The international growth of the Canal+ Group has been spectacular. It has resulted in difficulties in terms of HR tools, which the organization has addressed through the deployment of SAP SuccessFactors, a large-scale project, implemented module by module and country by country.
Vivendi’s standard-bearer in the television sector, the Canal+ Group has nearly 22 million subscribers, more than 60% of whom are located outside mainland France. Its offers are available in around 40 countries.
The Canal+ Group is also a major player in the production and distribution of films and series through StudioCanal, but also a content aggregator that relies on major distribution agreements (Disney+). Finally, MyCanal targets new uses, with 1.7 billion streams in 2020 for 3 million daily active users. The Canal+ Group made 5.5 billion euros in sales in 2020 or more than a third of Vivendi’s total sales.
With its rapid internationalization and multiple external growth operations, Canal+ Group has to deal with a wide variety of HR tools. “We were having difficulty consolidating the HR data of our 7,500 employees”, explains Héléna Moles, C&B, HRIS and Social Controlling Director of the Canal+ Group. “We are asked to handle an increasing amount of data and indicators, within ever shorter deadlines. To respond to this issue, we want to transform and harmonize our main HR processes”.
It was therefore decided to set up a general HRMS. sHaRe + is the group’s first international HR project. It aims to establish the organization as an international entity, by securing and harmonizing HR processes, but also by offering a shared user experience to all employees, thus improving their feeling of belonging to an international group.
SAP SuccessFactors and ARAGO Consulting
Canal+ is an entity that relies on a ‘full SAP’ information system. SAP SuccessFactors was therefore a natural choice, as was that of ARAGO Consulting, the specialist in HR solutions.
“We took the entire SAP SuccessFactors suite from the start,” explains Héléna Moles. However, the roll-out was done module by module, as the HRMS solution had to be deployed in a significant number of regions: Europe, Africa, North America, Asia and Australia. “We worked in functional lots, each one being first tested in one or more countries, before being deployed in the others”.
The backbone of its HRMS, the Employee Central module, the “HR core”, was the first to be deployed, with a project started in April 2019, for commissioning in early 2020. The Performance & Goals module (annual interviews and continuous performance) was launched in February 2020 in France, then in December 2020 in other countries. Succession & Development arrived in July 2020. Deployment of the Compensation module (salary review and payment of bonuses) began in January 2021. Finally, the Recruiting and Onboarding modules started in April 2021.
For the development of its HRMS, the Canal+ Group worked in committee mode, bringing together all IS and HR teams, and ARAGO Consulting. Different methodologies were used: Employee Central was thus created to measure in agile mode, while for Performance & Goals, the organization relied on the preconfigured “Fast Track” provided by ARAGO Consulting. “It gives us less latitude, but allows us to go faster, while adopting best practices in the sector,” explains Héléna Moles.
The issue of change management was also taken very seriously, with the implementation of the HRIS+ site, which allows HR communities to access information on the main stages of deployment, as well as guides, tutorials and videos on using sHaRe+.
sHaRe+: a key project for the group
“Our SAP SuccessFactors project is a success, giving us a clear vision of our goals and establishing a strong partnership with the businesses”, explains Héléna Moles. The first feedback is good, whether from HR teams, managers or employees. “We have simplified our IT by decommissioning many tools, thus generating savings. In addition, KPI reporting is facilitated and accelerated. Finally, by reducing paper processes, our HR solution aligns with our sustainable development ambitions. But, more than anything, sHaRe+ brings us out of our Franco-centric focus and promotes the emergence of a group culture”.
The work is far from over for Héléna Moles’ teams: continued deployment of modules in new countries and with new subsidiaries, continuous improvement of the solutions offered, work on reporting, providing reports allowing operational teams to gain autonomy… 2022 will also be the year of the deployment of a new SAP SuccessFactors module, Learning, dedicated to training management.
