Endress+Hauser: Empowering employees globally with cloud-first HR transformation, driven by family values
A decisive HR transformation touching 17,000 employees
Endress+Hauser InfoServe GmbH+Co. KG, a family-owned leader in measurement and automation technology, set out to redefine HR systems—not just upgrade them. With SAP SuccessFactors solutions, the company addressed the complexities of managing HR for 130 companies across 54 nations, empowering employees, fostering innovation, and aligning HR practices globally.
| Industry | Region | Company Size | Partner |
| Industrial manufacturing | Reinach, Switzerland | 17,046 employees | PwC |
for partner onboarding, compared to two to three months previously.
job applications received and managed.
job requisitions created and managed.
Head of HR IT, Endress+Hauser InfoServe GmbH+Co. KG
Reshaping HR IT operations to support its global family of companies
Endress+Hauser InfoServe GmbH+Co. KG is a leading supplier of measurement and automation technology for process and laboratory, offering comprehensive process solutions and services for industrial process measurement and automation. Its area of expertise covers process solutions for flow, level, pressure, analysis, temperature, recording, and digital communications across a wide range of industries, optimizing processes related to economic efficiency, safety, and environmental protection.
Endress+Hauser’s global leadership and expertise allows it to serve customers across industry sectors from food and beverage to water and wastewater, oil and gas, life sciences, chemicals, power and energy, mining and metals, and utilities.
Over the years, the company has made a name for itself by always putting quality first and demonstrating excellence through its solutions-oriented and innovative services. A big part of what sets the company apart is its employee-centered culture and grounding as a family-owned business. Endress+Hauser is also committed to making sure that its people feel valued and that the HR function supports them to grow and develop and do their best work.
Just as Endress+Hauser helps customers achieve precision and consistency in their processes, the company recognized the need to bring the same level of standardization and insight to its own people processes. With over 130 legal entities operating across 54 countries, HR operations were previously hampered by manual inefficiencies and decentralized processes in its legacy systems. Employees relied on outdated systems for basic HR tasks, such as address changes, while HR teams handled these requests using paper-based workflows, resulting in inefficiency and lost time.
Recognizing the need for radical change, Endress+Hauser initially transitioned from its on-premises instance of the SAP ERP Human Capital Management solution to another vendor’s cloud-based HR solution before ultimately choosing SAP SuccessFactors solutions to achieve its vision. This included streamlined operations, enhanced accessibility, and alignment with its organizational values.
Manuel Gempp, HR platform owner at Endress+Hauser Group Services, explains, “We saw an opportunity to set up entirely new processes and change how we operated internally.”
HR IT Platform Owner, Endress+Hauser InfoServe GmbH+Co. KG
Transforming HR into a global driver of innovation and empowerment
To find the right solution for its significant needs, Endress+Hauser began its transformation with a detailed requirements brief that identified 880 line items, focusing on challenges such as recruiting. “Our main priority was finding a modular cloud-based solution that could address critical recruiting needs first while enabling future updates to core HR processes,” explains Gempp.
On evaluating the solution proposals, Endress+Hauser determined that SAP SuccessFactors HCM best met its criteria for wide-ranging functionality and modularity. And because the company had minimal internal expertise in cloud solutions at that time, it also chose to partner with PwC for the implementation and to manage the extensive change management program.
Continuing a long and trusted relationship with SAP, the company started its HR transformation with the deployment of the SAP SuccessFactors Recruiting solution. It then started a multi-year project to modernize core HR processes by steadily rolling out the SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central solution across its 130 companies. In parallel, the third major area of the initial HR transformation focused on centralizing learning management and taking a “big bang” approach to rolling out the SAP SuccessFactors Learning solution globally. Because each of its legal entities had its own learning solutions, this part of the project required consulting with each of the companies to help them align with the new global approach and cloud mindset shift.
Beyond the implementation of SAP SuccessFactors solutions, Endress+Hauser tapped SAP Business Technology Platform (SAP BTP) to take advantage of the SAP Build solution to build apps that extend the core functionality of the HR solutions. This allowed the company to digitally transform custom business processes.
Head of HR IT, Endress+Hauser InfoServe GmbH+Co. KG
Simplifying processes, gaining insights, and enabling employees at scale
Since transforming recruitment workflows with an automated hiring management process through SAP SuccessFactors Recruiting, Endress+Hauser has simplified the creation and management of 11,807 job requisitions and 430,103 applications. It’s also conducted 2,800 interviews through the solution, leading to the hiring of 1,400 new employees in a consistent, compliant, and candidate-friendly way.
With SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central, Endress+Hauser has centralized 17,000 employee records, boosting workforce visibility and enabling analytics that informs strategic planning across its 130 companies. Additionally, by providing self-service HR functionalities, the company has automated 12,700 workflows, freeing employees and HR teams to focus on higher-value activities instead of manual tasks. Through the solution, the company distributes an average of 10,000 HR documents each month, securely and compliantly.
In terms of analytics and reporting, embedded analytics with insights from the SAP Analytics Cloud solution allows the team to create their own stories and deliver more meaningful reporting on HR and finance data.
Because learning is integral to the company’s culture, Endress+Hauser is offering training courses not only to employees but also to its partners through SAP SuccessFactors Learning. To do so, it used SAP BTP and SAP Build to create an app that helps it efficiently onboard its extended enterprise. Before SAP SuccessFactors, onboarding partners had taken up to three months. Now it’s almost immediate, drastically accelerating readiness across the extended enterprise. This initiative has saved thousands of hours annually, freeing HR and partner managers from manual training tasks and allowing them to focus on strategic initiatives. Mehdi Elamouri, HR IT platform owner at Endress+Hauser, adds, “The possibility to extend what the core system offers is very beneficial. It’s allowed us to satisfy highly specific internal customer needs when that was difficult to do within the core system functionality.”
In addition, the SAP Preferred Success service for SAP SuccessFactors HCM is helping Endress+Hauser maximize the value of its investment in the solutions. This includes understanding upcoming releases and exploring new features, such as innovative talent intelligence hub functionality.
HR Platform Owner, Endress+Hauser Group Services
Using AI-enabled tools for smarter HR processes and employee experiences
SAP SuccessFactors solutions play a pivotal role in the company’s HR operations. By automating and optimizing core HR management practices and recruiting processes, Endress+Hauser has seen significant efficiency gains. And with plans to integrate the solutions with other systems, Endress+Hauser can expect improved data accuracy and operational efficiency thanks to a smooth flow of information across HR and financial departments.
What’s more, advanced analytics and reporting capabilities are boosting strategic decision-making, helping Endress+Hauser better achieve its organizational goals. With more valuable insights into workforce trends and performance metrics, the company can position itself to attract top talent and support employees’ growth and development into the future.
Future priorities for Endress+Hauser include transitioning payroll and time management processes to cloud-native solutions from SAP, exploring AI capabilities with Joule Agents and adopting SAP Analytics Cloud to unify financial and workforce insights. By integrating AI-enabled tools, the company aims to reduce low-value ticket volumes and improve hiring manager efficiency with enhanced job descriptions.
Furthermore, Endress+Hauser is in the early stages of exploring the Joule solution, part of SAP Business AI. In one scenario, it’s looking at how Joule can provide a new way for employees to perform various HR-related tasks themselves and find relevant information to answer their queries without raising a ticket.
Featured partner
An SAP platinum partner, PwC is trusted worldwide for delivering customer success in recruit-to-retire projects. With proven expertise in implementations of SAP SuccessFactors solutions, PwC played a key role guiding Endress+Hauser through the adoption of recruiting, learning, and core HR management solutions and preparing the company to utilize Joule.