KFC franchisee Collins is working with Salure on ever smarter HR and payroll processes.
Fast-growing Collins Foods (KFC) on partnership with Salure
With hefty growth ambitions and an ever-changing workforce, fixed HR systems can hinder you considerably. Once they were fine. Now they are, literally and figuratively, an increasingly frustrating barrier to your growth. A flexible HRM platform removes that barrier. But what does that look like in practice? We asked HR manager Soyana Mooren and project coordinator Ajsa Dedić, from our client Collins Foods Netherlands Ltd.
The name Collins Foods Limited will ring a bell with few Dutch people. Yet almost everyone knows its product. The Australian franchisee operates fast food restaurants of Kentucky Fried Chicken (YUM! Brands), among others. Not only in Australia, Thailand, Japan and Germany, but since 2017 also in the Netherlands. Now, in mid-2021, Collins Foods Netherlands Ltd operates 34 of 77 KFC outlets.
As an implementation and management partner of AFAS Software, Salure helps organizations set up and manage AFAS’ administration software as desired. Collins has been outsourcing the HR and payroll administration of all its employees (currently about 1,500) to Salure since 2019.
Choice of Salure and AFAS
The choice of AFAS and Salure was linked to several aspects, Soyana recalls. “We liked the fact that we could place part of the payroll with Salure, pay a fee for it and keep the other activities with us. Altogether, this made us lower in terms of costs than with an organization that did everything.” Ajsa: “We enter the mutations into the system. Then Salure – especially payroll specialist Daniëlle Fokkens – checks and processes the changes to get everything right on the paychecks.”
Soyana (left) and Ajsa (right)
In addition to payroll, Collins works closely with Salure’s Functional Management department. The goal of this department is to help customers make optimal use of the AFAS software. For example, by connecting AFAS with even more business systems, and automating even more processes. Like other functional management customers of Salure, communication between Collins and Salure in this regard is through Salure’s relatively new ticket tool (launched in April 2020). Through this digital environment, customers can exchange questions and information with functional managers.
Ajsa: “If we want to build something into our internal software environment, we ask your Functional Management department through the ticket tool to take care of it for us. Or we ask them for an analysis or plan to make specific processes easier and more efficient.”
As a concrete example, she mentions verifying identity documents and any residence documents of new employees. “We always ask about showing this documentation, but now, thanks to an AFAS connection, we can quickly check its authenticity with Valicare’s verification software.
Work fast
We want to grow, so we want to automate as much as possible. It doesn’t work if our HR department has to do these kinds of checks manually every time. Now it really works like clockwork, and completely according to the AVG. Perfect that we were able to do this with Salure and Valicare.” As a result of the same process, recruitment notifications, transfer notifications and contract extensions are now also handled smoothly and centrally via the AFAS software.
Such options, to automate more and more processes with Salure’s help, makes the partnership attractive to Collins, Ajsa believes. With the assurance that everything will run smoothly. “As Quick service restaurants, our KFC locations have to work quickly and effectively to serve their customers. Therefore, you want to avoid a restaurant manager spending hours on administration. When things like this run so quickly and smoothly, it makes it easier for them and our central HR department. They can then focus on the restaurant, the colleagues, and their guests.”
Danielle (left) and Ajsa (right)
Fixed contact person
Besides the time savings that the cooperation with Salure and AFAS brings to Collins, Ajsa also experiences the contact as pleasant. “For example, I have one fixed contact person, which is Daniëlle. If she goes on vacation, she indicates who we can contact for as long as it takes. So I never have to wonder which one of you I should be with.”
The ticket tool also works positively, she finds. “I know when and what I can use it for. I always get a fairly quick response and a concrete solution.” Her manager Soyana nods in agreement. “I completely concur. We have a flexible package, where we can request additional services. As soon as we need them, we get them delivered in less than 24 hours. We really like that a lot.”
Future Vision
Ajsa: “In the HR field, we can always make life easier for our colleagues. I do have ideas about that, haha. But right now we really need to focus on further implementing the capabilities of AFAS InSite. I’m glad that a large part is now in place, and that everyone has figured out how it works. In the beginning we still got a lot of questions from the branches. For example, because of unfamiliarity with or errors in the AFAS system. This had to do with our switch from the previous payroll company to Salure. I am very happy with how it works now, and that Salure is helping us so well. I still have lots of ideas for the future, but we need to complete a number of innovation projects well before it gets too much.”
Her manager Soyana agrees. “But that Salure can support us with every idea we get, we think it’s good to know. Also that Salure sometimes very honestly indicate that something cannot be done, or in a different way. We can then spar with each other about that. In that respect, too, Salure is a very suitable partner. We find that super nice.”
Above: One photo of the Collins Foods (KFC).
Growth
When Collins Foods Limited entered our country via Germany, the franchisee started taking 16 locations of fast food chain KFC Corporation in 2017. The number grew to 29 locations until 2021, and since July 1 to the 34 locations mentioned earlier.
The growth ambition does not stop here, reveals Soyana. “We definitely want many more. That’s why we think it’s very important to have our HR strategy in place. Unfortunately, because of the COVID-19 pandemic, we actually lost some employees, so partly because of our growth ambition, we really need to have a good focus on hiring.”
For that, Collins needs smooth-running HR systems. Soyana: “For both Ajsa and myself, but certainly for our restaurant managers. It allows them to quickly implement their human resources policies. That’s the strategy for now: implement projects that match our growth.”
