Almirall adds value to the business by improving employee performance

An international pharmaceutical company, Almirall researches, develops and commercializes its own products as well as licensed specialist products, with the aim of improving health and quality of life. Their products are distributed in more than 80 countries through direct and indirect sales.

Almost three thousand people work for the Spanish-headquartered company, with one thousand located across international offices in Europe (Germany, Belgium, France, Italy and Portugal) and Latin America (Mexico). With such a distributed workforce, the company needed a solution to help them improve human resource management for all employees.

The IntegRHa vision – an integrated HR portal
Almirall’s vision was to develop a global corporate service, based around integrated, flexible software modules, which would provide a better service to the business and to employees by bringing together all HR-related functionality into a single tool.

As a first step, the company identified and analyzed the HR areas that needed to be improved; process automation, administrative procedures, data integration and, most importantly, the services provided to employees and their managers.

After that, the focus was on identifying key indicators that could be used to improve HR management at the pharmaceutical company.

Cezanne’s Enterprise system was selected as the platform for the IntegRHa solution at Almirall because, amongst other reasons, it is the system mostly widely used by mid and large-sized organizations in Spain. Another deciding factor was that the Cezanne Enterprise suite is especially suited to companies that require configurable systems to support compensation planning, performance management and human capital management.

The result is that IntegRHa is built around Cezanne Software’s technologies. It is a web-based portal that is hosted on the company’s intranet, and provides different types of access to information depending on the user. The integration between modules and the flexibility of the software provides a better service for the “internal customers” of the company – as well as improving overall management and personnel development.

The implementation of the IntegRHa HR portal was designed in three phases, two of which have already been completed. The first phase provided core functionality relating to personnel administration and recruitment. In the second phase training and performance management capabilities were added. The third phase, which is planned for completion at the end of 2007, will allow the company to manage succession & career planning and pay review online.

As a result of the IntegRHa project, the role of the HR department has increased significantly. It is no longer restricted to reactively managing relatively simple processes that added no real value to the company. As Anselm Diví, Human Resources Director in Almirall, says: "Thanks to the IntegRHa project, the HR department has been converted into a division that is growing the value of the company by improving employee performance.”

Advantages for both employees and their managers
IntegRHa provides two different interfaces to information: the Employee Portal and the Manager Portal. Using the intranet, employees can see personal and development data and payroll receipts as well as manage their calendar. Cezanne’s integration with payroll systems means that employees can access their pay slips and print or save the information. They can also request holidays, view their personal calendar, view and change their CVs, update training, address and bank details etc. In the future the portal will also include functionality to allow employees to manage training and review historic performance information.

With the Manager Portal, line managers are able to access a wide range of functionality to help them manage their teams, including personal data, CVs and salary details, as well as historic and current work assignments. Useful recruitment functionality is also available. Managers can initiate recruitment activities, view candidate CVs and aptitude tests, arrange interviews, review competencies and more. Recently new functionality has been added to allow line managers to request and update information from their team, and conduct online performance appraisals.

Thanks to the employee and manager portal, everyone has immediate access to relevant information that’s held in a single location; paperwork is avoided and authorization requests are automatically managed using the company’s Lotus Notes email system.

IntegRHa is no longer a vision for the future, but a tangible reality. The project, while both complex and ambitious, has shown that it is possible to adapt a standard system to the specific needs of the company – and to take into account changes to the requirements along the way.