Rapid workforce expansion can create
enterprise-scale
employee management issues
Industry: Automotive
Employees: 40,000+
Region: Mainland China
Project timeline: 2017-Present
With the vigorous development of China’s automotive industry, investments in new energy vehicles, and the plan of Made in China 2025, BMW China’s business performance and production scale has grown rapidly. The number of employees has increased from 13,000+ in 2017 to 40,000+ by now.
The expansion of the company has increased the workload of the HR department. The trend of lean production and intelligent manufacturing has also raised new requirements for employees at all levels. The HR department actively responses to business challenges, formulates talent strategies that align with corporate strategic objectives.
Beginning with the performance module, the company gradually introduces information technology in each module of talent management to better support human resources business needs.
What were the
challenges
After collaborating with aTalent and successfully launching the performance module, BMW China HR department realized that the assessment of employees is not an end but a means. The key to talent management is the comprehensive tracking and evaluation of each career stage to optimize talent performance and provide corresponding coaching and development, forming a healthy talent supply chain within the enterprise. At the same time, a comprehensive analysis throughout the career development of employees will make the talent succession plan more effective.
To do so, BMW China has established a long-term cooperation with aTalent following the launch of performance module. Starting from the single performance module in 2017, BMW China’s talent management module now covers a closed-loop life cycle of selecting, using, educating, and retaining talents.
As the industry’s leading talent management solution provider, aTalent’s solution is highly scalable and covers all modules of talent management. To better support local enterprises with different ownership structures and corresponding compliance requirements, aTalent provides flexible deployment models of public cloud, private cloud and hybrid cloud, with professional support teams in China
What were the
solutions
A benefit of the aTalent solution is flexibility in deployment. It was decided that the first priority for BMW China was performance management and appraisal during an employee’s probation period. The local China professional services team worked with BMW to implement and tailor the system for its first application, putting the solution into production.
The successful deployment and positive results in the initial deployment of the performance Management module received positive feedback across the board and BMW moved to further deployment solution. Anticipating a need to rapidly develop employees as the workforce expands, adding both a comprehensive application of Performance Management beyond new hire appraisal and a Succession Planning module to ensure sustainable operations over time.
The automation in the two solutions reduced administrative HR staff workloads while enabling them to meet aggressive targets. Additionally, Skills & Competency solution enabled to identify talents with skills and competencies and improve efficiencies for workforce management. 360 Degree Feedback solution created individual assessments of potentials, strengths and needs, building great pipelines of experts and leaders for BMW.
Most importantly, aTalent data analytics are enabling managers to make more accurate and data-driven decisions for medium and long term planning.
The selection of aTalent in 2017 and subsequent deployments was only the first step in a journey that has seen the two companies evolving into a powerful partnership.
BMW China’s senior management has worked with aTalent, drawing on its eight years experience as an Asian talent management system provider to help refine and shape a solution that fits specific and changing needs. In response, aTalent has leveraged the versatile and flexible talent management foundation, deployed in 2017, to customize an enterprise-scale solution that fits BMW China’s needs of today and can adapt to changing work processes in the future.
What are the
results & benefits
- Rapid workforce
- Expansion creates
- Enterprise-scale employee management issues
- 90% of BMW China’s talent management process now operates with the aTalent solution as its foundation
- Over 2,000 employees adopted during the probation period annually
- Over 15,000 employees performance evaluated annually
- Competency models and performance appraisals matched over 1,000 core employees to suitable positions
- Continued succession ladder created for 1000+ core positions
- Increased adoption of HR system by HR, Line managers, and employees
- Became the adopted interactive platform between HRBP and managers
“It has been 4 years since we started working with aTalent.
The Talent Management Solution has enabled us to uncover our employee’s potential, streamline internal succession planning and achieve strategic HR planning within the organization.”
Liu Zhen,
Senior Manager,
Human Resource Information System
BMW China
Visual Cheatsheet
90% of BMW China’s talent management process now operates with the aTalent solution as its foundation.
4k+
Adoption / year
40k+
Performance appraisal / year
1k+
Competency models
-5k+
Core positions continued
-30%
HR admin work
