The HR Service Center at ARTS in Dresden

The merging of company processes into service Centers has become established in the long term and the trend to clearly break down the individual topics in HR departments is unbroken. We have also followed this approach at ARTS and have transformed our internal structures into an HR Service Center. In this way, we were able to create an independently operating specialist department whose processes were ideally aligned and which can ensure the fastest possible handling of our employees' concerns.

What are the advantages for our employees? 

Critical voices say that with this form of organisation individuality and closeness to the employee are lost. However, colleagues at other levels benefit enormously from the support provided by an HR Service Center: 

1. The employee has a professional contact person at all times and there is no waiting time or time lost due to holiday or illness of the assigned contact person.
2. Enquiries can be processed more quickly, as all team members are fully familiar with the topics and processes and the specialist can be called in at any time.
3. The HR Service Center can be contacted by telephone and e-mail Monday to Friday from 9.00 - 18.00 hours. 

Which advantages does the new organisation offer ARTS? 

Our Service Center not only has positive effects for the employees but also for our entire company. 

1. The Service Center works more cost-efficiently and transparently, since the economies of scale resulting from the bundling of repetitive activities and clear process standards mean that a lower overall support key is required for employee support.
2. There is a clear process chain and responsibilities. Unnecessary additional or duplicated effort is thus prevented. 
3. By directly assigning tasks and process steps in the digital personnel management system, they can be processed more quickly and effectively.
4. In the event of staff absences, such as holidays or illness, substitution is clearly regulated and no issues need to be handed over. In addition, all information and discussion notes are documented in the personnel administration system and are therefore transparent for the entire team.
5. Short, fast communication channels as all team members work at a common location and in the same system and the proximity to interfaces and stakeholders enables functional cooperation.

Challenges that arose during the changeover

The changeover to a central Service Center presented us and me personally with a number of challenges which we initially had to overcome during the conversion phase. However, with well-planned change management, the transition went smoothly overall.

First of all, the employees were informed about the upcoming changes. Some were surprised that they would no longer have a personal contact person in future. It took some time for some colleagues to get used to the service hotline, but overall the openness and acceptance for the new form of support was very high from the very beginning. Over time, the considerable advantages have also become apparent to the individual employees.

For me personally, the biggest challenge was to familiarise myself comprehensively with all important topics and processes so that I could answer every enquiry immediately. In addition, the pandemic means that we are currently in a very uncertain period for people and there is a lot of uncertainty regarding issues such as short-time working or possible job losses. We are trying to allay these fears through open and honest communication.