Sasol: Transforming core HR and payroll processes in the cloud to enhance the employee experience
Delivering on a commitment to caring for its people
Energy and petrochemical business Sasol Limited had a fragmented HR technology landscape that led to a lack of visibility of global employee data and costly manual processes. Choosing SAP SuccessFactors HCM to support its “1HR” strategy, Sasol now has a single source of truth for its core HR and payroll activities. The company is better equipped to support employees and HR operations and deliver on its purpose of innovating for a better world.
| Industry | Region | Company Size |
| Chemicals | Sandton, South Africa | 30,000 employees |
HR processes aligned globally.
minutes to run payroll, compared to five hours previously.
Global Lead, Digital HR & Innovation, Sasol Limited
| Industry | Region | Company Size |
| Chemicals | Sandton, South Africa | 30,000 employees |
HR processes aligned globally.
minutes to run payroll, compared to five hours previously.
Global Lead, Digital HR & Innovation, Sasol Limited
Modernizing HR systems to optimize processes and the employee experience
Sasol Limited is a global chemicals and energy company consisting of more than 30,000 employees focused on innovating for a better world by delivering on the triple bottom line of people, planet, and profit outcomes. It cares deeply for its people and communities, and it values safety and inclusivity in its activities above all else. The “can-do” spirit of Sasol pushes it to continuously evolve, strive for excellence, and adopt new approaches in transitioning to a more resilient, environmentally sustainable business. This enables Sasol to produce 32 million tons of chemical products in South Africa and deliver more than seven million tons of products to more than 8,000 customers across 130 countries.
The company’s previous HR technology infrastructure relied on multiple outdated, disparate on-premises systems that were becoming more difficult and costly to maintain and didn’t align with its technology ambitions. Key pain points were identified, with its biggest challenge being multiple payroll systems across three key international regions. One of these payroll systems was more than 20 years old and was dubbed a “burning platform.” Further, a lack of harmonized (or standardized) data inhibited the company from having a unified global view of employee data across these key regions, leading to data integrity challenges and a lack of trust in the data on the part of employees. These fragmented core HR and payroll systems led to fragmented processes as well as data challenges that were causing insufficient reporting and analytics capabilities. For example, it was extremely difficult to confirm accurate global headcount in real time, let alone accurately report against other KPIs and metrics. These pain points ultimately resulted in the company’s inability to maximize use of its digital capabilities and a poor experience for employees when using the HR platform.
The company sought a global cloud-based solution to streamline its technical and business operations and realize the full potential of its business and people.
Global Lead, Digital HR & Innovation, Sasol Limited
Migrating to cloud-based HR technology
Sasol had previously been using the SAP ERP Human Capital Management (SAP ERP HCM) solution before deciding to implement the full SAP SuccessFactors portfolio of solutions in a number of countries. However, due to the growing complexity of its on-premises payroll systems, along with its risk of integration due to an intricate IT infrastructure, the company opted to implement multiple SAP SuccessFactors solutions at the same time. The “Sasol 1HR” program integrated hundreds of interfaces from five on-premises ERP instances in the SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central solution to create a single cloud-based core HR system of record. It combined around 30 interfaces in the SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central Payroll solution to manage payroll in-house.
Sasol employed the SAP Readiness Check tool for SAP SuccessFactors solutions to help with the deployment. Due to the implementation’s complexity and size, it also used SAP Preferred Success services to gain advice and access to product management expertise and to drive continuous adoption of the latest solution updates and innovations. The business trusted that these services would be best placed to help deliver a smooth transition, prevent payroll failure, and proactively leverage the advanced features and leading practices.
Global Lead, Digital HR & Innovation, Sasol Limited
Caring for people by prioritizing the employee experience
The launch of Sasol 1HR marked a pivotal moment for the company by transitioning to an integrated cloud-based platform supporting approximately 30,000 employees across 22 countries. The unified global solution and modern user interface have streamlined processes and technologies while enhancing the employee experience. Implementing SAP SuccessFactors solutions as a single source of truth for core HR and payroll processes has been instrumental in reducing administrative overhead and improving the accuracy, integrity, and reliability of payroll and people data. By consolidating information, Sasol 1HR enables better workforce management and decision-making. For example, the company has reduced wage types by 60% and has enabled the business with more accurate data, which is vital to decrease the number of reports and ultimately contribute to more effective and efficient reporting and analytics.
Taking advantage of SAP localization capabilities allows Sasol to keep up to date with the unique compliance and regulatory requirements that need to be managed for each individual country. Without these capabilities, it’s difficult to know when regulations change and how they might impact HR systems. The strong localization capabilities and powerful payroll engine contribute to accurate, timely, and compliant payroll.
Sasol 1HR equips the company with flexibility to swiftly adapt to changing demands and business environments. The platform’s scalable architecture and consolidated core HR data provide a stronger foundation for reporting, workforce visibility, and informed decision-making. This supports Sasol’s ability to adapt to economic shifts, workforce trends, and competitive pressures while realizing efficiencies through global economies of scale. As a result of this global transformation, Sasol achieved significant savings in the first year, with around 56% savings on information management alone underscoring the drive to improve operational efficiency. These savings are not only a testament to the platform’s cost-effectiveness but also reflect Sasol’s commitment to continuous improvement, value creation for its stakeholders, and a return on investment for its investors.
Global Lead, Digital HR & Innovation, Sasol Limited
Keeping a strong focus on HR operational excellence
Thanks to the platform’s ability to integrate new technologies and adapt to evolving business needs, Sasol 1HR will continue to play a critical role in the company’s cloud-adoption journey. It will help ensure that the company remains at the forefront of driving HR excellence, sustainability, and the best user experience for its people. Sasol intends to implement additional features in SAP SuccessFactors HCM to benefit from the associated improvements.
Looking to the future, Sasol plans to keep enhancing the employee experience and, more importantly, ensure both payroll compliance and accuracy. The company is looking at further adoption of payroll control center functionality for the SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central Payroll solution to enhance continuous compliance, strategic reporting, and risk management at the executive level. This adoption will improve operational efficiency and lower the cost to run payroll by automating payroll-error detection and resolution. This will also have a positive impact on employee satisfaction by helping ensure a timely error-free payroll run.