Node4's HR success story

Exceptional Service as a Standard (ESaaS) is Node4’s mantra and permeates the whole business, including HR. Back in 2020, a poorly-implemented system that people didn’t use certainly wasn’t living up to their mantra. There was no self-service, so updating something as small as an employee address meant approaching their HR team.

Managers weren’t able to sign off holidays within a central system and sickness recording was sporadic. Payroll took longer than it should have, with errors feeding into other parts of the organisation, and a separate reporting module causing even more challenges. Newly promoted to Chief People Officer, Dave Birchall knew things had to change. 

“Our previous HR system didn’t work well for us. The interface was poor, and it was so complex. People just didn’t use it, and I couldn't advocate its use as we grew through acquisition.” Node4 wanted a flexible, scalable solution that could work well with their growth strategy. It also needed to be able to deliver accurate data for decision-making and enable self-service for their entire organisation.

As CPO for Node4, Dave's role is all about enabling employee experience and ensuring that people can deliver on promises made to clients. "As part of this, it’s important to have systems and processes in place that make employee experience enjoyable and motivating.” Their existing system was up for renewal, which presented a great opportunity to make a change – so Dave and his team started considering their options. 

The selection committee had several criteria on their wish list, including flexibility, scalability, plus a way to easily connect with other systems and applications in support of data analysis. To help with employee experience, self-service, and easy navigation became top priorities, and, of course, they had a keen eye on the budget too. “Because of our growth by acquisition, we needed a solution that would work well when integrating new businesses. Scalability is easy with Personio, and the additional costs are transparent, which helps with our planning.”

Personio’s approach to customer service management was a big driver for choosing Personio. That’s because Node4 actively seeks out organisations that mirror their ESaaS culture. “Having the resources and services clearing mapped was a real benefit for our planning and budgeting. Personio seemed to be a partner that wanted to deliver exceptional service like we do.”

A fast-approaching renewal deadline meant timelines were already tight. Then, at the eleventh hour, Node4 realised that, for business reasons, their original plan regarding a sub-company wouldn’t be possible. “A week before go-live, it became clear we needed to unexpectedly create a separate instance of Personio for a new acquisition. Incredibly, the Personio team paused, came up with a plan, and got it done.”

Dave explains that implementation is continuous because of the way Node4 is growing, which makes Personio's model even more important. “The implementation project management, communication cadence and super reliability are real differentiators. Even when someone goes on holiday, there’s a plan to avoid stopping and starting. Personio’s responsiveness was and is brilliant; they really accommodate our needs.”