Before hunel, what was the hardest part of payroll and time management?
Problems piled up as the in-house HR system we had run for more than 15 years aged. It carried a great deal of hard-coded exception handling, so every change to an HR policy led to another stopgap fix, and because there was no regular data cleansing, faulty data kept accumulating. Above all, the way we worked had hardened around each person's own know-how rather than a standard, system-based workflow. Even pulling a single HR metric requested by management ran up a heavy communication cost, because the business side and the IT side understood things differently.
Given those difficulties, you decided to rebuild the organization and HR structure first. What did you weigh in the next step?
With management approving new investment, we decided to rebuild the organization and HR domain on Workday. From the outset, Workday alone could not hold payroll and time processes grounded in Korean law, so we started looking in parallel for a domestic HR solution that would create the most synergy with it. As we reclassified our people around job roles and standardized the HR architecture, we set the direction from the very beginning: payroll, time and benefits would be complemented by a separate solution that responds precisely to Korean regulations.
Among the many HR systems available, what was the decisive point in choosing hunel?
hunel was rated highly for its wealth of implementations in Korea and for the stability that comes with a packaged solution. Through competitive bidding it was selected for payroll, time, benefits and reviews, that is, everything outside organization and HR. It scored particularly well on responding to Korean law and regulation, including flexible work arrangements.
| Before | After |
| Workday alone did not reflect Korean payroll · time · benefits specifics | hunel put a structure in place for Korean regulations |
| Reliance on hard-coding, workflows personalized to each owner | Standardized processes · data made analysis straightforward |
| Managers had to request an individual report to see data | Managers check data at once on the HR dashboard |
| Concern over stability risk when integrating with Workday | Phased, sequential integration kept the risk minimal |
Stability must have mattered a great deal while integrating organization and HR data. How did you manage the risk?
Because the structure fed Workday's organization and HR data into hunel through an inbound interface, we focused first on letting hunel's own functions settle in reliably. In phase one we secured the stability of payroll, time, benefits and reviews, then split the Workday integration into phase two and carried it out in sequence. Dividing the work into stages let us land the system without major risk.
Leading this project, where did your team put the most effort internally?
Our part was to bring payroll, time and benefits rules that differed across every affiliate into a single system. Standardizing 100% of each company's particular payroll logic proved difficult, but we spent the most time and energy setting the criteria so that work would run around standardized processes and policies as far as possible.
After standardization, how did routine HR work actually change? We are also curious about the response from employees and management.
With the data standardized, analysis became far easier. Managers responded well to seeing data at a glance on the HR dashboard, and in time and benefits the UI was approachable and easy to read, so employees were satisfied with using it. Management also considers that this project contributed to HR Innovation overall.
How was the customer support experience? Were there moments when HCG's HR expertise made a difference?
During the build there were points where staffing issues pushed the schedule back, but active follow-up support at the head office level let us finish without serious problems. The consultants on each module also understood Korean HR regulations well, which helped with practical matters, and in areas that require responding to Korean rules, such as payroll and time, we received guidance reflecting the latest regulatory trends and were able to keep risk to a minimum.
Which companies would you especially recommend hunel to? Perhaps those that have run a legacy HR system for a long time, or those facing a large-scale HR build.
I would recommend it to companies that need Korea-specific coverage because an aging in-house system has reached its limits, and to large corporations that have to hold the differing policies of many affiliates in one system. What Workday alone struggles to fill can be complemented by hunel, which reflects practical requirements precisely. Backed by many implementations in Korea, its strength lies in responding to Korean law and regulation, so I think it will be especially valuable for a company that wants to implement the complex HR policies of a large organization with precision.
Finally, are there any tips worth keeping in mind early in an implementation?
Define the requirements clearly and keep talking with the departments involved throughout. An HR system also carries sensitive dimensions, change management for employees and the agreement of the union and staff on policy, so I recommend approaching it from an overall HR Innovation perspective rather than treating it as a simple system build.
