Sonepar: de HR-roadmap bouwen in een gedecentraliseerde internationale groep

Context

Sonepar is a world leader in the distribution of electrical equipment. This French group was founded in 1969 and is still family-owned. Sonepar acquired a global dimension through acquisitions, reaching a turnover of 24 billion euros (2019), with 48,000 employees working in 145 commercial brands and 3,000 agencies in 48 countries.

In addition to the transformation challenges associated with the digitalization of the business, Sonepar also needed to bring together the various entities resulting from acquisitions. The harmonization of HR processes and the implementation of a group HRIS platform was the first “Group” project for Sonepar.

Issues

Sonepar is facing the challenges of a highly decentralized group:

• Standardization at a global level, which means for the project: harmonizing the core model and industrializing development,
• Remaining attentive to local issues, which implies the development of numerous interfaces with the various payroll systems and Active Directory.

The HRIS project

The SAP SuccessFactors suite was chosen in 2016, with the I-RH Partner advisory company and ARAGO Consulting for the implementation, committed with Sonepar’s HR and IS teams until 2023.

The first batches were the implementation of the Succession module on a limited geographical scope, followed by the creation of the Employee Central core model (Core HR) with Germany and the USA as pilot countries, and the deployment of this core model in Germany. The scope of the project and the geographical perimeter have since been extended.

At the end of 2020, after the US go-live on Employee Central, the project is at the halfway point: more than half of the 48,000 employees are now using SuccessFactors!

Benefits

• SuccessFactors is now used for Group HR reporting
• Harmonization of recruitment, administrative and performance management processes.