Matching the Mission With Visionary HR

When Aktion Mensch’s people team started researching a new HR software, they had their eyes firmly on growth: Their new solution should support the team in efficiently recruiting the right employees who share their overall vision.

After making their way through several options, Personio stood out. The team saw it as a holistic platform that also came out ahead thanks to their special conditions specifically tailored to the needs of nonprofits.

"On the one hand, from an HR perspective, we wanted a more comprehensive tool to speed up and digitise HR work. On the other, we wanted our employees to finally have a user-friendly and intuitive system to strengthen self-service and relieve HR at the same time," explains Carolin Nierhoff, Head of HR.

Jan adds: "During the selection process, we quickly realised that we could achieve both goals with Personio as a holistic system." That meant a system that could bolster the efficiency of employees and HR managers alike.

It would give them incredibly valuable time back."Especially for our work as a nonprofit organisation, cost-effective working is enormously important. It means more money can flow directly into our social projects. And that is our guiding purpose: to achieve something meaningful and drive inclusion in our society," says Carolin.

Aktion Mensch also enjoyed the fact that Personio is consistently improving by speaking directly with their customers."We also benefit from this. The world will be a different place tomorrow. Systems and companies have to be able to evolve with it," offers Carolin.

She adds: "That's exactly the Personio DNA, and it strengthens trust with us as customers…because our feedback is taken seriously." 

After deciding to go with Personio, the implementation process began right away. All in all, everything went smoothly and was wrapped up in just eight weeks. Aktion Mensch’s people team offered transparent communication and support from the beginning, helping roll out their new HR software to employees and managers alike. 

Carolin sums up the feedback from employees in one word: "Fantastic.” Together with the new system, Aktion Mensch also saw a complete shift in how they track time. Instead of using physical cards, employees now record their times themselves using Personio. 

"Managers don’t have to worry because employees are trusted to track their own time. With this leap of faith, we made the system very attractive for everyone involved right from the start," emphasises Jan.

Since 2021, the pace of recruiting at Aktion Mensch has picked up measurably. Their team has been posting vacancies directly via Personio while using the system’s multiposting feature to make their way across multiple job portals and social networks immediately. 

"Internally, we are now super fast," says Jan."Everyone involved in the process can participate directly, and the information about the candidates is available to everyone at all times. We control that via the role-rights system. And we have complete documentation stored in one place.”

“The volume of mail has dropped dramatically, and thanks to e-Signature, no one has to run to a colleague with an employment contract for a signature," reports Carolin. As a result, hiring decisions can be made more quickly, and the time it takes to fill a position has been significantly reduced.

The people team now invests the time gained with Personio to develop and drive forward innovative topics like employer branding and the latest recruiting processes. The digitisation of all their personnel files is on the agenda, as is a chatbot for any HR questions.

"Today, we can position ourselves as a truly inclusive employer and reflect our vision on our own company: We want to be pioneers and receive even more applications from people with disabilities," explains Carolin. 

What about employees? Team members at Aktion Mensch maintain their data in the system themselves and also record working hours and absences. They also have access to their pay slips. Remote working is requested in Personio, where it is also processed and approved by managers.

All internal regulations are tracked in the system, too. After almost two years of daily work with Personio, Aktion Mensch’s HR processes finally feel future-proof. Streamlined communication? Check. Accelerated information flows? For sure. Intuitive  employee self-service? Definitely. Their vision is becoming clearer every day.