The trigger: finding a solution suited to watchmaking, not a generic tool

When Saskia Henry arrives at Metalem at the end of 2023, management sets an ambition: move from manual HR management to a digital, up-to-date tool. Ten providers are evaluated.

Roger is chosen. What makes the difference: the Roger team seeks to understand Metalem's specifics, challenges its practices, and relies on the modularity of its tool to match Metalem's specifications. Concretely, this made it possible to improve something that now benefits everyone: an hours make-up module that meets the requirements of sectors like watchmaking.

The project starts in February 2024. Scoping and configuration in March-April, tests in May-June, data migration in August, launch in September. Six months, to the day.

To bring the teams on board, including the craftsmen who do not all have a professional email address —an issue addressed from the scoping phase —Metalem relies on fifteen ambassadors, volunteer employees who test the tool before the final choice.

For manager training, Roger presented the tool on site and then provided remote support. An approach that enabled managers to quickly manage their teams' attendance with the tool. For employees, the ambassadors took part in support. Very quickly, employees managed their timesheets, balances and absences themselves and no longer went through HR.

After the September launch, Marie-Noëlle Jeanneret, customer success manager at Roger, provided support in continuous improvement: process adjustments, workflow optimization, response to blockers.

And Saskia Henry concludes:

"She knows Metalem's employees, their environment, their way of working. A detail that changes everything in day-to-day adoption."

The transformation: a complete HR digitalization, from the shop floor to management

The goal has now been achieved: the HR function is digitalized. « We went from an administrative office to a real HR function », summarizes Saskia Henry. This represents six months less administrative work each year.

This time has been reinvested in what was not possible before: setting up an employee handbook, structured tracking of apprentices, and polyvalence matrices to prepare for retirements and secure rare know-how.

On the ground, each employee has gotten into the habit of checking their vacation balance. There are almost no HR calls for this type of question anymore. The paper timesheets signed by managers, handed over and filed by HR in shoeboxes have disappeared. Along with them: data-entry errors and checks.

For managers, the change is just as concrete. Before Roger, he had no visibility over absences and presences. Today, he has a shared calendar to organize his teams' work.

As for regulatory obligations, the data for the cantonal authorities is ready in half a day, compared with a week of work before.

An unexpected benefit has also emerged: internal communication. The platform makes it possible to share information directly with employees. It's a positive impact observed on the ground that Metalem had not anticipated