We have kept warm relations with UCMS Group. What stands out most is the very strong customer focus

SP Operational Manager

Services

Payroll (1,100 employees in the calculation)

Interesting tasks

• Change of citizenship of employees during the tax period
• Complex posting with extended analytics
• Individual calculation of the vacation reserve
• Preparation of annual mini-statements for employees on income, compensation and benefits

Project nuances

• "Hazardous" production (all three categories)
• Northern allowances, travelling nature of work
• Foreign employees (near and far abroad countries, HQS, EAEU)
• A large number of various bonuses, allowances and compensations, social payments
• Seasonal workers

About the company:

The company is known primarily as a tyre manufacturer. However, that is only one of its lines of business. Contributing to the development of mobility in all areas of life, the company actively develops innovative products and services in personalised service solutions and digital technologies. We have a fairly wide global presence, including in Russia and the CIS countries, where the company is represented by a production site and commercial divisions.

Tell us about your experience with UCMS Group.

I worked with UCMS Group from 1 March 2017 to the end of February 2019 - two years. Before that I had no experience with outsourcing. But everything was completely fine; at the time we mostly dealt with one person at UCMS, Natalia Makarova, a payroll specialist. We had good interpersonal contact. Natalia proved to be a professional, so there were no problems with the interaction at all from the very beginning.

You had a model where payroll was with the provider and HR administration stayed on your side. As someone from HR, do you see any problem in that? Or is such interaction normal and it does not matter whether everything is outsourced or only individual areas?

On the one hand, it is easier when HR administration stays in the company, because when you are in a situation you can react to it faster. With outsourcing, where everything is set out precisely, minute by minute - who does what and when - difficulties arise when unforeseen circumstances occur. For large manufacturing companies it is quite effective to keep HR administration in-house, but when the company is small, I think there is no point in keeping a separate specialist for HR administration and payroll.

Would you advise other companies to move to outsourcing?

I would advise approaching it in a fairly balanced way. I would weigh up all the pros and cons, because there are a lot of pitfalls. Moving to outsourcing rarely happens without difficulties. In any case you have to restructure, rewrite the procedure and spend a lot of time and effort. However, we coped. The process went quickly and easily!

Was there anything you remember especially? Maybe our team helped you out in some way, or the other way round?

We have kept warm relations with UCMS Group. We still use the services and keep archive data at UCMS. Our relationship has not ended. What stands out most is the very strong customer focus. We even worked at night! And that approach and that sense of responsibility for one's work always surprised us.

What could be improved in our service?

Actually, we expected more flexibility from the provider and more digitalisation at the time. When we ran the tender, UCMS lacked that. We needed a digital solution for our employees, and at that time UCMS Group could not provide it, which is why we chose another provider. On top of that there was a problem with resource flexibility during peak periods.

Yes, fortunately we resolved all the issues, including launching the new EmployeeGate solution. Over the past two years we have done a great deal precisely in terms of digitalising processes.

Quick-fire questions

Describe us in one word

Responsibility.

Tell us, what plans does your company have now?

We are looking towards digitalisation. Our near-term plans include developing electronic document flow, a flexible tool for employees. We want to move all paper document flow to electronic.

What do you see as the ideal provider? Who are they and what do you expect from them?

They should be an expert in their field, a customer-oriented provider, flexible in terms of change: both in terms of legislation and in terms of clients' situations. The provider must use cutting-edge technology - that is important! It comes to the fore in any field.

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