HR director Yves Rocher Vostok about the experience with BDO

 

In the summer of 2010, Yves Rocher Vostok held the tender in order to choose a salary calculation services provider. The problem of handing over of this function to an outsourcing company has arisen because of the necessity of reorganization of Company’s structure. During preliminary meetings with BDO, the representatives of Yves Rocher Vostok have noticed that for the changeover that will be necessary not only to incorporate some separate databases, but also to realize new specific requirements for adjustment of the salary calculation system and for the personnel accounting system. Besides, the changeover had to be carried out in rather brief terms. Team of experts of the outsourcing subdivision of the BDO group has joined this work with enthusiasm.

 

“The problem of assignment of the salary calculation function to an outsourcing company was really difficult to us. We were solving it with all service subdivisions of Yves Rocher Vostok and also with the information security service of Yves Rocher Group, for all our internal IT systems are connected with the information system of the head office in France and with other branches of the Group. We have uniform servers, uniform communication channels; therefore, it was necessary to observe the corporate requirements for the information security and confidentiality of data transmission. From this point of view, I can notice that the BDO have been acting as a very client-oriented partner. With its help we have adjusted an additional transit system of data transmission from our remote workplaces to the BDO information system. It was not provided by the initial offer, but subsequently it became an obvious decision which couldn’t be ignored” - Lyubov Posikera.

 

About the company

French cosmetic Brand Yves Rocher is named in honor of its founder, the Creator of Herbal Cosmetics, monsieur Yves Rocher. The Brand was created in 1959 in the French province La Bretagne, in a small town La Gacilly. Today, the main part of the activity of Yves Rocher Group is concentrated there: 44 hectares of fields belonging to the Brand, research laboratories, and the industrial centres. In 2010, the Brand celebrated its 50-year-old anniversary.

The Brand’s history began under fantastic circumstances. Once young Yves Rocher has met an elderly guérisseuse (a folk woman doctor) with a reputation of the witch. The lonely woman understood that it is the time to transfer to someone the rare and valuable knowledge of flora. For this purpose she has chosen the young Yves Rocher, whom she could trust and who was seriously interested in the nature. Yves Rocher has adequately used the received knowledge. In the attic of his own house he has created a small laboratory where he has created his first cream. So, the Yves Rocher’s herbal cosmetics were born. It is sold today in 90 countries on 5 continents of the world and has more than 30 million of regular customers worldwide, 6 million of which are in Russia. The Brand Yves Rocher is the second (after McDonald’s) international company which has penetrated into the Russian Market, and the first cosmetic brand which has implemented the self-service system in its shops.

Today, Yves Rocher makes more than 300 million units of production a year, has assortment of 1000 names, and distributes its production via several sales channels - shops, catalogues, and the Internet.

 

- Lyubov, could you tell me, please, why Yves Rocher Vostok had to assign the salary calculation function to an outsourcing company?

 

- When in 2009 I was invited to be the HR-Director in Yves Rocher Vostok, the out-of-date versions of the program 1С was used for salary calculation. For program maintaining we used the services of invited IT Adviser. I have to say that it was an expensive and rather tiresome process; we had to “reanimate” the system after each release of 1С and to be present at office at the “closing” periods, for there was a constant risk of failures both in options of calculation algorithms, and at information transfer into the system of corporate reporting (SAP). Thus, in the spring of 2010, when the necessity of organizational changes in our company has come to our heads, and when we had to attach two legal bodies to the Yves Rocher Vostok LLC (570 persons) till the end of 2010 – one in Moscow (90 persons) and one in St.-Petersburg (190 persons), the first question was whether the existing system will sustain such a substantial growth of number of the personnel. We were not sure about the answer, therefore in May of 2010 we have asked ourselves the following question: how will we be working? Will we introduce a new HR records keeping and salary calculation system, or will we assign this function to an outsourcing company? Without refusing the first decision (introduction of our decisions), we have decided to study modern offers on the outsourcing market, and in June of 2010 we organized the tender. We have invited two companies to take part in the tender . Certainly, we could invite more companies, including representatives of the “Big Four”, but we considered that providers should have: 1) firstly, a specialisation in a certain type of service; 2) secondly, an experience with the foreign business in Russia, and 3) thirdly, a good understanding of Russian realities, because all of us perfectly understand that salary calculation in Europe and in Russia is essentially different.

 

- Why have you decided to invite the BDO for participation in the tender?

 

- There is a certain background of this choice. In 2005, when I worked in Mobile TeleSystems, the company held the tender for rendering of salary calculation services (I participated in the tender commission as a representative of the human resource management subdivision). In spite of the fact that the decision about insourcing of that function has eventually been accepted, in the course of preparation for the tender we had minutely studied the outsourcing possibilities for the accounting functions, competitive advantages of the companies, their real possibilities, price offers, and, besides, independent estimations of experts and colleagues. From then onward I did not cease to interest myself in the outsourcing possibilities for the accounting functions in Russia; it has been rapidly developing, its leaders have been increasing their potential, improving technologies, developing their client base. Therefore, in 2010, when we declared the tender for the assignment of the salary calculation function of Yves Rocher Vostok to the outsourcing, I understood that we already know at least two candidates for participation in that tender. Of course, we could offer that to 10 or 15 companies, but we have decided to begin our work with two leaders of the market, leaving the possibility of invitation of other companies, if that would be required. The analysis of the offers took about 11/2 months, and I can tell you that by the price of the offer, structure of services, and also by the level of mutual human and professional understanding, company BDO has obtained a victory in this tender. It was a collegial decision of Yves Rocher Vostok. Subdivisions of the Company, including the financial service in the person of chief accountant and other employees, experts of IT Department, took part in offer studying. Financial Director of Yves Rocher Vostok was my main partner during the discussion. And, together with the General Director, we have solved the problem of assignment to the outsourcing.

 

- Do the majority of you clients agree that the stage of assignment to the outsourcing the most difficult one?

 

- The problem of assignment of the salary calculation function to an outsourcing company was really difficult to us. We were solving it with all service subdivisions of Yves Rocher Vostok and also with the information security service of Yves Rocher Group, for all our internal IT systems are connected with the information system of the head office in France and with other branches of the Group. We have uniform servers, uniform communication channels; therefore, it was necessary to observe the corporate requirements for the information security and confidentiality of data transmission. From this point of view, I can notice that the BDO have been acting as a very client-oriented partner. With its help we have adjusted an additional transit system of data transmission from our remote workplaces to the BDO information system. It was not provided by the initial offer, but subsequently it became an obvious decision which couldn’t be ignored. The BDO suggested to us to integrate on our own three essentially different databases; the salary calculation in them was absolutely different, there were different kinds of charges; so, we had to carry out a plenty of work from August 2010 till October 2010 in order to have a uniform database on November 1st (the moment of reorganization of three legal bodies mentioned above). Working with BDO, we never regretted our partner choice; nevertheless, it should be said that the partners need some time to get accustomed to each other’s way of working. It is an adaptation period right now. But as there was a mutual trust from the very first meeting with the BDO Settlement Centre’s business development experts and employees, it remains today, helping us to find conciliatory proposals and arrangements.

 

- In you previous jobs, and you always worked in large companies, such as L’Oreal, MTS, VTB, did you have an experience of similar projects introduction?

 

- Yes, I had an experience of introduction of information systems. I took part, as the financial control department representative, in introduction of SAP in the Russian branch of L'Oreal Group; I also was responsible for the introduction of module Oracle HR in MTS. Therefore, the project of assignment of the function of calculation of salary for 850 persons to the outsourcing didn’t confuse me. I only had to count and find an approach for realization of this project using our possibilities. We redistributed duties between employees of HR Department and appointed the manager of the project, but at the same time agreed among us that everybody to the best of their abilities would be participating in the project. And then, when we acquainted with the BDO team, all our doubts disappeared.

 

- Did Yves Rocher Vostok assign the internal functions to the outsourcing before?

 

- Yes, but that was rather outsourcing of some functions directly connected with our business. For example, we use the warehouse services, and those are different types of services for different sales channels. We have an outsource call-centre which has more than 250 advisers. Now, the function of calculation of salary for 850 persons is assigned. Yves Rocher is a European company, an international brand, the outsourcing for concept is not something new for it. Unfortunately, we can’t say that about the majority of Russian companies.

 

- In your opinion, in what extent the outsourcing is used in Russian companies?

 

- As a matter of fact, many Russian companies still have their doubts in the confidentiality provision, they have some fear of starting period difficulties; the financial part also matters, as the companies compare the cost of the in-house function and the cost of outsourcing companies services. But outsourcing is really favorable, although it includes teamwork and additional efforts of both parties. Inevitably, there are fixed dates at such model of interaction for which it is necessary to prepare the information for calculation; participants of process work within a very accurate schedule. When you work within the limits of traditional model, you can grant yourself a certain delay that you can not do it today, and you will do it, say, tomorrow. That way is impossible at work with an outsourcing company. There are accurate arrangements which are required to be observed. And not all the companies are ready to make such compromises and to reconstruct their internal business processes.

At the same time, the assignment to the outsourcing model quite often allows optimising of the number of the personnel; and we, actually, have made it. Before assignment to the outsourcing, the salary of our employees had been being calculated by four accountants (three persons in Moscow, and one - in St.-Petersburg). Today, only one employee works for us in Moscow and the accountant in St.-Petersburg works half-time. But they carry out mainly auxiliary functions. Taking into account the changes of the legislation which come into force in 2011, we foresee that the quantity of the papers to the employees will essentially increase. Unfortunately, that can’t be avoided. Besides, during the certain period of time we will inevitably be making explanations to our employees about the changes in the legislation. That is a lot of work, and someone in the company should carry that out.

 

- What are your expectations of the cooperation with BDO?

 

- I would like to diversify as soon as possible the options of the HR records keeping module (this operations are still carried out by the employees of HR Department of Yves Rocher Vostok, but in system of BDO), therefore there are some wishes about adjustment “for Yves Rocher’s requirements”, but I’m sure that that’s only a matter of time. As a whole I am content with the cooperation with BDO. Ideally, we must reach such level of interaction when I remember the partner only when payment bills come (laughs). Besides, we use different forms of partnership with BDO. Recently we employed a common Corporate Adviser, Elena Vorobyova, the author of annually republished book "Salary" (in February 2011, Elena Vorobyova held a seminar for the employees of the outsourcing subdivision of BDO and the employees of Accounts Department and HR Department of Yves Rocher Vostok, devoted to the new rules of the salary calculation in 2011). I met Elena Vorobyova in 2004 when I was responsible for the methodology function of HR records keeping and payment in MTS. I was very much interested by her book "Salary", and I decided to write to her. Elena kindly answered my letter, we began to correspond, and soon we agreed about corporate consultations for MTS. Elena’s councils appeared to be extremely useful not only from the point of understanding of rules of working hours planning and accounting and salary calculation, but also for resolution of system problems of HR management: composition of the company’s typical employment agreement and local acts – Internal Code of Conduct and Regulations on Compensation. Since then we did not lose sight of each other. We met again in 2009 when I came to Yves Rocher Vostok and initiated the project on introduction of working hours planning and accounting system from remote workplaces in shops. If speak in general about quality of consultations of Elena Vorobyova, I can tell you one thing: when there are important changes in the legislation or radical changes in payment system are needed, corporate consultation of Mrs. Vorobyova is simply necessary. And in routine working process (including the training of young colleagues) we use the book “Salary” with pleasure. I am very glad that Yves Rocher Vostok and BDO have now the common adviser.

 

In 2011 the book “Salary” under edition of E. V. Vorobyova was republished again. “Salary” has already been being published for 14 years and is a reference book for the experts in the field of accounting, salary calculation, and human resource management. Elena Vyacheslavovna Vorobyova has kindly agreed to leave the autograph on a Lyubov Posikera’s copy at the office of Yves Rocher Vostok.

 

POSIKERA Lyubov Radievna. In 1990,graduated from the international journalism faculty of the Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia; in 2003, graduated from the State academy of qualification improvement of the investment market employees (ГАСИС) with a degree in Human resource management. She has the diploma of political sciences and business management of the University Paris-IX (Dauphin), France. Candidate of political sciences. 1995-2004: worked on different positions (logistics and finance) in the Russian branch of the corporation L'Oreal. 2004-2006: was responsible for development of some projects in human resource management in Mobile TeleSystems JSC. In 2007-2008, she was a Head of HR Department of affiliated companies of VTB Bank. From the beginning of 2009, she is the HR Director of the Russian branch of Yves Rocher Group LLC.

Along with experience in the field of human resource management, she has a practical experience in logistics, administrative accounting, financial and economic analysis, engineering of business processes, introductions of ERP-systems.

 

The material was prepared by Julia Timofeeva