Booker Tate is a joint venture between Tate & Lyle plc and Booker plc, both of whom have their origins in the world-wide sugar industry. Formed in 1988, the joint venture manages sugar-cane projects in many parts of the developing world - such as Africa, the Caribbean, Sri Lanka, and Papua & New Guinea.
Booker Tate employs a number of UK expatriates who occupy, on fixed-term contracts, management positions in independent companies in these countries. In addition, it has a head office in Thame, near Oxford, that provides central administration and support services for these management consultancy projects.
Although each overseas company has an HR department staffed by citizens of the particular country, Booker Tate staff may also be seconded to it.
Therefore the HR department in Thame not only supplies services to its own company, but monitors and provides advice to HR departments around the world.
According to John Roberts, HR Manager, "One of the original drivers to acquire an HR system, five years ago, was a need to set up an HR department in Barbados for a company with limited resources".
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"We decided to take advantage of the progress in technology, to ensure that a new department could provide a quality service with rapid access to consistent data, but whilst keeping the number of employees relatively small".
"That was the first use of technology overseas. At the same time we wanted our own UK system, so we introduced the technology both in the UK and overseas".
At first sight, the UK is a fairly conventional head office operation. Booker Tate maintains personal records, along with histories of salaries and training requirements. It is also about to introduce competency-based appraisals, using HR Classic to create a framework and to identify short-falls and opportunities.
"In addition, we have more unusual administrative issues", said Roberts. "Staff working overseas have a variety of salary and leave conditions quite different to those applying when they are in the UK. To cope with the complicated way in which we determine overseas remuneration and leave, with multiple components, we had to make a number of software amendments".
"We were able to achieve this via the configuration tools supplied, without recourse to any bespoke programming".
Software selected for the UK head office had to be suitable also for overseas operations
He added: "When we were looking to introduce HR software, one of our key criteria was that whatever we selected for our head office needs, we had to be confident that it would also be suitable for the overseas operations".
Booker Tate felt that, in its role as consultants, it could not recommend a system to clients that it was not using itself.
"In addition to our needs in the UK, we had to consider the very different and complex needs of our overseas clients", Roberts said.
"As well as the administration of recruitment, personnel and training, an overseas HR department typically has responsibility for housing staff and for transporting staff. They also may have to supply medical services and maintain housing assets".
Even the relatively straightforward administration of personnel is affected by the varying cultural and operational practices found in each country.
"The employment package and ways of working can be very different. Some countries have a fairly stable workforce. Others have a relatively small part of the year devoted to processing the sugar-cane, with the rest of the year spent maintaining the factory assets. In those cases you have multi-skilling, where people may do one job during the crop season and another one out of season".
Each job may be paid as salary or based on either hourly or piece rates, and this can differ in each country. Each system needed to be able to be configurable to meet local circumstances.
Finally, it was also essential that the selected software could be integrated with a number of systems, since each company can choose different payroll and finance systems depending on what is available in each country.
We needed a single system that was easy to configure and could cope with all these variations
This turned out to be a tall order, since few of the applications were to be found in any of the HR systems seen via research and at exhibitions - and fewer still had the required configurability.
There was a possibility of achieving a solution through one of the major ERP systems, but this was felt to be untried and to be far too expensive.
"We also considered building the system from scratch, but it is almost impossible to predict what you will need in two or three years' time", Roberts said.
"And even if you think you know what you need now, you are bound to have forgotten something".
"We needed a system that could be incrementally configured as our needs evolve. Our chosen system has made it easy to introduce gradual improvements as and when it becomes apparent that these are necessary".
One of the main benefits of this approach has been the inversion of the usual process when matching systems to needs.
For instance, instead of starting with the built-in training screens, Booker Tate first reviewed what it wanted to analyse and then designed the most appropriate screens.
Recently, Booker Tate has dealt with an increasing number of pensioners and the need to administer their associated records.
Complex needs had to be met via a system that was easy to implement, use and upgrade
Configuration tools have helped not just with the redesign of some screens, but also with the creation of completely new records.
According to Roberts: "The configuration tools are easy to use, even for someone like me who is a Human Resources, not IT, professional".
Where the configuration is fairly simple, Booker Tate's HR staff usually carry out the work themselves. If, however, they are short of time or feel that the design requires particular expertise, they call on Software for People to do the work.
"Initially we got onto the technology bandwagon prior to the real advent in the market of true Windows systems, so we only had a range of DOS products to look at. The user friendliness of the system that we eventually chose was a major factor, together with its overall functionality".
"We did a recent comparison with other systems. I think that the system which we have now offers a lot of functionality that would perhaps only be expected in systems that cost three or four times as much".
Scalability and value were also key criteria. The head office system has to manage fewer than 200 employees (UK and expatriate), as well as applicants and pensioners. However the overseas systems can have up to 20,000 current employees each.
Some of the overseas operations had no system previously, others are used to Windows but only for Word and Excel. This means that the level of user expertise varies widely.
HR Classic was demonstrated over telephone-lines to one of the countries and purchased without a visit - based on ease of use.
"One of the requirements for operating around the world is that the system has to be fairly easy to support. In particular, the roll-out of upgrades needs to be straightforward since you can't always rely on a high level of technical support in every location".
On a recent visit to Barbados, for a reason completely unconnected to HR computerisation, Roberts was able to upgrade the office to the latest version of HR Classic without assistance.
"One of the very useful features of our system is the true integration with organisation charting packages - the one we use being OrgPlus. I have been surprised to see the limitations in other more expensive systems, but HR Classic has a great deal of flexibility".
"This can provide a very useful management tool for planning all sorts of things, including remuneration".
Booker Tate also relies on the system's integration with other products, including Microsoft Word and Excel. One of the early surprises, however, was the power and ease of use of the integrated reporting system. This automatically follows any access controls associated with each user's profile, and can generate both rapid answers and complex statistics.
You're never quite sure what you're going to be asked for - or where you'll be when asked
"HR systems are typically very different to finance systems, which may rely on a few fairly pre-determined reports and have limited needs for ad hoc information. In HR you're never quite sure what you're going to be asked about next".
"The integrated reporting facilities of HR Classic are excellent. I've created, run and amended reports sitting in airport lounges around the world", said Roberts.
"Even when I've managed to crash the system at an airport, I was able to recover it myself. With the best will in the world things can go wrong with any system, so this robustness is particularly important when you are constantly travelling".
Given rapid changes in technology and the likelihood of continuous change in the sugar industry, what does Roberts foresee in terms of future needs?
"Booker Tate still see HR Classic as meeting our key criteria - both for our own head office and for the overseas operations that we manage. Indeed it is the software that we recommend to all our clients".
Internet access, while far removed from the overseas sites, will be a big plus for us
Plans include using HR Classic to replace other specialist systems, such as a Consultants' Register. This will not only include the relevant screens, but a complete transfer of the current data using the import tools.
"Anybody we want to keep in touch with, even though they have never been an employee, will be on the system. It will then include applicants, employees, ex-employees and pensioners, as well as registered consultants".
With its worldwide operations, and the improvement in communication infrastructures, Booker Tate is now considering HR Intra.
"I'm sure that Internet access is a feature that we can make use of in the near future", said Roberts.
"I already can sit in my office now and query information that has been gathered at an overseas location. For instance, last week I was looking at a report and felt sure that it wasn't quite correct. So I went into their system, looked at how the report had been built and found that one of the selected fields was the wrong one. All it took, to get the correct data, was for me to edit the report and run it from my office".
"Internet access that allows even easier analysis, without reference to the overseas site and far removed from the actual situation, will be a big plus for us".
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