Banyan Tree uproots admin HR processes for SAP’s IT solution. By Lee Xieli
In a move to stay ahead of competitors, Banyan Tree Holdings announced earlier this year that it will transform its traditional administrative HR processes into a progressive IT solution to manage its talent pool better.
The luxury resort operator and developer will be adopting SAP’s ERP Human Capital Management (SAP ERP HCM) solution to improve its capability in identifying and developing talent for the business. The solution, to be deployed by SAP’s implementation partner ObTech Asia Pacific, will also help 10,000 Banyan Tree employees across 52 offices worldwide to collaborative better at work. Ariel Vera, group managing director of Banyan Tree Holdings, says implementing this solution would allow HR to track and input the lifecycle of his associates’ employment. This includes recruitment, training programmes, performance appraisal reviews to global assignments and even promotions.
Employee information that is readily available in real time helps the management “monitor staff’s progress” from any location better, he adds, and that saves a lot of time and resources for the company. “The advantage it has given us is to be able to implement our strategies to make it easier to identify talent, monitor their progress and look for the relevant people for training, developing [and] promoting them.”
As Banyan Tree is looking to double the current number of its hotels to 40 in four years’ time, Vera estimates he would need over 10,000 more employees worldwide. But as the company expands into more countries, he believes there is a “danger” of colliding work cultures. He sees this SAP ERP HCM solution as an immeasurable tool to help him identify existing internal leaders who can be groomed to head these hotels to ensure the continuation of the Banyan Tree culture. “To be able to promote our existing staff who are already instilled with this [culture] is more important to us.”
While Banyan Tree has invested close to US$1 million in implementing this solution, Vera says there is “very little reduction in cost” when compared to the processes the company has in place now. “If I estimated it myself, maybe 15% in terms of the human resources function, especially administration.” However, he expects the investment in this IT solution to increase as the company expands with more hotels.
