Issue link: http://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/124894
Partnership none. As part of the buy-in process, the team spent time with each country to understand their different needs. "It was worth the effort to define the requirements and worth the investment," says Hardy. 4,600 employees missed payroll. The oversight was corrected— and swiftly—but it encouraged Hardy and Schackman to reinforce the standardisation aspect of AZengage. "We have our scars to prove it," quipped Hardy. Learn, learn, and learn. "One thing through this journey that we've been conditioned to do is that 'lessons learned' piece," noted Schackman. "It has been absolutely critical in everything we do." The learning process started even before AZengage went live. When deciding which pilot countries to launch the programme in first, Hardy met with other industry leaders, and their feedback helped in her decision. She recalled speaking with Unilever, IBM, Dupont, and Johnson & Johnson amongst others, learning what they would do differently. Engage in a true partnership. AstraZeneca was seeking a global emerging partner which they could grow and learn from, whilst enabling their core HR functions and talent management. "We had a shared ambition, and we have a scorecard that gives us key measures that are shared," said Hardy. "This product gives us the ability to predict what the future landscape will be from a people perspective and use that to drive some of the decisions." Their advice helped guide her in her decision on how to go live. There were 106 countries to tackle, but Hardy had to pilot the programme in just a few to gain feedback on what worked—and what didn't. A traditional approach is to implement the solution in larger countries first, touching more employees and in theory, earning a greater return on investment. But from the feedback she received, she concluded it was more worthwhile to go live in four countries of different sizes. AZengage was launched in France, Spain, Portugal, and Belgium, and from that first wave of implementation, the lessons kept coming and coming. "We kept asking ourselves, 'What do we need to do to achieve this ambition?' It showed us mistakes and the resistance," recalled Hardy. "Lessons learned is effectively a time-out to ask yourself the question, 'What can we do differently?' " One lesson is certainly burned in both of the executives' memories. China was a country that made a lot of decisions at the local level, and that fact caused a snafu during one payroll cycle: NorthgateArinso was looking forward to being part of an unprecedented engagement, one which they could use to grow its global business footprint. "AstraZeneca is great about providing feedback about what functionalities do and don't work," noted Schackman. "We are developing our product, and AstraZeneca can influence it and then benefit from it." WINTER 2013 | www.hroglobal.com [11]