Standardization and streamlining in Kverneland Bil

In 2018, Kverneland Bil signed an agreement with 4human and in March 2019 the HR system was activated. Kverneland Bil is in the middle of a process of centralization, standardization and streamlining of routines and work tasks across all franchises and locations. As a distributor of Ford, Mazda and Volvo, Kverneland Bil has felt the pressure in recent years when the electric car offer for the aforementioned car brands has failed, it is important for Kverneland Bil to think new. So it is naturally about digitalization and streamlining.

CFO Odd Arne Slettebø took over the work of finding a ready-made HR system that could meet their needs in 2018. He believes that what is important in an HR system is to get all managers and employees to follow the same work methodology. "When an employee submits a holiday application or self-certification, this must be done in the same way throughout the chain; it is no longer possible to send a text message to the nearest manager to apply for holiday. It is important that HR tasks are standardized throughout the organization.

"It's about cutting costs, streamlining payroll and simplifying everything."

Kverneland Bil has been decentralized for years and what one manager did at one dealership was not necessarily the same as what another manager did elsewhere in the group. Odd Arne wanted to change this and it is here 4human comes into the picture.

He came across an email that had been in the email archive for about 6 months, the email was about Huldt & Lillevik Oppfølging in "new guise". Odd Arne put together a team of five people who outlined a list of the problems they wanted to solve through a finished HR system. It was important that the finished HR system was simple and affordable, so the large, heavy, tailor-made HR systems were dropped.

They looked at opportunities to improve the following processes:

• Varying staff follow-up
• Varying performance appraisals
• Varying follow-up of absence
• Integrations with the operating system

They saw that their primary needs were better and simpler holiday registration, checklists for onboarding and offboarding processes, follow-up of probationary periods, employee interviews, integrations with Huldt & Lillevik as a payroll system.

Secondary requirements were that the system had to have good notification routines and the ability to customize their own staff handbook, so that they could get everything in one system when the current contract for handbooks expires.

It was important to have a good culture for employee appraisals and onboarding of new employees, and systematically incorporating this into a system and template is important to ensure the new culture.

It ended up that Kverneland Bil chose to go for 4human as a supplier of HR systems in October 2018. 4human was the most affordable system and the system that could be most easily integrated with the time registration system – he says. In March 2019, the Kverneland Bil instance was activated and the team has been to all locations and provided training to managers throughout the country.

"This is a system that employees must use for holiday registration, absence registration and all employees use the employee portal. We've got the whole organization on board with this system, everyone has to use it."

Kverneland Bil has focused on performance appraisals and measures that are followed up after the appraisal. Odd Arne says: "Sickness absence has been high, but it has gone down since the implementation. I think it's a combination of the more professional appraisals and the closer follow-up of employees afterwards," he adds.

"Absenteeism due to illness has been high, but it has decreased since the implementation. I think it's a combination of the more professional performance reviews and the closer follow-up of employees afterwards."

It has become easier to find employee information, since all employee information is in the system: Phone number, email address and next of kin etc.

In conclusion, we can conclude that 4human HRM as a partner with Kverneland Bil has contributed to increased efficiency, reduced sick leave and standardized HR tasks throughout the organization.