The HR Team Becomes the Owner of HR Data How Amway Korea Cut Costs by 80% Through System Unification

A structure where HR staff couldn't pull HR data directly must have been very inconvenient.

It was. To pull HR data we always needed IT to support us, and even basic tasks like personnel assignments or creating codes had to go through an IT staffer. It got especially complicated whenever a law was revised — we'd repeat the same cycle of explaining the change to IT, discussing how to build it, and waiting for it to actually be reflected. As a result, timely updates were difficult and errors were frequent. Above all, the constant worry that HR information could be exposed to other departments always held us back. Granting annual leave was done in Excel, and leave-use reminders were printed on paper, distributed, and collected — so as the manual work piled up, the risk of human error rose right along with it.

What was the decisive reason you first decided to adopt a solution and ultimately chose JaDE?

Two factors drove the decision. The first was, naturally, security. In a situation where HR needed to be the owner of the data and control it directly, JaDE's proven security framework became the basis for getting internal buy-in. The second was a system suited to the Korean HR environment. Global solutions struggle to implement Korea's complex labor laws around attendance or its unique benefits programs. JaDE, with its configuration features optimized for Korean HR practice, closed that gap.

I hear attendance-management work also changed a lot after adopting JaDE.

The biggest change is that we now have a concept of monthly closing. Before, if someone retroactively claimed overtime from two or three months ago this month, the payroll manager had to keep reviewing and comparing it. Now everything is processed against the monthly close, so it's far clearer. Granting annual leave changed enormously, too. We used to do every bit of it in Excel, but now a single click grants it to everyone at once. The leave-reminder process is even more dramatic — we used to print notices, hand them out to every employee, collect them back, and check who had submitted; it was pure manual labor.

Beyond simply reducing manual work, has anything changed in how you work?

Manual work being tedious is one thing, but the bigger problem is that no matter how carefully you do it, human error is inevitable. That kept everyone so tense that the same task left people more fatigued and took longer. And from HR's side it may be one error among hundreds of people, but to the person affected it feels like their entire record is wrong. Fewer errors ultimately became an experience that made employees trust HR more.

The change in cost and headcount must be substantial too.

Adopting JaDE let us unify our systems, and as a result actual costs dropped by about 80%. We also had an IT staffer who supported HR system management — and honestly about half of that person's work was HR-system related. For the company, that person can now focus fully on other work, so we also gained the efficiency of 0.5 FTE in headcount. And it's not as if HR's workload grew significantly in exchange. With less manual work, we actually manage things more efficiently.

When you announced you were replacing an HR system you'd used for so long, how did employees react?

Of course, at first there were some "we were used to it, why change?" reactions. But once people actually used it, nothing had become less convenient — and the forms we used to handle on paper now lived inside the system, so more and more people found it easier. With a single HR link, you can check HR information, applications, and even benefits all at once. For us, the burden of storing hard copies dropped noticeably as well. On security, people initially found two-factor authentication a hassle, but after personal-data leaks became a public issue, they started saying, "I'm really glad we have 2FA."

I hear you're also making active use of custom-built application forms.

That's right. We have several custom-built forms — company-specific benefits applications, allowance claims and proof handling, and more. Even documents that don't require complex calculations came into the system as user-defined forms. Thanks to that, the burden of storing paper hard copies naturally went down.

After adopting JaDE, what operational know-how should an HR manager have?

Since patches roll out every month, the habit of carefully reviewing what's been updated is really important. When you read the patch notes, sometimes you can tell, "Ah, this feature probably came from another customer's request" — and it turns out to fit us perfectly too. If you just use it however it comes, you end up tapping less than half of its capabilities. It's also important to actively raise the features you need with the help desk. I once requested the ability to attach files during approvals, and it actually got implemented. Any manager who approaches it with the mindset of building the system together with JaDE will be able to make great use of it.