Roc - Roc news

ROC Newsletter Jan/Feb 10

Damian Williams — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Welcome to the latest issue of ROC’s Newsletter. With the dawn of the new decade, many organizations are once again looking at the value they are getting from their IT budgets. At ROC, we are assisting our clients maximize their return on this investment and position themselves to deliver outstanding HR service to their employees. From helping build a strategic roadmap to applications support, ROC is adding value to their SAP investment. In each issue of our Newsletter we share some of these highlights.

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Inside SAP - Top 10 most influential People

SAP — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 00:00:00 +0000

We are really proud to announce that Sandy Eastman, CEO of ROC ANZ, has been recognized by ‘Inside SAP’ as one of the ten most influential people in the SAP Australia & New Zealand region.

Poland: e-declarations in SAP

Ryszard Wysocki — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 00:00:00 +0000

ROC Poland has a new solution, e-Deklaracje, allowing SAP customers to send tax forms PIT-11, PIT-8C & PIT-40 electronically to the Ministry of Finance, saving time and effort.

Visualize even more with SAP TVN Release 2.1

Damian Williams — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Last month saw SAP release SAP Talent Visualization by Nakisa version 2.1.

The latest enhancements for this fast evolving product further adopt leading talent management best practices and allow customers to visualise more data and relationships within their organisation.

Southwark County Council & SpinifexIT Payroll Reporting Tools

Damian Williams — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Says Lynn Farrell, SAP HR & Payroll Manager of London Borough of Southwark: “We are really excited with the opportunity that the deployment of SpinifexIT Payroll Reporting tools presents to us at Southwark County Council. Finally, there is a product that can bridge the gap between SAP’s Ad-hoc Query and Business Intelligence (BI)”

“Without having to go to the incredible expense of a full blown BI project, we and our users are now able to extract management information simply and efficiently without the need for IT involvement - ROC and SpinifexIT have provided us with a step change in SAP HR/Payroll Reporting”.

SAP Upgrade - Sussex Police

Damian Williams — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Sussex Police realised, in late 2007, that it needed to upgrade its existing SAP systems

to increase efficiency of HR management and meet legislative requirements. Both finance and procurement departments also benefited and the organisation gained both new functionality and future expansion options. One regulatory change, affecting public sector pensions, was impending during the implementation phase, constraining the project tightly by the fiscal year.

Fully integrated Performance Management from SAP

Tue, 01 Dec 2009 00:00:00 +0000

SAP Performance Management is fully integrated with other SAP HCM modules and provides a whole range of functionality. And best of all, it can implemented in less than 2 months !

ROC Global Newsletter Nov/Dec 09

ROC Systems — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 00:00:00 +0000

November has been a busy month and with December already upon us we have combined the last two issues of the year to bring you a packed Christmas edition. This issue is all about Performance Management with links to a recent article published by ROC on the importance of Performance Management in today’s economic climate. On ROC TV we have a recording of October's webcast with guest speakers from Towers Perrin and a customer that implemented Performance Management in under 2 months.

In tune with the festive period we have included a case study on Hasbro Inc., a worldwide leader in children’s and family leisure time products and services, who will no doubt be very busy at this time of year. With ROC's help, Hasbro implemented a global Compensation Management solution to simplify the annual pay review process.

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ROC Global Newsletter Oct 09

ROC — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 00:00:00 +0000

This month’s edition has a heavy focus on the SAP HCM Processes & Forms Technology (powered by Adobe) including a White Paper, links to the last webcast that was run and details of an accelerated approach to implementation.

We have also included details on ROC India, our new offshore centre that is helping drive down implementation costs for our customers. We hope you agree that there are a lot of exciting things happening at ROC at the moment. We are delighted that The Sunday Times has recognized this and has included ROC in its annual Tech Track survey of fast growth organizations.

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SAP World Tour Event, New York City

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 00:00:00 +0000

ROC, the leading global SAP HCM consultancy, today announced it continues to strengthen its commitment to SAP (NYSE: SAP) as a sponsor for the SAP World Tour in New York City, being held on Wednesday, October 21, 2009, at the Marriott Marquis hotel. Les Hayman, ROC Group Chairman of the Board and former global Board Member of SAP, will be a featured keynote speaker. Hayman’s presentation, “4 Ps of HR: Polite to Police to Partner to Player,” will review the critical elements that separate great companies from average companies, and how great companies drive innovation and utilize technology as a strategic weapon. Click here to read more.

Accelerated Solution for SAP HCM Processes & Forms

Wed, 30 Sep 2009 00:00:00 +0000

ROC is pleased to announce the launch of its accelerated approach to SAP HCM Processes & Forms, one of the latest technology components available on the SAP HCM platform. This SAP technology allows organizations to replace many manual form based processes with interactive Adobe Form technology to reduce HR cycle times, improve accuracy and compliance with approval requirements. ROC’s accelerated solution delivers 10 forms out of the box and reduces implementation time significantly.

ROC Global Newsletter Sep 09

ROC — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Welcome to September’s edition of ROC News, the newsletter designed to keep you in the picture of what’s happening around the world at ROC and all things SAP HCM. September’s issue has a Talent Management theme with links to our last webinar on Succession Planning and a client Case Study on SAP TVN, along with information on future events, webinars and much more….

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ROC joins the Sunday Times Tech Track 100

Sun, 20 Sep 2009 00:00:00 +0000

As a reflection of ROC’s rapid growth over the last three years, ROC was ranked number 54 in the Sunday Times Microsoft Tech Track 100.

We would like to thank our employees for all their hard work and dedication in helping make this happen. Full details are included in the attached 8 page report and on the Tech Track website www.fasttrack.co.uk.

Nakisa Announces Global Integration Partnership with ROC Group

Tue, 08 Sep 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Nakisa® Inc., the pioneer provider of truly-integrated talent and organization management solutions for SAP®, today announced it has added ROC to its ecosystem of solution integration partners. Under this agreement, ROC, a leading global SAP Human Capital Management (HCM) consultancy, will implement SAP® Talent Visualization by Nakisa (SAP TVN) worldwide.

To view the full article please click here.

ROC announces the launch of ROC Italy

Vicky Burr — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 00:00:00 +0000

ROC, the leading global SAP HCM consultancy, today announced the launch of its Italian subsidiary, ROC Consulting Italia. The launch of ROC in Italy propels ROC into the central Mediterranean region. Taking advantage of the growing SAP market, ROC Italy will bring ROC’s wealth of SAP HCM specialist knowledge to its local customers.

Les Hayman, chairman of ROC and former SAP Board member, championed the launch, “This is an important move for ROC and for our customers. ROC Italy provides a vital European platform for many of our clients. This latest expansion across Europe is a natural progression of our business strategy and reinforces our commitment to become the largest global SAP HCM consultancy.”

The Milan-based arm of ROC will be headed up by Enrico Repossi, who has extensive management experience, both international and local, and brings over ten years of SAP and HCM experience to ROC.

Repossi comments, “Our strong team is well-placed to bring their local experience to ROC. With the Italian market heavily focused on Talent Management, ROC Italy will help our customers to visualise their talented players and see real benefits from their workforce.”

This news comes alongside a period of rapid growth for ROC, with partnerships across all the major geographies around the world. ROC employs over 300 SAP HCM experts.

Getting the Best Future for Your Company

Stephen Burr — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Early May saw SAP release the latest “Enhancement Package” (EhP4); these packages are SAP’s way of deploying new software functionality to customers without disruption. Although there are notable improvements in the core HCM module, this enhancement package delivers major improvements in the area of Talent Management.

But in the current global downturn, is this important right now?

Firstly, I’d echo Damian William’s thoughts in the previous article “Investing in the future” that continual progression of your organisation’s capability, by managing your talented employees, is key to your company’s growth. Les Hayman (ROC Chairman) has previously spoken about how almost every company, via corporate mission statements, tells us that their employees are key to their business. But how many act on this corporate statement? Talent Management is a process that helps deliver on that goal.

It is crucial to realise that Talent Management is a business process that I.T. can help enable. It is about joining up processes across recruiting, learning, performance management, succession planning and compensation management to ensure the right data is collated and available to key decision makers. SAP EhP4 ensures a common data model is used to ensure data is accessible to the right people at the right time using specific roles that are defined for each person in the talent management process; recruiter, learning administrator, managers, etc.

While technology can provide a mechanism to the business to achieve its aims, it needs the business to embrace the process as well as the corporate strategy to re-enforce that commitment.

Talent Management is about getting the best future for your company.

ROC Acquires Towers Perrin SAP HCM Practice in North America

Vicky Burr — Fri, 01 May 2009 00:00:00 +0000

ROC, the leading global SAP HCM consultancy, today announced that it has entered the North American market via its acquisition of Towers Perrin’s SAP HCM Practice. ROC Americas Inc. forms a crucial element within ROC’s global business strategy.

ROC brings over 10 years of experience and a global capability to the SAP HCM services market in the US. The combination of ROC’s global reach and local expertise, together with the ability to provide cost effective offshore delivery, provides a compelling proposition and a genuine alternative to the established players within the North American market.

ROC and Towers Perrin have announced a strategic alliance, positioning ROC as Towers Perrin’s preferred partner for SAP related services. ROC and Towers Perrin have a history of collaboration, having worked together on a number of previous occasions. We believe that this move will further benefit customers by leveraging the best aspects of both organisations.

Les Hayman, ROC Chairman and ex global Board Member of SAP, champions the deal: “This is an exciting move both for ROC and for SAP customers. The reputation and experience this acquisition brings to us will strengthen our position in the global marketplace, as well as provide a strong foothold for ROC in North America, a key market for us. For customers, it provides access to a greater depth and breadth of knowledge and a larger scope of services, from a truly global provider, to help them address their HCM challenges.”

“We are pleased to be partnering with ROC, an organization that brings the right focus, experience, expertise and culture for our employee and our customers,” commented Thomas Keebler, practice leader for the global HR Function Effectiveness practice at Towers Perrin. “The pairing of Towers Perrin’s deep consulting expertise across the breadth of the HR function, and ROC’s singular focus on SAP HCM, will provide clients with a unique and robust combination to best serve their needs and drive business performance.”

Jerry Chilvers, ROC CEO, said: “I am thrilled by the prospect of this acquisition. ROC and Towers Perrin are both great organisations and I believe that customers in the US will be extremely well served by this unique blend of HCM business and technology expertise. In today’s challenging economic environment, organisations more than ever before require specialists that can deliver tangible business benefit cost effectively."

Investing in the future

Damian Williams — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Employers are not willing to let their talent suffer, according to the latest research from Ochre House. Some 67% of surveyed employers are planning on rewarding their top performers with a pay rise this year, despite the current economic climate.

With so many tales of redundancies, the concern would be that valuable employees are lost during the process. As we know, not every company has a robust talent management process in place. Successfully managing talent is vital to the future success of every organisation and it’s refreshing to see that managers are recognising the need to invest in their key players. Keeping staff motivated and secure will ensure that business will flourish and the future leaders are in place to steer the ship.

With reports of headcounts on the increase, it is clear to see that companies are investing in the present as well as the future.

ROC UK announces exclusive partnership with SpinifexIT

Vicky Burr — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 00:00:00 +0000

ROC, the leading global SAP HCM consultancy, today announced an exclusive partnership for the UK market with SpinifexIT, a company specialising in the production of SAP R/3 software specifically for the HR/Payroll module.

ROC is the sole UK provider of the SpinifexIT SAP products, Generic Reporting Toolkit©, Payslip Analyser© and Dataport©. SpinifexIT has built a strong customer base in the Asia-Pacific region, the US and Europe and has partnered with ROC for its expansion into the UK SAP payroll market. As the leading HCM SAP specialist in the UK, ROC will have a significant positive impact on bringing SpinifexIT’s products to market. The SpinifexIT products increase the accuracy and efficiency of the Payroll query process; those sites who have implemented the products have benefited from a reduction in trouble shooting time for Payroll support teams of up to 80%.

Damian Williams, ROC Group Founder and UK Managing Director said, “The partnership offers SAP customers in the UK the opportunity to streamline their payroll operations. Already successfully deployed across many countries, our partnership cements the penetration of SpinifexIT into the UK HCM payroll market. ROC and Spinifex IT have tailored the product to the specific needs of UK customers. ROC Group has many successful partnerships with SAP specialists around the globe and we are pleased to be able to welcome SpinifexIT into the UK HCM market.”

Jeremy Reilly, UK Manager at SpinifexIT commented, “We chose to make our sole UK partnership with ROC Group as it is a well-established, successful consultancy with a large client base in the UK payroll market. Our companies have a shared vision for excellence and business process improvement for customers using SAP HR and Payroll.”

This is the latest in a series of partnerships for ROC Group. Previous partnerships with companies including Kaba and Nakisa have enabled ROC Group customers to enhance their SAP product by offering additional functionality.

Shared service centres: widening the skill gap

Damian Williams — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 00:00:00 +0000

According to a report in Personnel Today, over 56% of HR executives and CEOs believe that shared service centres are killing off the skills of our HR professionals, through lack of exposure to key working practices.

It’s a worrying thought that the next generation of HR professionals might be missing out on vital skills and experience, simply from a lack of exposure. The report expects this to lead to skill gaps further down the line.

I don’t believe for one minute that shared services is the sole cause of this; let’s not forget the many benefits it can bring, through streamlining resource and cost. But there’s clearly a balance to be struck between processes that are shipped out and those kept in-house, so that ‘core’ HR skills are passed on to future HR executives.

We are all aware that,HR faces the challenge of having to prove its value, especially in the current climate. However, HR should be viewed as a ‘business change’ function, rather than simply an admin department churning out expense claims and holiday forms. To help to make that move to establish itself as a legitimate decision-maker in the boardroom, managers need more time to invest in thinking strategically.

So, the time saved through the effective distribution of processes through shared services means that there is now more time available to strategise and start planning for the upturn.

It is crucial, though, that HR managers must also find the balance between utilising resources effectively through shared service centres and not letting the skill set of their colleagues suffer through lack of experience in HR admin and procedures.

ROC reports rapid global growth.

Vicky Burr — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Company expands footprint and revenue towards goal of becoming largest global SAP HCM consultancy. ROC, the leading global SAP HCM consultancy, has announced exceptional financial growth for 2008 expanding revenues to approximately £10 million a year. The company has also expanded its global footprint across all major geographies boasting over 250 percent year-on-year growth, against an industry standard believed to be around 20-25 percent. The company has achieved this without taking on debt or drawing on VC investment.

Throughout 2008 ROC has seen a rapid expansion in its global footprint, including the addition of three more strategic countries: Benelux, South Africa and Australia & New Zealand. ROC now has an employee base of over 300 Business Transformation and SAP HCM experts across the globe, which is set to continue growing during 2009.

Les Hayman, chairman of ROC and ex-CEO of SAP EMEA commented: “Our ongoing partnership programme has been central to ROC’s success this year. Our global clients are now able to access ROC’s knowledge and expertise in every major geography around the world. This allows us to create globally joined-up SAP thinking for large enterprises, whilst spreading ROC’s in-depth SAP understanding to locally operating players. 2009 will provide many possibilities for ROC to continue its growth, seeking out new areas for expansion and taking advantage of every new opportunity.”

ROC Global CEO, Jerry Chilvers, said, “It is great to see our business succeeding despite the economic challenges. I’m very proud of the ROC team’s performance over the past 12 months and am confident we can continue and expand upon our successes throughout 2009. Our rapid growth is a testament to ROC’s strong business strategy and reinforces our commitment to become the largest global SAP HCM consultancy.”

ROC ANZ launches into Asia Pacific market

Vicky Burr — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 00:00:00 +0000

ROC, the leading global SAP HCM consultancy, today announced that Azenkai, a leading SAP Service Partner in Australia and New Zealand, will become part of the ROC Group, forming a strategic element of ROC’s global business.

Les Hayman, chairman of ROC and ex-CEO of SAP Asia Pacific, championed the deal: “Our partnership with Azenkai and the Asia Pacific initiatives is an exciting move for ROC and for our customers. Asia Pacific is a crucial market for many of our clients and this will give them access to a full complement of SAP services from one, stable, global provider. Azenkai was the right fit for ROC, given its culture, the depth of experience of the executive team and local and regional knowledge”.

This announcement is one of several this year, following ROC’s expansion across South Africa, France and Benelux.

ROC Global CEO, Jerry Chilvers, said, “This exciting deal is a natural progression of our business strategy and reinforces our commitment to become the largest global SAP HCM consultancy by the end of 2008. Azenkai shares both the ROC dedication to HCM and the approach to exceeding customer expectations.”

ROC now operates in all the major geographies around the world, employing over 300 HCM Business Transformation and SAP HCM experts.

Equality Bill, Diversity Management

Damian Williams — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 00:00:00 +0000

Diversity management is one of the largest challenges organisations will face over the next decade. Making sure an organisation has a successful mix of staff from different genders, races, ages and ability levels is not only becoming a legal requirement but is also crucial to ensuring staff satisfaction and positive career outlook. Staff diversity also brings a varied skill set and a valuable range of experience to the company. Skilfully implemented diversity management can have a large impact on a company’s future competitive success. But what are the key challenges and opportunities and how can an organisation effectively tackle this highly complicated task?

The UK job market is constantly evolving thanks to the thriving EU-wide staff pool, increasing globalisation, a growth in outsourcing and the development of UK-based multinational companies. Alongside the cultural, racial and religious-based issues that must be considered with new staff coming into the country, ever-changing diversity legislation helps to keep managers on their toes.

Global workforce issues, discrimination, gender pay gaps, glass ceilings and providing appropriate opportunities and working environments for disabled staff, ensure the onus is on modern companies to develop extensive and well-planned diversity policies. Managers must then make sure their policies are implemented properly to avoid the various legal consequences.

The days of legislation driving diversity are fading. This year’s Equality Bill tasks public sector companies and their private sector partners to assess their diversity policies and get their houses in order. Attention must be paid to this new legislation to avoid possible employee litigation and hefty governmental fines. Companies are now scrambling to define their policies, establish effective audit procedures and manage their information to adhere to the new rules. Transparency is the key to the Equality Bill. Ensuring companies face up to their responsibilities and be seen doing so, can only bring benefit to the UK’s workforce as a whole.

Developing and adhering to diversity policies does not only benefit an organisation by protecting it from legal risk. Diversity can breed a thriving and profitable company whilst increasing its wellbeing and ambition. A positive atmosphere of equality and fair play, with opportunities clearly available for all, will make the organisation a pleasure to work in and attract new desirable talent. Motivated, fairly-treated staff are more likely to strive to be the best they can be, providing benefits to both the organisation and the individual.

But it’s easy to talk about diversity; implementing diversity policies can be more complicated, especially in larger companies. The execution of new diversity plans and their corresponding results can take some time to appear. For example, simply reporting a snapshot of the current employee makeup may reveal diversity issues but these can take over a year to fix from instigation to impact. Creating and rolling out procedures, assessing their current workforce and predicting future trends all have significant time and cost implications for managers and HR that cannot be overlooked. For this reason, it’s important that organisations start their diversity management as soon as possible.

A good diversity management plan should be quite straightforward and centre on the core topics of gender, race, disability, age and religion. The various issues emanating from each topic are complicated and far too extensive to be covered in one article. However, there are certain all-encompassing areas that can be addressed to put your organisation on the right path.

Firstly, putting the right systems and technology in place will help a company effectively manage diversity. The analysis of existing staff makeup, the tracking and projection of trends and most importantly the logging of documents, communications and other collateral relating to these actions can and should be implemented through an interlinked diversity system. Larger companies will find the size of their task comparative to the size of their organisation, and enlist the support and technology appropriate to their needs.

Secondly, put in place plans and systems for the whole recruitment process, such as advertising, short-listing, interviewing and selecting should be an initial step. Companies can start looking at their existing staff and implement systems for checking staff makeup to ensure that going forward, all groups are represented appropriately. The appraisal system of an organisation should be rigorously over-hauled if necessary. Fair and honest measurement, achievable objectives, appropriate promotion and remuneration should all be provided under an umbrella of accountability and transparency.

Internal harassment, grievance and disciplinary procedures are also of paramount importance to the company. All employees have the right to work in a pleasant environment, free from discrimination and bullying. The Disability Discrimination Act also forced companies to sit up and respond to any potential problems for disabled employees. Companies may think that they already comply well with these aspects of employment law – but is their workforce really able to cope in a sensitive and professional manner with a colleague undergoing gender transformation? Is the line management currently able to adapt to a new team member who needs completely bespoke training due to a physical disability?

There are also likely to be many other processes and actions to monitor and control that are specific to a particular organisation. It’s important that HR professionals pick apart all internal processes for their own organisations that could influence diversity and adjust their own plans and policies accordingly.

Another major part of organisational diversity is being as prepared as possible to counteract criticism. A core benefit of effective diversity management is the creation of clear and interlinked audit trails. Once implemented, these should then be able to help protect against alleged legal breaches whilst also improving the administrative burden of diversity management. Companies can then easily demonstrate their compliance with diversity and anti-discriminatory legislation. They will have access to appropriate and coherent documentation should an employee or union complaint reach a legal stage. The monitoring and recording of information relating to diversity should then become a simple, routine process and thus a way of life for an organisation.

The government’s Equality Bill was specifically designed to create a wave of diversity in public sector and their private sector suppliers. The Equality Bill was initially proposed to cover every company and organisation without discrimination, if you’ll excuse the pun. But with many private sector companies behind the public sector in their diversity management, the Bill was reduced in scope. But this certainly isn’t the end of legally imposed diversity in the private sector and private-sector companies should not sit back and wait for diversity management to be legally forced upon them, especially if they are trading with public sector organisations.

Future legislative changes will only increase the pressure on companies to put diversity on their boardroom agenda. While many organisations will groan, the ramifications of a diversity ‘wave’ can be highly positive. The implementation will be difficult for some but now is the time that savvy companies can take the initiative, dominate diversity and come out better-suited to the needs of our multicultural society and their own respective markets. With diversity being managed properly, we’ll be left with a better environment for the public and private sectors and of course, for employees.

Damian Williams is MD of ROC UK

The Equality Bill – Time to Sit Up and Take Notice

Damian Williams — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 00:00:00 +0000

The Government’s Equality Bill, announced by Deputy Labour leader and Equalities Minister Harriet Harman in July, has been long anticipated by public sector organisations and long dreaded by many of them. While the anticipation of the Bill and the implications it has for the sector have been heavily discussed, it appears that it may have caught many unawares. Data is yet to be released on the sector’s compliance with the bill but with a spate of new employee litigation filed shortly after its reading, it sends a clear message to organisations that aren’t ready that they need to get ready soon.

The first major implication of the Bill is the impact it will have on the private sector. The government hopes to use it to bring both public organisations and their private sector suppliers into line on diversity management. From now on, companies bidding for contracts worth £160bn a year can actually lose work if their competitors have a better record on equality in the workplace. Likewise existing suppliers may find themselves playing catch-up to compete with dynamic and diverse equality-ready suppliers as a wave of diversity compliance sweeps public sector procurement.

To the unprepared, bringing an organisation in line with the bill could be a difficult task and is definitely more than a box ticking exercise. The Bill is a real legal minefield, providing many potential stumbling blocks for unsure HR departments. Complying will require a step change in the way some those dealing with HR issues operate in order to avoid being taken to the cleaners by legally-wronged or, of course, underhanded employees.

The Equality bill brings together over 100 separate pieces of legislation covering areas of race, sex, age, religion, disability and more. Basically anything about a worker (that doesn’t obviously prevent them from doing a job) that could be classed as discriminatory, features. Examples of this include: removing gags on discussion of pay to eliminate gender pay differences and promoting provision of employment and appropriate working environments for older people.

One could be fooled into thinking that the Bill was a completely negative thing for the sector but it shouldn’t be viewed like this. In many ways the Bill is an opportunity – why? Well to start with, it brings together a heap of disparate legislation meaning it is now much easier for organisations to get their heads around what they should be doing and recording regarding diversity. The Bill also paves the way for a diversity code of practice to aid compliance, so it may yet become even easier to comply with the tenets of the bill and get organisational diversity on track. It should also help well-prepared organisations avoid possible legal trouble in our increasingly litigious culture.

A central tenet of the Bill is in encouraging transparency in diversity management. The law now allows the Equality Commission to set-up investigative tribunals who can then request and assess appropriate documentation to support an organisation’s diversity claims or of course claims against them. A lack of clear documentation could lead to court orders and hefty fines. The Bill also provides ample ammunition for critics and lawyers to hit an organisation with. So to avoid being caught out the onus is really on being as prepared as humanly possible to counteract criticism.

What this means for an organisation is a need to record all pieces of important information that relate to diversity and highly detailed audit trails demonstrating compliance with the Bill. The Bill calls this the public sector’s ‘Equality Duty’ and puts pressure on organisations to attend to the key areas of gender pay, ethnic minority, disability and age representation and religion.

The trouble is that the audit trails needed to back up an organisation’s diversity credentials can quickly become highly complex and highly admin-intensive. Consider having to log all background details on recruitment ads, interviews and recruitment decisions, promotions, pay rises, bonuses, disciplinaries and grievances – understandably this can become a real bottomless pit for man-hours. Having the right systems and technology in place can help an organisation create clear and interlinked audit trails which can then mitigate against alleged breaches of the bill and of course remove some of the administrative burden.

Some important areas of diversity that organisations should think about straight away are: employment advertising, dealings with recruitment agencies, communications on appointments, disciplinary actions, documents pertaining to promotions, demotions, position applications and so on. There are likely to be many other processes and actions to log that are specific to a particular organisation. So it’s important that HR execs pick apart all internal processes for their own organisations that could influence diversity and adjust how they comply with the Bill accordingly. And it makes sense to do this sooner rather than later. Compliance requires a lot of forward thinking and planning and cannot be carried out in a piecemeal fashion. For example, simply reporting a snapshot of the current employee makeup may reveal diversity issues but these can take over a year to fix from instigation to impact. So waiting until the law comes into effect could leave organisations exposed for some time while they wait for revised policies to flow through.

Some commentators have derided the bill for the fact it will not be imposed upon the private sector. However it’s likely that disastrous and costly consequences of being shut-out of public sector procurement will have a large effect on private companies. With the FT reporting the public sector outsourcing has doubled over the last ten years to £80bn this year, there is an even larger onus on the sector to sit up and take notice. As a long term-view the government has signalled its hope that private organisations will actually start reporting on diversity in company accounts and that shareholders will start using this as important indicator of a company’s investment prospects.

For public sector organisations to be able to enforce diversity checks in their own procurement it is vital that they first get their own houses in order. While in the long term it may more efficient for a company to bring in an HR consultant to overhaul policies, there are avenues that can be looked at right away. Putting in place plans for the whole recruitment process, such as advertising, vetting, interviewing, selection should be an initial step. After this companies can start looking at their existing staff and implement systems for checking staff makeup to ensure that going forward, all groups are represented appropriately. Once these systems, whether developed in-house or bought-in, are in place the monitoring and analysis of pay deals, new employees, promotions and as a result compliance with the Bill should become much more simple. Indeed, once the appropriate policies are in place diversity management should become a way of life for an organisation.

While many organisations will have groaned at the announcement of the Equality Bill, in the end the ramifications for both the public and private sectors should be broadly positive. The shakeup will be painful for some but now is the time that savvy companies can take the initiative, dominate diversity and come out better suited to the needs of our multicultural society. Hopefully, after the shakeup, we’ll be left with a better environment for the public sector, private companies and, of course, for employees.

Damian Williams is MD of ROC UK

ROC are Premier Sponsors of HR2008

Olivia Farry — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 00:00:00 +0000

As part of the Premier sponsorship, seven speakers from ROC will feature in the conference line-up, including a keynote address from Les Hayman, Chairman of ROC. ROC will also host an evening reception for delegates on the 6th of November.

Les will deliver a speech entitled “The future of HR — can it survive in your organisation?” The address, given on Wednesday 5th November, will cover numerous important challenges facing the modern HR organisation including: the global war for talent and the importance of tackling business issues through HR. He will also look at the other critical business challenges keeping the world's CEOs awake at night.

Alongside ROC, one of its most valued customers, Hampshire County Council will also speak about its own implementation of SAP Talent Visualisation (powered by Nakisa).

Trevor Stabb, of Hampshire County Council (HCC), will present a case study of the solution at the authority. The presentation will focus on the collection, management and organisation of HR-related data at HCC, the solution that was implemented, and how it was wielded to greatest effect. Trevor will also look at the how the visualisation and customisation of HCC's systems made the implementation even more rewarding.

Damian Williams, UK Managing Director of ROC, expressed his excitement about the event: "This is a really important time for ROC, which has seen very rapid growth over the last 12 months. This event is a great opportunity to share some of our experiences with the HR community, whilst looking at some of our clients' great SAP successes. We are really proud of our close relationship with SAP and being the Premier sponsor of HR 2008 only helps strengthen these ties."

Several ROC consultants are also presenting and hosting sessions at HR2008. Tom Hallewell, Solution Architect, is delivering several conference breakout sessions on Talent Management as well as hosting a discussion forum on E-Recruitment. Richard Honnor, Practice Manager, is presenting 'An introduction to the SAP Workforce Planning and Optimisation solution. Stephen Burr, Solution Architect and Simon Humphreys, Practice Manager, are delivering Talent Visualisation and Talent Management presentations respectively. A member of ROC Nordic, the Norwegian arm of ROC, Jens Ejsing is also hosting a session for delegates, focusing on strategic design and delivery of a global deployment of SAP HCM.

Talent Management: Nothing to do with employee benefits?

Damian Williams — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 00:00:00 +0000

Talent management is the current buzzword in HR. Talent management is the identification, recruitment, development and deployment of a company's most capable employees. It is a strategy used by employers to improve the retention ratio of their best staff, increase employee loyalty and boost productivity.

Talent management is focused on growing the individual; concentrating on their training and development within the company, while ensuring there are always successors in place that are suitable for key positions should someone leave.

Benefits have an important role to play in talent management. They form an intrinsic part of the value proposition that organisations offer new and existing employees. Flexible benefits can be worth their weight in gold in the employee retention stakes. Research published by the Economist this year, called Talent Wars - The struggle for tomorrow's workforce, discovered that salaries and employee benefits still rank extremely highly in designing a new value proposition for tomorrow's workforce (56%), second only to providing for a better work-life balance through offering flexible working arrangements in terms of hours and place of work (62%).

Structuring a flexible employee benefits programme so staff can select the incentives that are pertinent to their lifestyle is a key weapon in the arsenal of talent management and the retention of star employees. When an organisation is attracting new talent and a candidate is deciding between several offers, it can boil down to what an organisation can offer them. Flexible employee benefits allow the employer to appeal to a diverse range of applicants, and attract good quality candidates.

The ability to mix and match benefits, from pensions and childcare, to holiday allowances and gym memberships, performs a key role in organisations' approach to attracting talent. What appears to be a benefit for one employee may be less important to another, for example, pensions are often less attractive to the younger workforce but become important later on in life.

Although talent management is a corporate level strategy and benefits are ultimately employee incentives, the two are inherently linked. The return on investing time and money in attracting, training, nurturing and retaining key players in the company is diminished if a flexible approach to benefits is not offered as well.

Damian Williams is MD of ROC UK

ROC Announces 10th Anniversary Celebrations

Olivia Farry — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 00:00:00 +0000

ROC, a leading global SAP HCM specialist, has announced plans for its 10th anniversary with a day of celebration for all its employees around the world. The event, comprising speeches, team building and other motivational activities, will take place at The Grand Hotel in Brighton on the 2nd of October.

The celebration will be an opportunity for all staff to take stock of their achievements over the last ten years and contribute to, ROC’s strategic future. The event will be punctuated with speeches from ROC Chairman Les Hayman and SAP Ambasador, ROC Global CEO Jerry Chilvers and a motivational speaker. Staff will also participate in team building exercises, a gala dinner and a staff ball to end the event.

Jerry Chilvers, ROC Global CEO, commented, “ROC’s recent growth has been like a whirlwind, so it’s been a really exciting time for the company, especially over the last few years. Our staff numbers have grown from 40 to over 150 in under a year so we thought our 10th birthday would be a great opportunity to stop for a moment and consider the future of ROC as the global business it has become.

As HR professionals, we know how important it is to keep employees invested in the present and future of the company and that’s what this event is about. We couldn’t have got where we are today without them and we need their help to keep pushing ROC forward and to make it the success it deserves to be.”

The announcement marks an important milestone for ROC which has seen rapid growth to become one of the worlds leading SAP HCM specialists. ROC is now a truly global company with bases in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia, Australasia and North America.

ROC’s growth has continued this year, with a joint venture with Benelux-based Quintysis, creating ROC France to serve the French and Swiss markets. ROC has also partnered with South Africa-based SAP HCM consultancy, SWICON in order to penetrate the sub-Saharan Africa market.

Prior to these announcements, ROC welcomed Les Hayman to the team as Chairman. Les was previously the Vice President for SAP in the EMEA and south-Asia regions and still works as an ambassador to SAP. The addition of Les to the team has provided ROC with extensive strategic knowledge and experience of the HR world, whilst strengthening its already firm relationship with SAP.

ROC launches SAP HCM Internship

Olivia Farry — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 00:00:00 +0000

ROC is pleased to launch its SAP HCM Internship, providing opportunities for candidates with an HR background and experience working in a SAP HCM project team. By joining ROC's SAP HCM Internship you can:

Become a SAP HCM consulting expert
Join a world class specialist SAP HCM consultancy
Train up in the latest SAP HCM technology
Learn how to configure SAP HCM modules
Experience the SAP HCM project lifecycle
Be mentored by one of the world's most experienced SAP HCM consultants

At the end of the program you will be given the opportunity to specialise in a SAP HCM module. If you are an enthusiastic hard worker who is keen to take your career to the next stage then contact us at careers@roc-group.com.

ROC provides enhanced SAP HCM demonstration capability

Olivia Farry — Sat, 20 Jan 2007 00:00:00 +0000

ROC has recently fully integrated its demonstration capabilities such that existing and potential customers can now view the full suite of SAP’s Human Capital Management (HCM) functionality on a single environment. Not only that, but this capability is also portable which allows ROC to bring all this functionality to life at your premises.

The demonstration scenarios follow a candidate through their application to the company via e Recruitment, their subsequent induction as an employee, and then follow them through the first year within the organisation including on-line appraisal reviews and performance based remuneration. Key Performance Indicators are reported to managers using SAP’s Business Warehouse.

The functionality is made available to users predominantly via SAP’s Self Service applications – Manager Self Service, Employee Self Service and the newly introduced HR Administrator Self Service delivered through an Internet Explorer Portal.

If your organisation is considering the implementation of an integrated HCM software application, then email us at enquiries@roc-group.com or telephone +44 (0)1932 268512.

Public Sector Qualifications Body Christmas Payroll delivered safely by ROC

Olivia Farry — Sat, 30 Dec 2006 00:00:00 +0000

A National Public Sector Body responsible for the development, accreditation, assessment and certification of qualifications can look forward to a festive Christmas thanks to ROC. The customer had confidence in ROC to deliver the project safely and on time at a very sensitive time of the year for employee’s pay packets.

ROC awarded ISO 9001 Quality Certification

Olivia Farry — Fri, 10 Nov 2006 00:00:00 +0000

ROC Systems Consulting Ltd has recently been awarded the ISO 9001:2000 certificate for quality assurance. This international certification lets ROC clients know that the Company is dedicated to delivering service that meets their expectations and has the management structures in place to ensure that a high quality of service is continually maintained.

The successful award of the certificate is the result of both an external audit of ROC’s quality management systems and the immediate implementation of its results. The importance that ROC places on the delivery of quality services can be seen by its choosing to submit itself to ISO 9001:2000 auditing.

ROC is now able to use the ISO 9001:2000 logo on all stationery, websites and indeed any promotional matter. The logo indicates to clients and prospective clients that ROC is committed to the continual improvement of its services for the benefit of its customers.

However, the ISO 9001:2000 certification is more than just a one-off award. It is dependent on ROC’s quality management systems being reviewed every quarter as well as being externally audited on a twice yearly basis. The review and audit process is an essential element of the certification which ensures that ROC continually looks to improve its service.

Peter Appleton, Business Development Director of ISO Quality Services Ltd, the company that carried out the certification process says “I am delighted to have been involved with ROC Systems Consulting during the implementation of the ISO 9001 Certification. I have been able to advise the company on how it can best structure its systems to deliver quality services. This ultimately benefits the customer as well as the business itself.”

Jerry Chilvers, Managing Director of ROC Systems Consulting Ltd says, “We are committed to offering a quality service from the start and we have already built in systems to maintain a high standard of customer service. All the team at ROC have worked really hard to achieve this certification which is an indication of how important quality is to us as a company.”