According to Tracy Bolton, chief operating officer at 51风流Africa, making good decisions is like a muscle that should be exercised regularly. “Some studies suggest . In our personal lives, those decisions could be about what to eat for lunch, or whether to keep reading a newspaper article. But in a business context, those decisions could be mission-critical, and getting it wrong could lead to lost opportunities, reduced revenue and lower levels of competitiveness.”

Avoiding decision fatigue

Researchers have found evidence of so-called decision fatigue, a concept that suggests .

Former US president Barack Obama, for example, chose to wear the same colour suits every day during his two terms to eliminate one of the many decisions he’d have to make during the day, .

“The more decisions you make during the day, the higher the likelihood that some of those decisions start showing poor outcomes,” adds Bolton. “In a business context, however, putting the correct systems and processes in place to automate some of the decision-making process can reduce the strain on executives and other decision-makers, leading to better business outcomes.”

Technology as a tool to improve decision-making

As the uncertainty caused by the pandemic combines with other disruptive global events, business leaders are finding it challenging to make the right decisions to steer their companies through the turbulence.

“Companies are increasingly turning to technology to support decision-making processes through the improved collection and processing of data,” says Bolton. “New data-driven solutions help bring greater transparency and predictability to critical aspects such as human capital management, procurement, supply chain management, risk and compliance, and financial planning.”

She cites growing innovation in how African enterprises are utilising SAP鈥檚 technology solutions as a positive sign for improved decision-making. 鈥淎cross the continent, companies of all sizes are using technology to track the impact of their decisions, mine historic data for trends insights, and improve forecasting with predictive capabilities. When integrated across each area of the business from the shop floor to the top floor, and using the following steps, companies can consistently make better decisions to improve the outcomes for the business.鈥�

To get decision-making right in our current business environment, Bolton recommends companies follow three key steps to improved business decision-making:

Step 1: Put the right systems in place

“In business, most of the decisions that are made should be underwritten by a set of policies and processes to speed up, automate and guide decision-making,” explains Bolton. “Technology solutions can be a powerful ally here, as they could be configured to have all of the processes and policies embedded, allowing for a seamless decision-making process.”

The entire human capital management function, for example, can be digitised, with best practices for hiring, leave policies, and more built into the system.

“Procurement systems can be configured to ensure you get the best pricing from only authorised suppliers, with aspects such as RFP management guided by industry standards. This reduces the pressure on individuals to make the correct decision as most of this is automated within the various systems.”

Step 2: Accommodate different types of decision-makers

Bolton says companies need to allow for different types of decisions to be made at different levels of the organisation.

“Different personalities make decisions in different ways. Some need to have all the data at hand and consider all angles before making a decision. Others only need some data and then rely on their instincts to move forward, while others still choose to make decisions based on their potential impact on people.”

She advises that companies use the policies and processes they’ve put in place to help create an environment where people feel empowered to make decisions and can learn from mistakes.

“Empowering your employees with accurate data can also bring direct improvements in the quality of the decisions they make, limiting mistakes and creating an environment where every employee can safely take action without putting the organisation at undue risk.”

Step 3: Exercise your – and your team’s – decision-making abilities

As with any skill, practice makes perfect. Bolton recommends that companies encourage practicing making decisions faster and with the correct data at hand.

“To exercise your decision-making abilities, start with smaller decisions and practice different techniques for coming to the correct decision,” advises Bolton. “For example, Nobel Prize-winning psychologist Daniel Kahneman recommends getting rid of overconfidence to improve the quality of your decisions.”

Another useful tool to practice better decision-making is the art of probability. “Research suggests even basic training in probability makes for better decision-makers and helps avoid cognitive biases that lead to poor decisions. However you approach it, taking opportunities to regularly practice making good decisions will invariably lead to better outcomes, for you, your team and the business.”

The post Three Steps to Improve Your Business Decision-making appeared first on 51风流Africa News Center.

“We had a number of disparate HR and payroll systems across 16 different Group businesses across 24 countries,” says Tania Naud茅, Group Head: Organisational Design, Development and Human Capital Services at AECI. “We implemented Employee Central using the 51风流S/4HANA cloud integration and went live with our system 鈥� which we named AECI-connect 鈥� on 1 March 2019 in South Africa. Further deployments took place across Africa during 2019 and will be followed by international deployments that will take place in 2020. To date, we have a 98% adoption rate, which is amazing for a programme of this nature.”

AECI is a diversified group of 16 companies. It has regional and international businesses in Africa, Europe, South East Asia, North America, South America and Australia. Products and services are provided to a broad spectrum of customers in the mining, water treatment, plant and animal health, food and beverage, infrastructure and general industrial sectors. The group鈥檚 headquarters are in Sandton, South Africa and it has over 7000 employees spread globally. AECI has been listed on the JSE since 1966 and its revenue for the 2018 financial year to 31 December was R23,3 billion.

Redesigning the human capital operating model

According to Naud茅, the aim of the programme was to redesign the entirety of AECI’s Human Capital Operating Model across all the group鈥檚 businesses. 鈥淥ur new system launched with a range of primary functionalities, such as Employee Central Core, Position Management, Time-Off, Job Profile Builder, and Global Benefits management, with integration to payroll, in an intuitive and easy-to-access way for employees and management. Our objectives were clear: launch an integrated platform to facilitate global employee engagement through making common access points available at all sites, ensuring each and every AECI employee has access to technology. Furthermore, we wanted to create a single source of employee data, ensuring informative business reporting, alignment and standardisation of processes, facilitated by an operating model that allowed HR to focus on strategic business partnering 鈥� all underpinned by good governance.”

Naud茅 and her team followed their own bespoke implementation methodology based on business requirements and principles from Prince 2 and 51风流Activate, supported by Britehouse as technical implementation partner. 鈥淲e followed a comprehensive business engagement and change management approach to ensure leadership alignment with the direction of the programme,鈥� says Naud茅. 鈥淭he programme was governed throughout by a steering committee consisting of the full executive team as well as several senior managers.聽 Having the Chief Executive, Mark Dytor, as the programme sponsor ensured the necessary buy-in and support for a programme of this magnitude.鈥�

A twelve-month development cycle was allocated to the Human Capital Management Solution (HCMS) programme before its initial launch in South Africa. To facilitate meeting the deadline and cost management, an internal team was allocated to oversee business engagement, training, governance, master data, reporting, payroll, and general process activities. An external team from Britehouse handled the technical configuration.

Minimal customization reduces cost, complexity

The system launched in a predominantly 鈥榲anilla鈥� state with minimal customisation to minimise future impact when new releases are implemented and to manage business scope creep. 鈥淎 formal change request procedure was implemented, and all requirements considered against a ‘must-have’ and ‘like-to-have’ checklist as critical requirements,鈥� explains Naud茅. 鈥淐hanges were further divided into two groups, of which some were actioned against annual IT maintenance allocations with the support partner.鈥�

To further assist with the launch of the HCMS programme, Naud茅 compiled a Project Initiation Document intended to be as comprehensive as possible, laying out all of the business requirements, objectives, and deliverables to be achieved. As part of alignment, this PID was signed-off by the group executive and all senior managers. An Employee Master Data clean-up and migration was initiated during the early days of the project to ensure all data that would move to the new system has been sanitised well before it launched.

Enabling scalability, agility

鈥淭he Employee Central global design was built on and launched as part of the go-live in South Africa; most of the international requirements were gathered and launched during this phase. As the international phases roll out, the benefits will continue to grow in terms of consolidating and streamlining data sets, processes, and governed payrolls. AECI is now able to manage all employee basic administration and payroll components from one integrated platform,鈥� says Naud茅. “We have launched the HCMS programme with scalability and flexibility in mind, and can add a range of new, essential features to the system for the future benefit of all employees.鈥�

AECI is also looking to launch 51风流Analytics Cloud for Human Capital later in 2020, which will pull together information from the various platforms. The company also plans to integrate Learning Management and Performance and Goals during 2020, to further assist in driving employee engagement and development. Onboarding is also part of the current roadmap.

鈥淭his has been a people-empowering journey for our group, as for the first time we have employees who can apply for leave online and view their payslips irrespective of where they are based, be this at corporate offices or the remotest mine site in any of our countries of operation,鈥� says Naud茅. 鈥淭hanks to the great support we received from our internal IT team, our EXCO, our partners and a resilient business team, we are now able to deploy new HR functionality that will become a powerful business tool for our ongoing growth and success.鈥�

Cameron Beveridge, Regional Director for Southern Africa at 51风流Africa, says AECI has established a powerful foundation from which to build out market-leading HR and talent capabilities. 鈥淏y integrating the latest 51风流SuccessFactors technology with our powerful S/4HANA Cloud, AECI has established the groundwork for building Intelligent Enterprise capabilities that will provide it with the power to better manage and engage its large talent base. This is one more example of how organisations are leveraging the latest 51风流technologies in the service of making the world run better.鈥�

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