In the China Development Financial (CDF) Holding Group’s “ABCDE” strategy, “B” stands for “Become Employer of Choice.” CDF was keen to offer its people diverse career opportunities. But when each subsidiary company had its own separate HR management system, that reality was a long way off. Chief Information Officer Terrence Yeung was concerned. “We didn't have an easily achievable ‘single view’ of skills or opportunities in the business, resulting in significant gaps when it came to career development and training plans,” Yeung explains.
As CDF searched for the right unified HR platform, Executive Vice President and Chief HR Officer Melody Chen had clear requirements. “We needed a comprehensive system to cover the entire employee career lifecycle, embedded with advanced technologies and with a track record of delivering continuous innovation,” Chen recalls.
Using AI to lift the burden of repetitive work.
Yeung considers the potential of AI from two perspectives. “How can AI transform how employees work? How do we use it to deliver better services to customers?”
Using Workday AI and machine learning functions, CDF is exploring avenues to use smart workflows to automate tasks. Yeung reports that people are already able to accomplish tasks in 1 minute that used to take 1 hour, emphasizing that such tools do not make people redundant. “When AI takes over repetitive tasks, staff members are freed up to enhance customer value. We use AI to uncover insights and make future predictions so we can respond more swiftly to market changes.”
Artificial intelligence isn’t intended to replace humans. If we can effectively harness this technology, these tools will only elevate our value, not diminish it.
Chief Information Officer
Making HR more agile.
Chen’s HR team has seen far less manual work on the back of a move to online learning and talent administration and having anytime-anywhere access to Workday via a mobile app. The time HR spends generating employee data, preparing succession material, and producing annual promotion data has been cut in half.
“It’s easier to obtain and consolidate employee data, helping to accelerate analysis and decision-making,” says Chen. “Group-wide employee data and statistics can be made ready in just a few clicks. We’ve seen a jump in efficiency. When the Workday People Analytics module is deployed in phase II, the team will be able to move even faster.”
Workday has introduced traceable, end-to-end on-line performance management processes, eliminating paper and dispersed approvals. Colleagues can also recognize each other’s efforts and seek feedback.
With one centralized, modern, and digital HR platform for multiple internal and external users, processes are streamlined, progress becomes visible online, manual work is reduced, and communications become easier and focused.
Chief HR Officer
Empowering people to build a better career.
Yeung believes data-driven decision-making is the future of professional development. “Data is a critical HR asset. Creating a skills database is very important to us,” Yeung says. Yeung also sees value in using Workday data to identify future leaders and provide them with the right training to develop their potential.
For Chen, one of the big benefits of Workday is its self-serve functionality, giving CDF employees greater autonomy. People are able to manage their personal information, register for courses, identify internal job vacancies, and apply for these positions through a single system. Meanwhile supervisors can access information about employees’ skills and work experience and draw on the group’s entire talent pool.
“It’s a modern search experience for candidates,” Chen says.
Workday is a powerful tool that not only enhances our employees’ capabilities, but allows them to be deployed to maximum benefit across our group.
Chief Information Officer
Creating a sense of belonging.
The group is already realizing the benefits of providing better career planning and having a comprehensive training framework. “People can see the company places a strong emphasis on their development and provides them with many opportunities,” Yeung explains, reflecting that, since the Workday deployment, the company has a “different feeling, a sense of belonging” than when HR services were scattered across multiple systems.
The launch of Workday is a transformation journey for HR and employees to embrace advanced technologies and adopt modern ways of working. This demonstrates the firm’s commitment to our strategies of ‘Accelerate Digital’ and ‘Become Employer of Choice.’
Chief HR Officer
Working with a trusted partner.
Chen says the challenging process of transformation has been made easier by the close and positive partnership that has developed between CDF and Workday. “The Workday team is professional and understanding, always trying to find solutions, or coming up with alternatives. We are grateful to have such a strong Workday team walking with us through the transformation journey,” Chen says.