Building a True Vision of Strategic HR

Doing things differently and thinking outside the box is the philosophy of the ic! berlin team. It goes without saying that HR manager Alexandra Neubert is also committed to this mindset.

When Alexandra joined the HR team in 2018, the 71 sales employees were managed using an American HR software but the HR manager was disappointed. “Unfortunately the solution wasn’t further developed, there were no updates and rarely new features,” says Alexandra. Also, scheduling holiday replacements wasn’t optimal either.

When a local legislative change for time tracking was introduced in 2020, Alexandra started looking for a new software. “After all, our American software had no solution to offer for legislative changes in Europe.”

The HR team of ic! berlin wanted an HR solution that would evolve, support important operative tasks and be able to manage a global workforce. “The new solution needed to enable better onboarding and offboarding, transparent approval processes and planning for absences,’’ Alexandra recalls.

After thorough research, two providers were finally shortlisted. “We then tested them with a small group of employees,” explains the HR manager. “Afterwards we were 100% sure that Personio could outperform our old software. All the testers voted for Personio”.

Getting the company up and running on Personio was fast and painless. “I implemented the software together with Julika, the implementation manager from Personio. The support was top-notch and in only three weeks we were able to use Personio,’’ Alexandra remembers. “The implementation even went faster than planned.’’

Since implementing Personio, Alexandra can focus on the essentials in her HR work. “Thanks to Personio’s simple user experience I find what I’m looking for faster and everything is clearer,’’ she says.

At last, Excel lists, tables and cumbersome arrangements via email are a thing of the past. In the morning Personio is the first program Alexandra opens. A glance at the dashboard shows her which tasks she has to complete, who is absent and which colleague has a birthday.

Alexandra also saves a lot of time when it comes to communication channels because employees simply enter their holiday requests directly into Personio and they are automatically logged there.

In addition to the practical calendar function, Alexandra also appreciates the webinars on product updates from Personio. “They are very well structured and close to the customer.” This helps the HR team stay up to date on new developments at Personio and get the most out of the solution for themselves and their employees.