South32 is continuing to work through a HR transformation, having recently upgraded the SAP technology that enables it to onboard around 1000 new hires every year.
Image credit: South32
The diversified mining company, once part of BHP Billiton, has operations in 10 countries and has run HR in SAP SuccessFactors since 2019.
It has now moved to the 2.0 version of Onboarding in SuccessFactors, a transition it started in 2023.
The 1.0 version of Onboarding will be decommissioned by SAP in May 2026, requiring all customers to move.
Organisational capability manager Jayde Hunt told an SAP NOW AI Tour event that the miner had made a series of changes to its onboarding processes since moving to 2.0.
For new hires, the upgrade means that they can be connected to information “a lot earlier in the process and in a more automated fashion”, Hunt said, improving their connection to South32’s “purpose, strategy and values”.
From a practical standpoint, South32 can now onboard new hires on mobile devices or iPads.
“Previously they had to sit at a desktop computer [to undergo] that process,” Hunt said.
She said that this was operationally challenging at certain sites.
“We [previously] had to have kiosks set up onsite for them to actively do that part of the process,” Hunt said.
The onboarding process is also more connected and streamlined in the backend as well, with Hunt describing uniform orders as an example of a more efficient process.
Whereas previously ordering a uniform for a new recruit involved multiple people, paper forms and emails, she said that “with Onboarding 2.0 we were able to integrate those uniform orders into the system.”
“It’s a nice, clean way for the employee to fill out what size of uniform and boot order they need and then that information is then disseminated to the right person onsite to place the order.”
While improving the new employee experience is a key driver, the upgrade has also produced benefits for HR services and talent acquisition.
“We’re able to reduce manual workarounds, there’s much better visibility across the process so that we know where that candidate is up to with their onboarding and can then follow up if they haven’t completed those activities,” Hunt said.
Line leaders and other stakeholders also have benefitted from visibility into where a new hire is at in the onboarding process.
Hunt said that South32 implemented Onboarding 2.0 in a “big bang” approach across all 10 countries at once.
“We had an implementation partner that was in a different time zone,” she said.
“I think [on] reflection, at the end of the day that [arrangement] probably wasn’t as effective as it could have been if we were co-located.”
Hunt said that all stakeholders in the onboarding process participated in co-design to ensure the upgrade delivered a better experience and better visibility.
The transformation is continuing, with Hunt noting that “sustainably attracting, recruiting and retaining people is an ongoing challenge and a space that we are really leaning into.”
“Recruitment is definitely on our roadmap for this year, as well as looking at how we enhance the candidate experience,” she said.
She said that AI and automation could also be introduced to enable the talent acquisition team “to do their role [more] effectively” and to further improve processes.