When Christian Moeller joined Johnson Electric as chief human resources officer, the company had been using Workday Human Capital Management (HCM) for three years. Moeller was there to see the system evolve to include AI tools. “It’s been a very fruitful partnership, full of mutual benefit,” Moeller notes. “Sometimes, we tell Workday what we need and Workday delivers. Sometimes Workday says, ‘Hey, we have this new functionality!’ and they show us how to use it.”
Johnson Electric is already at the point where Workday is its only source of people data, integrated with finance and feeding all downstream systems. Now, under Moeller’s leadership, HR is exploring how the AI-powered Workday platform can enhance ways to work across the globe.
Boosting HR speed, precision, and intelligence.
“Once Workday became our backbone of HR work globally, the next step was starting to use AI to make our lives easier,” says Moeller. For example, administrative HR tasks have been automated for years, but embedded AI now tells users when they make a mistake. Meanwhile Gen AI has taken over the task of creating job descriptions and postings, producing quality listings and adverts in seconds.
An advanced, AI-powered compensation module enables the team to automatically manage complex global requirements, from administering multiple bonus schemes to running diverse merit programs. The use of standardized rules gives Moeller confidence that employees are rewarded accurately and fairly, no matter where they are in the world.
Workday suggests specific actions for us to improve efficiency and accuracy.
Chief Human Resources Officer
Finding the right talent in a huge global workforce.
Embedded AI has also transformed how the company identifies internal talent. Instead of relying on manual searches or recommendations from a subset of managers, the system can now scan skills, experience, and performance data from everyone in the workforce to pinpoint the best person for a specific role.
Given our vast workforce, I cannot imagine how we would identify specific skill sets without Workday.
Chief Human Resources Officer
Gaining insights that sustain quality and improve outcomes.
Moeller says AI-generated insights are getting increasingly sophisticated. “At first, they just say, ‘This is something you shouldn’t do.’ Then they give us hints, maybe that a salary proposal is potentially too high—that’s very beneficial,” Moeller explains.
Next, Moeller is expecting the system to offer smart answers to complex questions regarding compensation and benefits, recruiting, and talent development and learning. “On all these topics, I would expect AI to give me the same quality answer I’d get from my team—or even better!” says Moeller.