Malaysian spices brand BABA’S has implemented SAP SuccessFactors to streamline HR processes and operations across Malaysia, Singapore, and Brunei offices for around 2,000 employees.
It has integrated leave applications and approvals, employee onboarding, and the payroll system with SAP SuccessFactors Human Experience Management (HXM) Suite, a cloud-based human resources management system.
Prior to this integration, the company had to rely on manual processes and administration for recruitment and authorisation of employee leave processes, involving multiple approvers and departments for approvals, resulting in laborious and time-consuming procedures.
BABA’S head of finance, Ilaventhan Vijaya, told iTnews Asia that the solution has allowed employees to apply for leave online, and the time to approve leave application has come down from three hours to five minutes.
Earlier, the delay prevented employees from taking planned vacations on time and taking leave before receiving the necessary approvals, he added.
Improves employee onboarding
According to Vijaya, before the new system, candidates had to submit a manual application form before the interview process, which was then conducted in the respective countries and if shortlisted, the manual application form would be emailed to HR and copied to the respective departments in Malaysia.
He added that in many cases users mass copyed the email to the relevant party who handled the application, thereby delaying the feedback to the user.
This deterred potential candidates from considering opportunities at the firm, causing unfilled vacancies, and preventing the organisation from attracting top talent in the region.
With the new SAP system in place, once a candidate is interviewed in Singapore or Brunei, countries where the company has operations, the candidate or the user would fill up the career page in SAP SuccessFactors where the ID or link was provided for updates on candidature, improving employee onboarding, said Vijaya.
Payroll system
Linking the payroll system with the SAP solution has also resulted in improved reporting and cut down the time employees used to spend on manual tasks, allowing them to focus on strategic work.
According to BABA’S, the inclusion of the Mobile Clocking App enables outstation employees across Malaysia to record attendance remotely, helping supervisors to approve remotely and automatically process by SAP Payroll for timely disbursement.
Vijaya said to adapt to the new solution, the company has to train both blue and white-collar workers.
Understanding the differing backgrounds and knowledge skills, the firm appointed a training company to train them and use "SAP Enable Now" - an in-application assistance and enablement content available where and when users need it to boost user adoption and productivity, he added.
