Hochiki Group has been in business for more than 100 years, making fire detection systems for locations like commercial buildings, train stations, and shopping malls. Over time, the company’s products have become more complex, including multi-sensor devices with artificial intelligence built in.
The company has two parts: Japan is where Hochiki was founded and its headquarters remain. It also has an international business operating in several different locations worldwide, employing around 640 people.
Until recently, Hochiki had a mix of HR approaches across its subsidiaries; some were using a variety of different HR systems so there was no consistency between the offices. Others had payroll systems but no HR information system, and this meant that recruitment was handled by outside agencies.
“Our biggest challenge is recruitment for specialist roles: that’s what keeps me up at night,” says Katie Walker, Group HR director for Hochiki’s international business, who is responsible for the HR strategy that supports the UK, USA, Middle East and Asia Pacific regions.
“We’re a decentralised team so we operate as a group of companies, so I’m responsible for separate teams, which is challenging if I want to meet everybody because of coordinating the different time zones,” she adds. To help manage the HR function more effectively, Katie decided to consolidate the various systems into a single HR platform for the entire international business with the level of functionality Hochiki wanted.
The company had also been developing a strategy to create a more consistent experience for all employees wherever they are working. “This platform has helped us to align the way we work across our international businesses, and fits in with our ‘One Hochiki’ ethos,” Katie adds.
After implementation, the HR solutions specialist Grouper came on board to provide ongoing customer support to Katie and her team, including the transfer of all its staff documents onto the consolidated cloud-based HR platform.
Grouper provided assurance that the solution would meet the company’s data protection compliance requirements in various markets around the world. The system was set up to provide customised access, so managers only have permission to see HR information that’s relevant to their office.
As the designated ‘super user’, Katie now has visibility of HR activity across Hochiki’s international offices thanks to the platform. “From a reporting perspective, I do a monthly HR report that’s sent to Japan. I can provide information about starters, leavers, absences, and recruitment activity, without having to ask each HR manager. The data is just there. It has saved me time, and the feedback from colleagues in HR has been positive,” she says.
The recruitment element of the system is the most popular with Hochiki’s global HR teams. “It’s allowed us to align our recruitment processes and reduce some cost around agency usage, particularly in the US. The system posts open job applications on a range of recruitment platforms, and the application tracking feature is the part of the system we’ve had the most engagement with. It creates better efficiency because it is quicker,” Katie explains.
For example, candidates for open roles are contacted through the HR platform, which allows other authorised users to see the communication, what emails have been exchanged, whether a candidate has been interviewed, and an offer has been sent to them. Katie says this has improved how the HR function operates. In this case, it avoids delays if a member of the HR team who has been dealing with a particular job listing is not in work on a particular day.
“It also looks more professional from a branding perspective: candidates get an offer through the platform, and once they sign, the HR team member clicks ‘hire’, and the candidate becomes an employee on the platform, where they can go in to complete all their personal details,” Katie adds.
“The systems we had before didn’t have application tracking built in, so now we have more information around our recruitment – and we have grown headcount in some of our business by 10%.”
Lastly, Katie appreciates the close support of Grouper with any technical issues, with a dedicated account manager on call. “I feel like if I need to reach out and speak to him, he’ll try his best to find a solution. He knows the system really well so his technical knowledge is really good. I feel that, by going to him, I get technical expertise and he tries to sort out other problems with the solution. Knowing that I’ve got Grouper to support us as a customer, makes me feel more reassured.”
