Operational agility underpins La Française des Jeux’s continued success and future growth.

The portfolio of La Française des Jeux (FDJ) includes both historic and highly innovative games and continues to evolve to reflect consumer trends and new digital technologies. The group is also continuing to diversify through the international marketing of technological solutions, development of a retailer processing service, and presence in other entertainment activities. The 2023 acquisition of the Irish National Lottery operator and the recent announcement of a takeover bid for major sports betting company Kindred demonstrates FDJ’s commitment to sustainable growth founded on entertaining and responsible gaming.

The company is also committed to working closely with its employees and customers as it continues with its ambitious expansion program. For that reason, FDJ has taken steps to ensure that its HR resources are agile and more customer-centric and deliver positive outcomes in the day-to-day lives of all employees and managers.

cHRysalide: A metamorphosis for HR operations.

It was clear that the use of fragmented HRIS systems by each subsidiary was not only causing frustrations and inefficiencies but was also incompatible with the group’s cultural and digital aspirations. A program was developed to transform FDJ’s HR operations with the guiding principles of process standardization, simplicity, and cross-functionality.

More than a system implementation, cHRysalide represented a fundamental shift in how HR operates at FDJ. The name reflects a true metamorphosis—from a decentralized, admin-heavy model to a streamlined, data-driven, and employee-centric function.The program was built on three key pillars: harmonizing HR processes across subsidiaries to facilitate international expansion and acquisitions, empowering managers with self-service tools to handle tasks previously managed by HR teams, and enhancing employee experience with easier access to career development resources and real-time HR insights.

With Workday at the core of cHRysalide, FDJ transitioned to a fully integrated HRIS that eliminated inefficiencies and positioned the company for future scalability.

Operational consistency with minimum customization. 

By adopting a proven and comprehensive off-the-shelf system the company has reduced time-consuming administrative tasks and avoided the risks and limitations of customizing a solution to fit FDJ’s unique characteristics. The introduction of Workday has enabled the company to challenge existing work practices and processes and adopt a more agile and consistent way of working that aligns with both current and future goals.

The scope was ambitious and entailed the phased 12-month deployment of the majority of Workday modules. The first phase featured core Workday Human Capital Management, Workday Recruiting, Workday Talent and Performance Management, and Training, with Workday onboarding and offboarding functionalities introduced in the second phase. Great care was taken to define and update all processes and to standardize and rationalize data to create a common core for implementation in Workday—first for the parent company and then for all subsidiary operations.

Importantly, FDJ combined the HR transformation with the digital transformation from day one, so all HR professionals and employees were brought onboard and ready for action quickly. This helped the company to adhere to an ambitious but carefully orchestrated deployment timetable.

Positive outcomes from careful preparation and close staff engagement. 

“The challenge was to keep the project teams and the various professions well motivated and mobilized before and throughout the deployment of Workday,” says Caroline Lapierre, FDJ’s head of Transformation. “The business units knew they had to change the way they do things and that there would be benefits in the way they work, but it was a leap into the unknown and not all benefits would be immediate. So we needed to manage a transitional period and choose which processes needed to be 100% operational for ‘go live.’ We could then move into a phase of continuous improvement where we could fine-tune the different activities and address any sticky points.”

Care was taken to listen to what the different business units had to say so steps could be taken to minimize any misalignment, identify any apprehensions, and map any potential risks. This helped clarify the impact of the new solution on existing practices and reduced the likelihood of any roadblocks during the implementation program. This close engagement also helped to mobilize the key players.

Workday was launched for the end-of-year performance reviews, so employees needed to get up to speed with the new system quickly. The earlier engagement program and the decision to coincide the launch with a key moment in the lives of employees contributed to the system’s successful introduction. Feedback from managers and staff was extremely positive, as it was clear from the outset that the new solution is more intuitive and easier to use than the previous HRIS.

A sustainable and agile solution to support ambitious corporate objectives.

While the initial Workday implementation focused on core HR functionalities, FDJ is already leveraging the platform’s flexibility to activate new modules and explore AI-driven HR capabilities. This evolution aligns with FDJ’s broader strategy of preparing for the doubling of its workforce and an expansion into 30+ new markets following the Kindred acquisition.

Before Workday, such a significant expansion would have posed nearly insurmountable HR challenges and considerable administrative problems. The capabilities, streamlined processes, and agility of Workday are now enabling the group and its HR teams to view such exciting business developments with calm confidence in the knowledge that any integration will be seamless and painless.