Unicode: Sloneek saves up to 30% of your time spent on HR tasks.

Are you a leader of a small-to-medium enterprise? Is all your paperwork still literally on paper? Over 80% of Czech companies are in the same situation. Their CRM system consists of several Excel sheets, and they still collect paper CVs.

It’s the right time to digitize your HR agenda.

UNICODE SYSTEMS, the leading provider of information systems for petrol stations in Central Europe, decided to take a step forward. Kateřina Jenkins, the company’s HR manager, took the wheel.

The company works across eleven European markets. Most of the employees are developers and tech workers. They develop software solutions for petrol stations, such as control systems and loyalty program apps. Recently, they started manufacturing self-service fuel dispensers. After the pandemic, the demand for self-service petrol pumps skyrocketed. No wonder the company is growing so quickly.

Going paperless.

“Six years ago, when I joined the company, there was literally no HR department or a dedicated employee. The entire HR agenda, from recruitment to leave management, had been kept in a few Excel sheets and communicated via e-mail,” explains Jenkins.

She suggested that the company buy and implement an HR tool to streamline its processes.

According to Jenkins, “Out of several software tools, Sloneek turned out to be most user-friendly, thought out, connectable, and modular.”

The company’s management approved the purchase and started implementation. About time: the company had just started hiring for new roles. Since 2020, over 50 new employees have joined. Sloneek has been helping with recruitment since January 2023. Now, the company will be acquiring a subsidiary with 15 workers.

Sloneek spares me 30% of my workload. I have more time for marketing activities.

Digitization aside, Sloneek saves time. The company’s HR manager can dedicate 30% of Jenkins’s work hours to marketing activities, instead of time-consuming paperwork related to recruitment.

“At Sloneek, each employee updates their own data. I don’t need to manually check up on anyone. Instead of paper leave request forms we used to send through three different branches across the country, we now have one digital system for that,” Jenkins explains.

Since the HR department has taken over onboarding, payroll clerks and managers save their valuable time, too.  All they need to do now is to mark tasks as done on a shared checklist that helps them stay up to date with other departments.

Sloneek passed all the tests.

As IT providers, people at UNICODE SYSTEMS are very particular about the features and UX of any new software they’re going to implement.

“We appreciate all the feedback we got from the company. It helped us make our product even better. No matter whether you’re an HR person or a software developer, please come forward and tell us what we need to improve,” stresses Milan Rataj, Sloneek’s founder and HR Strategy Specialist.

At UNICODE SYSTEMS, the implementation took just one day. The following weeks were dedicated to fine-tuning the system based on employee feedback.

A decent HR software gives your company a strong competitive advantage.

Your HR system invisibly but essentially influences your company’s workflow and bottom line.

Jenkins: “If, as a tech company, you want your IT specialist to fill out their leave request forms on paper, you make a rather strange impression, don’t you? Want to keep up with other market players? Follow the changes and be rather quick about it. This will make you more attractive to your future and existing employers.”

UNICODE SYSTEMS dominate the Czech market with software for petrol stations. With demand for self-service fuel dispensers rising, the company is expanding abroad, needs its own manufacturing and storage facilities, hires even more employees, and personalizes its systems. Due to the lack of developers in the labor market, companies compete for them with each other. It happened to UNICODE SYSTEMS, too. They’ve lost some of their senior IT specialists to competitors.

“For some, an HR system is yet another app for planning and management. But a decent HR system brings much more value: it saves your time, improves employee satisfaction, and supports a positive brand image. All of these help you successfully hire new people and sell your product,” explains Rataj.

Sloneek sparked the digitization process.

Based on their positive experience with Sloneek, the managers at UNICODE SYSTEMS decided to hire an external provider to help them digitize their organizational processes.

“Even as an IT company and a number one in your industry, there’s no shame in hiring another company offering a top product in their niche. I can code, but this doesn’t make me an expert in the field the software deals with,” says Jenkins.

Now, UNICODE SYSTEMS is getting ready to implement a CMR system that will streamline its business activities, gather its customer data in one place, and help its managers deal efficiently with the data. Fingers crossed!