Veolia Group in Poland Digitises HR Processes with SD Worx SAP Solutions

Solution

Payroll & HR

Company type

International companies

Reading time

5 minutes

The Veolia Group in Poland, which has been designing and implementing useful, practical solutions for energy, waste, and water management for over 25 years, is transforming the way it manages human resources processes within the company in collaboration with SD Worx SAP Solutions.

About Veolia

Veolia's ambition is to become a model company in ecological transformation. With nearly 218,000 employees across five continents, the Group designs and implements useful, practical solutions for water, waste, and energy management that help radically change the world. Through its three complementary activities, Veolia contributes to increasing access to natural resources, their protection, and their renewal. In 2023, the Veolia Group provided drinking water to 113 million people, served 103 million in wastewater services, generated 42 TWh of energy, and processed 63 million tonnes of waste. Veolia Environnement (Paris Euronext: VIE) achieved consolidated revenue of €45.3 billion in 2023.

The Veolia Group in Poland has been a reliable partner for industry and Polish cities undergoing ecological transformation for over 25 years. Leveraging expertise and international experience, it offers innovative environmental services and solutions that maximise synergies and benefits from circular economy principles. Operating in three sectors—energy, water, and waste—the company is involved in heat production and distribution, providing heating services to about 3 million customers, energy trading and sales, as well as water transmission and treatment. By continuously investing in expanding and modernising its infrastructure, Veolia also develops modern services related to energy efficiency improvements and Total Waste Management, contributing to the country’s sustainable development.

Veolia in Poland employs over 4,600 people whose mission is "Renewing the world's resources." The company operates in 123 locations and manages heating networks in 58 cities. It operates through subsidiaries, including Veolia Energia Polska (holding), Veolia Energia Warszawa, Veolia Energia Łódź, Veolia Energia Poznań, Veolia Term, Veolia Energy Contracting Poland, Veolia Industry Polska, Veolia EKOZEC, and the Water and Sewerage Company in Tarnowskie Góry, along with their affiliated companies.

"Our priority was to find a solution that would optimise payroll and HR processes as well as working time management across all units of our group. We aimed to implement tools accessible to both management and all employees, simplifying and standardising HR processes within the company. Due to the complexity of our operational structure, we sought a reliable and experienced partner. After a thorough market analysis, we decided to collaborate with SD Worx SAP Solutions Poland, which met our high expectations,"

Aneta Przybysz

Implementation

"Even before the implementation began, we defined its strategic goals. These included the complete digitisation and standardisation of HR processes across all companies. The process involved standardising payroll components, the bonus and rewards system, working time tracking, social benefits management (ZFŚS), as well as optimising occupational health, workforce cost planning, and budgeting processes. We were also committed to standardising the job title dictionary," says Gabriela Wróbel, Director of the Compensation and Employee Benefits Department at Veolia Energia Polska.

The implementation included SAP HCM S/4HANA Private Cloud, SuccessFactors Employee Central, and SuccessFactors Learning, enabling employee and managerial self-service, personnel administration, working time management, payroll, budgeting, and the implementation of several proprietary SD Worx solutions that extend SAP’s standard functionalities.

The next stages of the project included integrating HR data and information based on the SAP HR system, effectively utilising employee data for decision-making process optimisation, automating document workflows, and implementing self-service tools for employees and managers.

Representatives of Veolia Group and an SD Worx expert present a case study at SAP NOW

As part of the preparation for the project implementation for Veolia Group in Poland, we conducted analytical workshops, which resulted in defining the functional scope, necessary SAP and SD Worx products to meet the client’s needs and determining the timeline and budget. Following our recommendation, Veolia decided to use SAP HCM S/4HANA Private Cloud Edition (as a natural consequence of their previous decision to adopt the ERP S/4HANA system), SuccessFactors Employee Central and Learning, and as many as 13 proprietary SD Worx products, including the SD Worx Time Management Platform and the SD Worx eTeczka (e-Folder) solution.

Interestingly, as part of the implementation, we migrated over 1 million client documents to the new eTeczka," says Tomasz Franielczyk, team leader and project manager at SD Worx SAP Solutions Poland. "The results were immediate. HR processes, which were previously handled differently in various Veolia Group companies in Poland, were streamlined and unified, improving efficiency and enhancing the quality of reporting across the group," he adds.

As a result of the implementation, HR department employees also began using the SD Worx Reporter tool for reporting. With the new system in place, all employees now receive their salaries on the same date, and payroll component algorithms have been standardised and reduced by 85%. Workforce cost monitoring is now in place, and HR process forms and applications are fully digitised. Managers and employees can now handle all requests independently. The process of granting system access, creating business email accounts, and planning and tracking working time - including attendance tracking—is now managed through a single tool. Electronic signature processes have also been integrated, and training paths can now be co-created by interested employees. Each employee has access to the HR portal and mobile versions of the tools.

"A major challenge we faced during the acceptance testing phase was conducting extensive training for all employees—the end users of the system. Due to the need to separate the training process from the main project stream, we had to launch a dedicated environment solely for training purposes. Each employee could log into the training system, explore it, and practise using its available functionalities. The training sessions were a great success and enabled a smooth transition to the new solution," says Tomasz Franielczyk, team leader and project manager at SD Worx SAP Solutions Poland.

The project began in January 2023, and despite its complexity, the production launch took place on schedule in March 2024. This is the first collaboration between Veolia and SD Worx SAP Solutions Poland. The SD Worx SAP Solutions implementation is part of a long-term strategy to digitise and unify HR processes across all 18 Veolia Group companies in Poland. The implementation covered nearly 5,000 employees.