As a leading supplier of industrial gases, applications, equipment and services, Linde Gáz Zrt. offers a wide range of compressed and liquefied gases for many industries. In order to reduce costs, the company introduced an access control and working time registration system in 2009, and entrusted the performance of payroll tasks to an external service provider, to NEXON. At that time, a service was launched that satisfies the needs of both domestic company management and Linde at the international level. Since then, the NEXON product portfolio at Linde Gáz has only expanded. We asked Balázs Major the HR director at the time, about his ten years of experience.
Almost two years ago, you took over the position of HR manager and "inherited" the NEXON partnership with it. What were your first impressions of the systems and outsourced accounting?
When I became head of HR, I had to decide on the expiring contract. There was no overlap between my predecessor and me, so there was no handover. I knew that my colleagues were satisfied with NEXON, but because I believe in market competition, we issued a tender in this way. The decision was preceded by a complex negotiation process lasting several months, at the end of which Linde remained with NEXON, and even expanded the product portfolio. After the transition to the new Time software, we also use NEXON_PORT.
How was the transition from classic time to new time?
It was really unnoticed. I think if we asked the staff, they wouldn't even understand the question. The difference appeared more on the administration side, but it is a much more modern platform, so we only experienced the positive side of the switch!
Why did you choose NEXON_PORT and the new NEXONtime?
Personal affairs are full of administrative and legal restrictions and lots of paperwork. I thought we should at least get rid of what we could. In today's digital world, planning work schedules on grid paper and then posting them on a wall board is not efficient at all. In our industry, changes in market and production demands are much more dynamic than this. When I first saw the demo of NEXON_PORT, I thought: Yes, this is it!
The NEXON_PORT HR self service platform includes everything that was important to me in HR digitization.
We decided on the new NEXONtime software because of the automations built into the system, which help managers in their work. At us, for example, the management of the work schedule is delegated to the plant managers, and no labor lawyer who knows all the legal regulations is involved in the planning. Now the system immediately throws out incorrect days or who is on vacation, how many people we have inside, etc.
How did middle managers receive the system?
There was such a duality in the reception that - I have to admit - I didn't count on. All change has difficulties that must be managed. For example, we had colleagues who were afraid of the "flexibility" of the paper-based solution. The automatisms built into the software guide the planning of the work schedule throughout, whether everything is in place in terms of legal rules, so at first it may seem that the planning is not flexible. But a few months passed, they got used to it, practice and knowledge of the system smoothed out with the learning process.
The NEXON_PORT absence planning module brought numerically measurable results for us.
We set aside provisions for the holidays. Now that we can see online how much leave our 420 people still have, we can plan the provision more dynamically and warn the managers so that their people plan the leave more proportionately. Thanks to this, our provision allocation decreased by 30-40%.
What kind of communication was used to support the introduction of the self-service system?
Based on NEXON's templates, we created 6-7 types of help cards: physical and white collar workers, managers, etc. We put them in a common folder where anyone can read them at any time. Before the live launch, we communicated about the progress of the project in two e-mails a month, and we held a roadshow at all five of our locations: we held a demo and answered questions. There is an administration team of 10 people who participated in NEXON's key user training. They can help our 250 blue-collar employees who do not have their own computer. They can use the system on the administrator's machines.
You have been using NEXON_PORT for a year when you moved on to the introduction of the mobile application...
Nowadays, it is a basic expectation that everything can be done from a mobile phone. Colleagues who travel a lot have repeatedly requested that since they only spend one day a week in the office, they don't want to spend it with HR administration. They want to manage the administration on the go as simply as possible.
Linde Gáz is a multinational company. Didn't you want to introduce a central solution?
We operate in a matrix organization and we belong to a region consisting of 10-12 countries, the center of which is in Germany. Before we signed a contract with NEXON_PORT, I asked at the monthly telephone conferences how these issues were resolved in other countries. To my greatest surprise, there was no digital solution anywhere. At one of the annual personal HR management meetings, I presented the solution as a well-functioning best pactice. Their jaws dropped.
What are your next plans?
Until now, there was a system in addition to a fixed wage in our collective agreement. We have tried several times to implement the cafeteria system, because there would have been a demand for it from the employees' side, but we did not go ahead with it due to the administrative burden.
On the other hand, with the cafeteria module of NEXON_PORT, all administration can be solved starting from the declaration. Negotiations with the trade unions took a year, and the cafeteria started on January 1, a system fully supported by NEXON.
We also rode the wave of PORT on many other things, it created an opportunity to move forward in other areas as well. For example, we introduced the home office option, because it can be managed in PORT. Editing of the attendance sheet has been opened for employees. We were able to move in a direction that is already a basic expectation of the Y generation.
The success of a company and its corporate culture are inseparable. In the long term, you cannot maintain a successful company with dissatisfied employees, and satisfaction does not only depend on raising wages.
In two years, we have developed into a youthful, modern company, where one element is the digital experience.
It was a bumpy road, with many arguments, but it was worth it.
In 2019, we applied for the title of Responsible Employer of the Year. I can report with great pleasure and pride that the professional jury appointed by the National Employment Fund and the State Secretary responsible for Employment and Corporate Relations of the Ministry of Finance rated Linde Gáz Magyarország Zrt.'s application as the most outstanding in 2019, and we won first place and "Responsible Employer of the Year" title. One of the elements of our application was a modern, experiential, digital HR service for employees, the NEXON_PORT.