Hypergrowth and rapid international expansion is great. It does however affect the way you onboard, pay, promote and develop people. With Swapfiets expending to so many countries they faced limitations of the, Dutch originated, HR operations. The payroll platform used in The Netherlands has been stretched to also run payroll for new operating countries, core HR administration was partially done at HQ level and for other parts locally. HR realized that to further facilitate the company’s growth a new HR operating model and tech stack was needed.

This is where worldofwork™ came in. The HR team of Swapfiets was already exploring the market for possible solutions, but their findings were somewhat unclear and triggered a set of questions. The HR Tech world is swamped with vendors that can do a lot, but with very different approaches. Before selecting a platform some fundamental things need to be addressed.  What makes your company and HR operations different from others? And what do you need to create a solid foundation for massive international expansion? Which part of the HR operations will be executed globally and which processes will run locally?

Before simply selecting an HR solution that offers global capabilities, worldofwork™ guided the  Swapfiets HR team trough several stages to define the context specific for their organisation and culture. What we did:

1. Develop a vision for HR and HR Architecture
   
   In this phase we defined the outlines (design principles) of the future HR platform. Which HR services and processes will be managed centrally? What is expected of local HR? HR data model; which HR data is entered where. What steering information does leadership expect? How is this provided?
   
   
2. HRTech Architecture
   
   The blueprint of HR functionality that is required for global growth. This clearly distinguishes between global and local processes. Priorities (HR roadmap); what (HR) tools are currently available and used and what functionality is highly needed? Which data integrations are provided?
   
   
3. Process descriptions
   
   We now know what makes Swapfiets, Swapfiets. In order to put the distinctive processes into use cases we first have to describe them. Together with the process owners and specialist we define the desired processes.
   
   
4. Use cases & requirements
   
   Based on the desired processes we help Swapfiets to draft several use cases in which the way of working is explained in great detail. Each use cases consists out of user stories which will be displayed by vendors during demo sessions.
   
   
5. Selection of the solution
   
   When all information of the previous steps has been collected, HR-IT vendors that match the requirements of Swapfiets based on their website and our previous experience will be send a request for information. A maximum of 4 vendors will be invited to showcase their HR-IT solution trough a demo session based on the use cases that have been created in step 4. And all vendors are asked to reply on a request for pricing. All information provides is collected and structured in an transparent and objective way so Swapfiets can select the vendors that fits the best.

Swapfiets was able to make a rational and well-considered choice in selecting the HRTech vendor they wanted to work with going forward. The team is currently implementing a solution that really fits their current and future needs. HR operations was able to compare all potential vendors and engage with their preferred HR-IT solutions provider and technical integrations as well as reporting requirements were described before the actual implementation was kicked-off. Swapfiets is up for a controlled and impactful digital transformation cycle.