Customers
"HighRoads' Global Data Management solution is helping us further extend our corporate benefits vision - to deliver quality, cost-effective, and competitive benefits programs - with a streamlined approach that facilitates our ‘best of local and best of global' philosophy."
Joanne Armenio
Director of international benefits for Kraft Foods, Inc.
Centralizing HR Data to Gain Control
Overview
Kraft Foods, the #1 food company in the US and #2 in the world (behind Nestlé). Kraft's North America business includes the world's largest cheese brand (Kraft) and the planet's largest cookie and cracker business (Nabisco). Reaching more than 155 countries worldwide, the company's international business offers most of Kraft's US brands, plus national favorites. Seven of Kraft's brands (Jacobs, Kraft, Milka, Nabisco, Oscar Mayer, Philadelphia, and Post) have revenues of $1 billion; more than 50 hit the $100-million mark.
The Challenge
The advent of the global workforce has led to new challenges for many large corporate HR departments, including Kraft’s. Their multi-national employee benefits programs had no processes in place, limited relationships between the international units, and disparate information in multiple formats in multiple locations.
The inability to instantly and easily access, consolidate, and analyze global employee HR data was causing months and months of tedious work that routinely concluded with inconsistent data.
The Solution
HighRoads created and distributed an International RFI to over 75 countries. By creating a single secure repository of global HR data, Kraft was able to collect, store, retrieve, update and analyze employee plans and programs in 8 weeks. Through an automated best practice approach, global HR information is managed in a secure environment and can be leveraged to:
- Collect, develop, and refine data and strategies for global benefit programs
- Conduct audits and reviews of global and regional employee benefits programs
- Address requirements for Sarbanes-Oxley Sec. 404 regulations
- Consolidate information to analyze new employee benefits strategies such as multinational pooling, statutory compliance (private vs. public), and rewards.
Detailed audit trails and document version control facilitate improved internal processes and greater accountability. And the solution allows for collaboration across internal personnel spanning geographic boundaries and external parties such as local and international consultants, without sacrificing the security or integrity of the data.
| Feature | Benefit |
| Central data repository | Central storage of all 2005- 2007 International benefits-related data for easy archiving and retrieval |
| Document workflow and control | Improves internal control and maintains an audit trail of changes to 1,200 core plan design documents |
| Comprehensive analytical tools and reports | Provides ad hoc reporting and data analysis as well as multi-country plan comparison |
| Advanced search functionality | Enables all stored data to be searched using user-defined criteria |
| Role-based access | Enables collaboration between internal and/or external parties without sacrificing the security of the data |
The Results
After 4 weeks of training over 100 offices worldwide, Kraft was able to establish best practices for data integration, content structure and active communications by consolidating their domestic and international data allowing groups to report in one format, in real-time.
Because of the new found efficiencies, Kraft relied on HighRoads SPD Manager to utilize the information found in the central data repository to create, update and manage all salary, non-union employees in less than 6 months. And are currently updating salary, union employees – an estimated 400 SPDs between the 90 unions established with Kraft.
By working with HighRoads, Kraft has been able to reduce costs and time – allowing not only the consultants to be more strategic but also the HR team to do the things they enjoy doing most, improving the employee experience.