Jose Maria Pelaez, HR Director at the international University of La Rioja (UNIR) in Spain, describes how the implementation of Cezanne HRhas resulted in an increase in the knowledge of staff and their skills, greater autonomy, and greater recognition of the human resources department throughout the university.

The University of La Rioja was looking for an HR management system that could enhance their knowledge of the university’s employees by enabling them to easily access details of training, skills, expertise, salary, absences, holiday taken, and performance reviews. They also wanted to break down the boundaries between HR, management, and staff; better understand employees’ needs; and be able to accurately and consistently record employee performance details in order to better understand where action needed to be taken.

In implementing Cezanne HR as their chosen HRMS, UNIR found that the automation of everyday administrative tasks that had previously taken time away from more important undertakings has been incredibly valuable, ultimately resulting in a more fluid communication between management, line managers, and staff.

Cezanne HR: feature-rich, easy to use, and cost-effective

Implementing Cezanne HR at UNIR has optimized the way in which the HR department interacts and communicates with other departments. Throughout his career thus far, Jose Maria Pelaez, Director of HR at the university, has implemented Cezanne’s HR software on three occasions at different organisations. In all three cases he found that it greatly improved employee management; Pelaez says that in addition to automating the majority of low value tasks, which do not make use of the expertise of his staff, Cezanne has also eradicated the use of space-consuming printed paper files.

Pelaez, who is also a Professor at some of Spain’s leading business schools, reports that: “With Cezanne HR we wanted to extend the greater autonomy achieved in the Human Resources department to the rest of the employees in the university; to allow them to easily edit their personal information, such as their address or bank account information; update their CV by adding new skills or a new course; request time off… Basically, we were looking for a system that removed the reliance on other departments to complete basic administrative tasks that get in the way of more productive work.”

Managing all of UNIR’s employees – of which there are more than 600 – with Cezanne HR has been made easier by, among several other features, the HR dashboard, which displays graphic information on several key aspects of people management, thus allowing HR staff to instantly access useful statistics and information. Access to key indicators – such as employee turnover and performance and productivity by department – facilitate an intelligent and informed decision-making process based on objective data.

Tangible benefits from day one

Pelaez sums up his three favourite benefits of using Cezanne HR:

Increased awareness

Using Cezanne HR, it is quick and easy to access all of the information needed by HR staff and managers on a daily basis, including job titles, skills and expertise, job descriptions, courses and training undertaken, salary, holiday entitlement remaining, and performance appraisal notes.

Greater autonomy

Cezanne HR is intuitive, easy to deploy and simple to use – it doesn’t require any technical knowledge or skill. Organisations can be independent from day one throughout setup, maintenance, and day-to-day use.

Better reputation

The increased awareness and autonomy that Cezanne has afforded the Human Resources department has, in turn, allowed them to provide a better service to the university’s staff. “With Cezanne HR, the perception of Human Resources has changed in the university: now we are a department that can be relied upon to provide timely help and support and act as a catalyst for the development of the institution.”

José Manuel Villaseñor, Cezanne HR’s partner in Spain, adds: “Having the good fortune to work with the experienced HR team at UNIR has allowed us to prove how versatile our HR system is. It has also demonstrated that we can address data transfer – a complicated and time-consuming task that often slows down projects. UNIR’s experience validates the fluidity and flexibility available with Cezanne HR.”