Top4sport, through its online store, has been offering all kinds of sports equipment from global brands like Nike, Adidas, Puma, Under Armour, and more for 15 years. In 2010, it started as a purely Czech e-shop, but today it operates across Europe. Managing the HR agenda is not an easy task. How Sloneek helped with this, we discussed with Jan Přibyl, who serves as the Procurement Director at Top4sport.
HR at Top4sport
As mentioned in the introduction, Top4sport has undergone several successful expansions, allowing it to boast branches in Germany, Croatia, France, Spain, Switzerland, Austria, Italy, Slovenia, Hungary, Poland, Benelux, and Greece. The growing number of employees and the expansion into new markets brought challenges in human resources management.
“Each branch of the company managed the HR agenda independently, which led to inconsistency and difficulties in sharing information across countries. This led us to the decision to create one central system that would help unify processes such as hiring and onboarding,” says Jan Přibyl, Procurement Director.
The work of HR professionals at Top4sport is also complicated by the fact that the company has diverse work models. Employees at stores have a different regime compared to those working from home in countries without offices or those working in the office.
“When you have 1,200 employees in various employment relations across 15 countries, it’s difficult to maintain order in the agenda,” explains Jan Přibyl.
HR itself also has several employees across countries. In the Czech Republic, two people are responsible for it, while another six handle personnel matters abroad.
Implementation Process
In response to these challenges, Top4Sport decided to implement an HR system that would centralize and standardize HR processes across all branches and countries. The main goals were, in addition to data centralization, also automation of processes and improvement of reporting.
According to Jan Přibyl, all the agenda before Sloneek was managed in “Excel” style, and in addition to introducing automated workflows, it was necessary to give data and processes one interface to make them more transparent. Moreover, the company was growing, and due to the increasing number of employees, the HR capacity was at its limits.
Therefore, the company began searching for an HRIS, where the price/performance ratio was not the only factor in the selection, but also the method of implementation, data transfer, and customer service. The company wrote down all its requirements for the system and then began the selection process, eventually contacting Sloneek, which implemented the system within a few weeks.
“The system is very intuitive, so we quickly mastered it, not only us but also the employees,” comments Jan Přibyl.
Results and Benefits
The benefits of the HRIS were noticed by HR professionals at Top4sport within a few weeks. Automation of routine HR tasks and the intuitive use of the system led to time savings and a reduction in administrative burden. The centralized database provided easy access to employee information across all branches and prepared the processes for the company’s future growth.
“The most useful modules for us have been those that handle absences, attendance, onboarding, documents, and equipment tracking. Reports and payroll also saved us a lot of time,” lists Jan Přibyl.
Top4sport has been using Sloneek for three and a half years. What are the company’s future goals? According to Jan Přibyl, they plan to use the document management module more and expand the use of Sloneek for onboarding and hiring.
Is there anything that Top4sport would like to improve in the HR software? Yes. Based on their experience, HR professionals would appreciate improvements in reporting, which is currently not sufficiently personalized. For Sloneek, this is one of the areas to focus on in future application development.
“The implementation of the HR system at Top4Sport demonstrates how a centralized HR system can contribute to more efficient management in an international company with diverse work models and structures. Automation, unified processes, and access to data management from anywhere are essential in today’s dynamic business environment,” summarizes Sloneek founder Milan Rataj.
