieke: “In the situation of being the frontrunner over 7 years ago, we rolled out the HR information system properly at the time, but in the meantime the world around us has changed enormously—while the HR department is going through a transformation. We have looked critically at our way of working, and the role that HR and our managers and employees can have.” When she came on board 1.5 years ago, dedicated focus was put on HR technology and data, and the HRIT landscape was critically examined. ” When we were assessing whether we were using our technology effectively in order to get the most out of it, the conclusion was: this requires knowledge—and there is work to be done.”
HR technology can only be successful if you pay sufficient attention to the human touch
Optimization and redesign necessary
The result? A significant optimization and redesign of the HRIT system, so that Vanderlande’s people processes are optimally supported. This required optimization of the various modules and domains, as well as eliminating the backlog and making better use of (new) functionalities. Bas: “The developments in the HRIT world go really fast. I notice that customers usually don’t have the time to keep everything up to date themselves. The systems are getting bigger and have more possibilities. Often a support team no longer has the full knowledge or capacity.”
In addition, we looked not only at the system itself, but also at better use of it. Therefore, there is a big focus on change management, communication, and training. Throughout the HR transformation Vanderlande clearly included the ‘voice of customers’ (employees and managers, ed.). In order to properly implement various (technological) changes, both managers and employees were listened to, and the message and channels were well attuned to the various target groups.
Introduction of Employee & Manager Self Service
The introduction of employee and manager self-service is one of the biggest changes realized with the HR transformation. Traditional HR with a leaning towards unburdening people managers is out of date, according to Fieke. “We live in a self-service world: we want an app on our phone, and we order our stuff online. Employees also want to see this reflected in their experience at work: they want to be in control. Moreover, we want to move towards a scalable HR function, which means that we must organize and design the processes differently”, Fieke explains. For example, employees can now change their bank account number or address themselves. Managers also initiate people processes in Workday. It may seem small, but employees no longer have to wait for HR, and can arrange things themselves. It creates ownership. A win-win situation for the business and HR; HR can focus more on adding value and creating an excellent employee experience.
We continually need to look at needs in the organization and respond to them with automation and technology
Various modules of the HCM package have now been optimized. Fieke: “In terms of technology we have done a major overhaul, both in terms of optimization and redesign. In some domains there is still optimization to do, for some domains we are already looking carefully at continuous improvement. In addition, we are looking at add-ons and tools from other suppliers to expand the HRIT landscape, and we are going to expand our focus with a good foundation in Data and People Analytics.”
The arrival of cloud technology has changed the more traditional situation where IT is completely in charge of managing and improving the IT landscape. This presents opportunities for both IT and HR. ” We continually need to look at needs in the organization and respond to them with automation and technology. That’s not to say that the HR function and services will be completely automated and robotic. It remains a human job. Again: the combination of soft and hard is crucial.”
