Creating a seamless user experience across the entire employee lifecycle: Vero HR’s journey with Cezanne
TLWR? Here’s a summary:
• Award winning HR consultancy Vero HR has streamlined all their HR processes using Cezanne’s HR software: from onboarding to offboarding, ensuring a seamless link between Vero and their clients.
• Vero HR maintains a personal touch by integrating closely with their clients’ businesses, either as an extension of their existing HR team or as the dedicated HR department, supported by the flexibility and configurability of Cezanne’s software.
• The automations available through Cezanne have had a profound impact on people operations both internally and with their clients, and they’ve also found the HRIS particularly useful with legal and financial sector businesses.
Headquartered in the historic city of Peterborough, Vero HR is an award-winning human resources consultancy that offers an outstanding range of HR outsourcing services and technology that help organisations work smarter.
Since its founding back in 2005, the company has been dedicated to providing tailored HR solutions that empower businesses to thrive. Their comprehensive suite of services includes HR administration, strategic advice, payroll management, recruitment support, and health and safety guidance – all designed to meet the unique needs of their clients.
With a focus on delivering cost-effective expert advice and support, Vero HR assists organisations in managing day-to-day HR practicalities and navigating critical issues that may arise.
We sat down for a chat with Ashlie Hinks, Vero’s Marketing Manager and Alex Redhead, Vero’s Technology Manager, to find out how Cezanne is helping both them and their clients support every aspect of workforce operations.
Hello Alex and Ashlie! So, what were the core reasons for your business choosing Cezanne as a partner?
We quickly built a very strong relationship with our key contacts at Cezanne back in 2018, and felt their way of working aligned with Vero’s. We were incredibly impressed with the range of functionality Cezanne offers and its intuitiveness. Plus, Cezanne is very cost effective, which meets the expectations of our client base, who are predominantly in the SME bracket and often start-ups.
The ability to bolt-on additional modules was also a big draw for us, as that means that the software can grow as our clients do.
Your business has been voted as HR consultancy of the year – how is Cezanne helping deliver your award-winning service to your clients?
We’re able to streamline all of our HR processes using Cezanne. From onboarding through to offboarding and everything in between, we utilise the technology to help us ensure a seamless link between Vero and our clients.
Our HR professionals, who are supporting clients with HR queries, have access to data at their fingertips wherever they are, on a huge range of topics including absence management. Using Cezanne for document management saves countless hours when issuing letters and communications to staff, or needing to access an employee document urgently.
All our clients have access to a corporate sized HR department with a range of expertise at a fraction of the price. Many of our clients will utilise more than one of our Vero services, including recruitment, HR, health and safety and payroll and using Cezanne’s HR software allows us to connect all our services together and offer clients a comprehensive tool to support their staff.
Are there any unique challenges your business faces from an HR perspective?
We don’t see ourselves as outsourced, but as part of a client’s business, either as an extension to their existing HR team or as the dedicated HR department.
Keeping that personal touch is key to who we are. Our high levels of service excellence are maintained not just because of our team, but also because of the HR software we use. Tools like Cezanne reduce our administrative tasks and allow more time for us to focus on business-critical support.
Our experience of working with a range of sectors and regions has given us an understanding of different pain-points and we are able to advise on best practices. As a result, we’re able to hit the ground running with new clients with this experience. Whether that be enhanced performance management processes, complying with FCA regulations or performing DSE assessments… we know that the flexibility of Cezanne’s software allows us to adapt it to our client’s needs.
How have your clients found the implementation of Cezanne at their organisations?
Our dedicated Tech team implement the software for our client base, taking them through the whole journey and customising the system to their requirements.
During implementation, our team complete all the actual work involved in building, configuring and personalising the software for clients who often don’t have the capacity or experience to be able to do this.
We provide training sessions – both onsite or remote – to all user groups of the software and create personalised user guides for each client. We like to make sure that the person in the Tech team who implemented the software remains the key contact for Cezanne support post-implementation, which helps us build strong relationships.
What modules would you say have the biggest impact in your business & with your clients?
The People Management software and Absence Management software are the core modules that almost all our clients using Cezanne benefit from the most. The People module has so much configurability, so even the Form Hub alone is used for lots of different purposes across our client base.
We’ve taken clients on the journey from spreadsheets and paper files to a totally digital workforce where key processes such as appraisals, inductions and holiday booking are all done through Cezanne.
Our Vero Pay service also utilise the People and Absence modules to power the payroll, giving them access to all the core payroll data such as salaries and bank details as well as absence information. We use the Documents area to upload payslips each month for our clients, meaning they have a one-stop shop for all their HR and payroll data.
From an HR perspective, which of your workforce processes have benefited the most from Cezanne?
Our HR administration service is powered by technology. We use Cezanne’s Form Hub for managers to liaise with us and gain appropriate approval for key employee events such as job offers, contractual changes and leavers. This offers transparency and streamlines the process for all users.
We use lots of automations in Cezanne to assist in the collection of data and ensure strict compliance. Several of our clients have bolted on the Onboarding software module that they use to issue contracts, utilise onboarding checklists and give their new employees access to a preboarding portal that tells them more about the company and their colleagues.
We’ve had fantastic feedback from clients on how this offers a professional yet friendly first impression for new staff. And, auditors love the auditability of the system too and it really helps having everything “people related” all in one place!
Have there any been any sectors that Vero HR have worked with that are particularly suited to Cezanne, or have any unique challenges which Cezanne has solved for them?
We’ve certainly had a lot from the financial services sector. This is because the Cezanne system makes it easy to capture things like FCA regulations, legal expiry dates… the really important stuff that can sometimes be missed.
To give an example, one of the first questions we were asked for one of our clients is have we got somewhere where we can capture expiry dates (for legal matters) in the system and get reminders when expiry dates are near. So, for that sector, the Cezanne system is really very good.
We’d also say for the legal sector as well, where we’ve got clients that are needing to track CPD hours, report on how much entitlement people have got, how much they’re using and have a very easy way for them to track all that – which they can do very easily through Cezanne’s self-service. And, the Cezanne system makes it easy for people go in and input their training records, or update their qualifications – which is incredibly important for legal firms.
How has Vero HR found the support from Cezanne?
We’re largely independent, offering first line support to our client base. When we do have issues, we engage with the support team and have built up relationships with key contacts. We have regular discussions with the development team and having Megan (Cezanne’s Partnerships Manager) as a dedicated partner manager since last year has given us extra support too.
Based on your experiences, is there any advice you’d give to someone who’s just started looking for a new HR system?
We actually hosted a webinar last year, that you can find on our website, on using HR technology to drive organisational efficiency, which goes into further detail on tips for implementing HR software.
Our key advice for anyone starting this journey is to not rush the process and don’t take it all upon yourself to find the solution. Before you start your search, and as part of a business case, outline your high-priority business drivers and functionality that you need immediately that will benefit both you and your business.
Do this by engaging with other parts of your business, including your line managers, to better understand which of their people and compliance driven processes are admin burdens and need reviewing. This will also help you get them on board in the long run.
When you start speaking with providers, don’t be afraid to ask questions specific to your business that go into the detail. Perhaps not just “can you capture training records in the system?” but instead “Can I record that staff in this team need to record 15 hours of CPD each year?”.
If you get those basics right, you’ll be on the right track to choosing the right HR system for your business.
