City of Zurich: This is how HR digitisation works in public administration
HR and IT expertise combined
Since 2015, the City of Zurich has declared the “Digital City” a central field of action. To this end, HR processes were also to be gradually reorganized, standardized and digitalized. With the decision to procure the HR IT suite SAP SuccessFactors, responsibility for HR digitalization was centralized and an HR IT roadmap was created. No easy task with individual HR processes for nine departments and more than 40 organizational units with a high degree of autonomy in the public sector. This heterogeneous structure had to be taken into account in the new design for performance as well as salary management and converted into systemically standardized digital processes. Due to the complexity of the task, the city's HR-IT project portfolio director opted for a partner with both technical knowledge and comprehensive process expertise, who would also act as a consultant and enabler.
Transformation through integration
Together with the tts digital HR experts, the city's project managers have established unified digital processes for evaluating employees and managing payroll across the organization. In addition to the usual technical adjustments, the project teams also further developed the processes conceptually. They succeeded in integrating even the most demanding legal requirements into the processes. The tts learning architects – another of tts' three business units – then designed customer-specific training courses and trained 160 decentralized administrators in HR for the new processes.
Combining what belongs together
Back in 2015, the City Council adopted the “Zurich 2035 Strategies”. This was the starting signal for a far-reaching digitalization offensive, which also included HR processes. Previously, the nine departments and more than 40 organizational units – from the sports office via public transport and hospitals to the tax office – had their own HR processes. This heterogeneous structure now had to be converted into standardized digital processes. To achieve this, the city brought in competent partners, including tts. Together with the city's managers, the tts team implemented the two SAP SuccessFactors solutions Performance & Goals and Compensation in two projects and is currently responsible for introducing the Learning module.
The special case as a normal case
The crux of the matter: legal and political requirements were set and had to be taken into account when designing the processes, which required innovative solutions from the project team time and again. An example from the appraisal interview project illustrates this: As all employees had to be involved, even those without PC access, a semi-digital process with print templates and integrated QR codes was developed in addition to the digital one. This enabled those affected to print out the forms, fill them in manually, scan them in and process them automatically.
We were able to get the most out of the solution because tts thought outside the box: they not only developed a technical solution, but also accompanied us throughout the entire process and supported us with training. This is how holistic HR IT works.
Iterative approach as a decisive factor
The compensation process was just as complex as the employee appraisal process, as it had to reflect the heterogeneous organization with complex hierarchies. Questions such as: What approval steps are required? Who is allowed to process what? Where should locks be installed? Creative approaches were always needed to make mandatory requirements technically feasible.
An iterative approach proved to be the success factor. In close consultation with the various stakeholders, the process concept and the system were developed step by step. Although this increased the coordination effort, the project made continuous progress.
Hand in hand for successful project completion
In the 20-strong core team, tts specialists and managers from the IT and HR departments worked closely together in a spirit of trust to jointly develop the best possible solutions. Despite the many players involved and dependencies on committee decisions, both projects were completed on time and within budget. This means that the City of Zurich's digitalization journey can continue. And tts is still on board. The implementation of SAP SuccessFactors Learning has already been initiated as the next stage - another milestone towards a digital “Zurich 2035”.
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