ÖBB – Austrian Federal Railway

This wasn’t always the case in the past. Up until 2008, pay raises were still pro­cessed through a paper-based workflow. To put it plainly, this means that an em­ployee needed to generate a form from SAP, then send it to various locations within the company for an approval, and finally enter the approved number manually into the system through the ÖBB BBC. “The whole process was time-consuming and not transparent”, Teufner remembers. It took lots of work and multiple telephone calls to find out where the documents were along the approval process. Today, in contrast, all the information staffers need is available at the push of a button, and the flow of information is much quicker. “With EASY PCM, we have cut our process­ing time for salary increases, promotions, and position changes in half”, the project manager happily notes.

In addition, the company can save plenty of space and paper. It actually saves dou­ble the paper most companies would: While employee contracts used to be stored in both the specific subsidiary company and in the internal ÖBB service provider, all of these many metres of shelf space today stand empty. The company digitised the agreements through a consistent process, then archived them electronically. “Anyone who wants to view a document simply looks at the employee‘s digital per­sonnel file”, Werner Teufner explains. This also means they always have reliable access to the most current version of the specific document.

Workers in the other group companies are just as excited about digital personnel management. “EASY PCM provides classic personnel data in a clear and struc­tured manner, and allows us to visualise the career paths of individual employees and view basic documents surrounding these career paths”, praises HR Manager Thomas Appesbacher from ÖBB Infrastruktur AG. From an employee‘s CV to con­tract amendments and official registration certificates, the digital file combines all the information personnel management needs into a single location. This is important, for instance, since an employee‘s residence can determine their com­muter allowance. Their marital status and how many children they have can also affect their wages. That makes it all the more important to make sure master data quickly and accurately reflects any changes.

Thanks to digital workflows form EASY PCM, these kinds of tasks are now child’s play. The employee in question just needs to update their data in the SAP portal and transmit associated documents like registration certificates or marriage cer­tificates to the HR department. “We used to do this through the mail, but now a mouse click is all it takes”, Appesbacher states. The personnel manager briefly updates the master data to match the certificate and sends the information to the SAP system for approval. “The process has enjoyed enormous acceptance” proj­ect manager Werner Teufner says. “Just a few months after introduction, over 500 cases had already been handled automatically”.

Besides standard processes, the company also uses the EASY software to easily handle special cases. For example, these might include approving a side job or part-time position. To do so, the personnel management simply sets up an ad hoc workflow – this lets them individually determine which managers and clerks are included in the approval process, and which contract amendments need to be generated. This reduces misunderstandings and speeds up the process enormously.

ÖBB is also set up well when it comes to attracting new talent. There’s a good reason for this: “We know that many of our colleagues will be entering retirement over the coming years” Teufner explains. By 2021, the group plans to hire around 11,000 new employees. EASY PCM will help them do it. One area where the company is working with EASY PCM is human resources planning: “The companies just need to report in the SAP system that they need additional personnel. This will automatically trigger a recruiting process” the project manager says. Although paper-based approval processes used to slow down job advertisements and hiring, today everything runs smoothly along familiar tracks. Electronic workflows insure all the positions involved are informed and that approvals are granted on time. Sub­sequent processes like preparing the employment contract or creating a new personnel file are also completed on time and automatically.

The group is currently introducing a digital retirement file to ensure its employees can also seamlessly transition into their pensions. “EASY PCM creates a foundation in our company for transparent, flexible, and efficient personnel processes – from hiring to retirement”