At the Blue Colibri III. Connect Conference, a dedicated session discussed the challenges facing SMEs. Anikó Andorka, an organizational development consultant at Valueteam Group, led a super-informative panel where participants shared their personal experiences about digitalization, an indispensable milestone for competitiveness in today's business landscape: Petra Gódor (HR and Organizational Development Manager - PlazmaPont), Balázs Havér (HR Outsourcing Digitalization Sales Manager Prohuman Payroll - Prohuman Zrt.), and Andrea Kuntner (partner, president of the JVSZ fb - VGD Hungary Kft.). Let's take a look at life in an SME before and after digitalization.
"Eight years ago, we only had 4 locations with 80 employees. Today, we have 12 locations, more than 300 employees, in 8 cities. This dynamic growth demanded that we review our processes, both in HR and organizational development. What worked with the previous organizational size no longer works today," said Petra Gódor (representing the pharmaceutical company PlazmaPont), highlighting the challenges of company growth.
With locations hundreds of kilometers apart, for example, recording vacation requests was quite cumbersome. They printed them out, mailed them to headquarters, the managing director signed them, and then they were mailed back. This obviously had a turnaround time, and in the meantime, quite a few details could change. The vacation wasn't on the date it was supposed to be, colleagues made changes, someone went on sick leave, quit, etc. "This was unsustainable," added Petra. "We realized that there are processes where we really need to take action, to change, and we went on a very serious digitalization journey." Thanks to digitalization, such a process has been shortened to a matter of moments for them. The manager can approve vacations with a single click on a smartphone.
The Prohuman team had to learn from both sides, as they not only digitized their own internal processes but also tried to move their SME clients onto this path. Balázs Havér said that payroll was a strictly paper-based process ten years ago. "Even today, many companies still use this method for time recording, planning, and administration, while in the same market, you can find many companies where all this is done electronically," he explained.
At Prohuman today, the payroll team is on one floor, and the social security administration team is on another. There is no paper on the payroll floor, only software solutions, people sitting in front of computers, and communicating with clients. In contrast, social security administration still operates on paper due to the legal background: there are still mountains of paper and folders, just like in the old days. This wide range is also found in their clients. According to Balázs Havér, everyone feels the need to develop and change, but those who are stuck in paper-based systems have the disadvantage that they simply don't have time to develop, they burn so much energy, time, and effort maintaining paper-based systems.
"This is a long process. There are many software solutions and options available on the market, but you also need to put a lot of effort into changing people's mindsets, learning, and moving forward with that."
Andrea Kuntner, president of the JVSZ fb (VGD Hungary), presented another exciting aspect of SME digitalization. They provide services in the field of economic consulting, which includes accounting, taxes, and payroll, and from the very beginning, they have worked primarily with foreign-owned clients. "With foreign clients, we had to deviate from paper-based settlements and very quickly switch to digital programs, reports, and solutions, especially for communication purposes," detailed Andrea Kuntner.
According to Balázs Havér, the first question when starting digitalization is: Where is the organization? If everything still works on paper, he recommends starting with the basic day-to-day administrative tasks (working hours, vacations, payroll). "The next steps can be HR processes, HR data management, document management, electronic signatures," he detailed. What is certain is that a lot of data is generated through digitalization. Especially in a more developed organization, if the subsystems are already digitized, this is already such an amount of data that it also facilitates decision-making.
Before digitizing anything in the company, according to Petra Gódor, it is necessary to examine internal communication. "No matter how big the organization is, whether there is HR or not. In my experience, most conflicts in organizations arise from the fact that information is not accurate: it does not arrive accurately, it is distorted, or it is simply not there for the stakeholders," she added.
It is therefore worth examining how information gets within the organization, not only from top to bottom but also from bottom to top. The goal is efficient operation, and part of this is being able to know about potential problems. "At the zero moment! When the problem has not yet escalated, it has not spread to other employees, it has not caused divisions within the organization. Our greatest pride is the 24/7 HR chat. Here, employees can submit their ideas, complaints, and suggestions, both under their name and anonymously," Gódor Petra emphasized.
VGD's more than 60 employees have the Blue Colibri app on their phones called VGD Birdie. Andrea Kuntner said that the app is used for suggestion boxes, anonymous reporting, and even helps with community building! They currently have a Move, Momentum community with over 70% participation, but they have also had a detective game series in which almost 90% of colleagues participated.
Anything related to HR or the company's employees can be managed and viewed by colleagues in the corporate application (onboarding, desk booking, vacation approval, all important documents, e-learning portfolio, etc.), but the human side is also important. "You need a person or a team to run this whole thing, to fill it with ideas and life. The platform and good people lead to absolutely good results."
At the end of the conversation, there was also talk about how change and new things that come with digitalization can cause resistance within the organization. The best antidote to this is usefulness! When an employee experiences how much easier their job is with digital administration - e.g., they can check their schedule, send a vacation request, etc. - this wall also falls more easily.
The need for the tangibility of paper is also very strong in many people (what is printed is true). There may be an initial distrust in the authenticity of digital content, and it is necessary to reach a point on this scale where we dare to believe in a digital system or an electronic signature. "We have to be patient, understand what digitalization means to those on the other side, whether they are employees or clients," said Balázs Havér. "We have to slowly guide people through these, hand in hand, reassuring them that it won't hurt, it's not risky, or if there is a risk, we can manage it."
