Bekaert: 30,000 employees worldwide, one global HR strategy

Bekaert, the world's largest supplier of steel wire solutions, is putting maximum effort into the innovation and optimisation of their HR processes and environment. For years, the steel company has been working with Flexso to assist them in their digitalisation process with advice, implementations and integrations. Read more about our partnership with Bekaert and its results here.

Bekaert Success Factors employee central

Building on a history of success

The first step in Bekaert's digitisation journey was the decision to implement a global HRIS solution in 2013, choosing SAP ERP (HCM) and SAP SuccessFactors.

Their goals:

  • to have all HR master data in a single platform;
  • to forge a strong link between SAP ERP and SuccessFactors;
  • to benefit from the scalability and flexibility of the cloud;
  • to avoid making unnecessary hardware investments;
  • to cover all talent processes with one solution.

Today, the Bekaert team has not only achieved their original goals, but much more than that. With the first SAP SuccessFactors modules for Learning, Recruitment, Talent & Succession and Performance Management, they have noticed positive results for years: less administrative work, more efficiency and optimal support for employees.

Introducing Employee Central

The next step in the HR transformation was an overarching solution that ties all HR processes, systems, tools and data together into one, cohesive whole.

After a thorough preliminary study, the Bekaert team took the decision to bet on SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central to bring global core HR data to the cloud and streamline it globally.

Jorn Waterschoot Bekaert

All too often, an HR team does too much transactional work. One of the main drivers in our business case is to empower HR to step away from administration, data management and repetitive tasks and move into a strategic and tactical role. The second driver is the need to meet analytics needs of HR and Finance by freshening up our global data model. Thirdly, we wanted the information concerning our total workforce contained in one system.

Jorn Waterschoot - Global Head HR Technology at Bekaert

Big impacts through global insights

Thanks to Employee Central, Bekaert can count on streamlined, digital, global HR tools and processes supporting their 30,000 employees across the globe. The solution centralises employee data while making it very easy to tailor to local facilities and teams. Even more, HR management can report on Bekaert’s full workforce and manage employee lifecycles and access rights in a comprehensive way.

Bekaert Success Factors employee data

The Bekaert HR team operates on a key principle: they only store employee data in Employee Central when it meets at least one of these criteria:

  • the data is necessary for global reporting
  • the data steers a global process, including employee identification
  • the information is necessary to unlock self-service capabilities
  • the information is needed for value-adding interfacing between tools and solutions

The (hr) sky is the limit?

The HR digitalisation project at Bekaert continues to expand. Meanwhile, Flexso for People is setting up employee engagement and experience via Qualtrics. A SuccessFactors module for Onboarding is also coming and a link will be set up with SAP Analytics Cloud to get even more insights and reporting capabilities.

How Bekaert uses SAP Concur to automate expense management

Expense management can be tricky to get right – especially for an international company with many different local regulations and ways of working to take into account. Bekaert chose SAP Concur as the perfect digital tool to automate, centralise and standardise expense management and linked data flows in their plants across the globe.

Read the story

Bekaert and Flexso, partners for a global HR transformation

The reason Bekaert turned to Flexso for People for their HR transformation project has to do with the proven track record of expertise in HR, SAP and digital HR Transformation, and the strong cultural match between the two companies.

“We’ve been working together since 2013. Not only is Flexso experienced with implementations of this scale, their consultants stay with their customers from the preparation phase all the way to aftercare – this is of huge value for us”, Jorn asserts.

Also watch the interview for SAP Sofa Talks with Jorn Waterschoot (Bekaert) and Werner Smeets (Flexso for People) about Bekaert's HR Transformation project below.

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The experts behind all that HR experience? Flexso for People: the Flexso team with specialist knowledge of the HR world.

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Written by

Stijn Verschueren

Stijn Verschueren

Yannick Van Melkebeke

Yannick Van Melkebeke

Eline Jacobs

Eline Jacobs

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